This model illustrates the interconnectedness of Personal, Social, and Social Resistance Skills. The Project SAFE curriculum is designed to teach, develop, and have children consistently practice these skills within the classroom setting.
Project SAFE was created to service the youth of the Brooklyn Midwood community by teaching healthy behaviors and by preventing harmful behaviors. The following model, adapted with permission from the Life Skills Training program (Botvin, 2000), demonstrates the relationship between three skill components. The teacher’s job is to create the bridge from skill set to skill set and help the students integrate healthy living behaviors into their every day lives. When teaching a prevention class, it is advantageous to begin with personal skills and then work on building social skills.
The following are the broad skills that are being developed within each student in the Project SAFE program:
PERSONAL SKILLS:
· General problem solving and decision making skills
· Skills development for improved self-esteem and self-control
· Adaptive coping strategies for managing stress and anxiety
SOCIAL SKILLS:
· Skills development for improved interpersonal communication
· Skills development for general assertiveness
SOCIAL RESISTANCE SKILLS:
· General cognitive skills for resisting interpersonal and social normative pressures.
· Skills for refusing to use ATOD (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs)
· Skills for resisting media influences to use ATOD
In the Family and Community programs that are run throughout the year, these skills will be reinforced, so that students continue to discuss and practice these skills throughout their lives, in as many settings as possible.
