An Innovative Approach to Building Social and Emotional Literacy
The stress and uncertainty of the COVID 19 pandemic along with massive economic dislocation has caused much anxiety and trauma in young people. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) can help young people cope and thrive. Consider utilizing Dibble’s engaging programs that are aligned with the Collaborative of Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) core competencies as a Tier 1 MTSS intervention and to teach the SEL skills students need to grow and heal.
Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience
Young people experiencing trauma and toxic stress often have difficulty regulating their emotional responses when facing challenges in school, life, and relationships. The SEL skills taught in Mind Matters help young people take charge of their emotions and improve their states of mind. Participants learn to address their physical, relational, and mental health needs.
The twelve lessons of Mind Matters, based on current research and neuroscience, are designed to be taught by a teacher or other non-clinician in the classroom or out-of-school program.
- Self-awareness – Building a mindful awareness of the body and emotions
- Self-Management – students learn skills to self-soothe and regulate their emotions, helping them to manage their stress effectively
- Relationship Skills – developing empathy and interpersonal communication, learning how to ask for help
- Responsible Decision Making by cultivating a desire to inspire, uplift, and become transitional characters
- Social Awareness, self-efficacy, and developing intentionality
What people are saying about Mind Matters:
We reviewed multiple curriculum options that addressed increasing emotional coping and resilience skills and felt this to be the easiest to use for instructors from various backgrounds, was evidence informed, and encompassed most of the objectives we were looking for.~Director
Love Notes: Relationship Skills for Love, Life, and Work
Love Notes, a comprehensive, evidence-based program, helps young adults and young parents build Social and Emotional Literacy through the lens of their intimate relationships. Rather than focusing on what to avoid, Love Notes builds assets and appeals to aspirations. Love Notes builds skills and knowledge for healthy and successful relationships with partners, family, friends, and co-workers. The communication skills and self-awareness components of Love Notes are key to all kinds of relationships in life.
Love Note’s key topics address the SEL skills needed to grow and heal from trauma:
- Awareness of self, personalities, expectations, and more
- Self-management, responding to pressure situations, and communication skills
- Forming and maintaining healthy relationships – what is and is not healthy or acceptable
- Responsible Decision Making – assessing relationships, pacing, planning for sexual choices, exiting strategies, the Success Sequence
- Social Awareness – technology and impact on romantic relationships, sexting, and online porn
What People are Saying about Love Notes:
With this group, it helps us stay in school, helps us open our eyes to healthy relationships. It helps us get what we need to grow in ourselves, and also grow in our families, and grow in our children. And also, like I don’t know, it gives us hope!~Teacher
Relationship Smarts PLUS
Relationship Smarts PLUS for younger teens, aims to build confidence and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) by focusing on their romantic relationships. The program strengthens protective factors by appealing to youths’ aspirations, rather than merely emphasizing what they must avoid. It empowers youth with SEL skills needed to form and maintain healthy relationships and work toward their goals.
Many topics in the program meet the goals of the Collaborative of Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) core competencies:
- Social awareness, identifying personal strengthens and weaknesses, understanding the past, and more
- Self-awareness, understanding chemistry of attraction, choosing partners
- Self-Management, communication skills, and problem solving
- Relationship Skills, what is healthy and unhealthy, pacing, warning signs, exiting strategies
- Responsible Decision Making, the low-risk strategy to decide, not slide
What People are Saying About Relationship Smarts PLUS:
Teens need this program and they need you to help them make it work in their lives. No other program that I have seen challenges teens to confront their feelings, their decisions and their behaviors as thoroughly as [Relationship Smarts].
