The Cooperative Life Skills Program provides learning activities and environments that allow students to develop fundamental emotional and social competencies to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, establish positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations constructively.

The Cooperative Life Skills Program is generally provided within schools but can be adapted to after-school programs or other organizations. The lessons are based on research conducted by the Collaborative for Academic and Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) that found that effective approaches are sequenced, active, focused, and explicit (S.A.F.E.).

S: uses a sequenced set of activities to achieve skill objectives
A: uses active forms of learning
F: includes at least one program component focused on developing personal or social skills
E: targets specific, explicit personal or social skills

All activities are developmentally appropriate, build upon previous lessons, are experiential, and focus on specific personal or social skills.

Read research supporting Cooperative Life Skills Programming.

Peacemaker Resources hires, trains, and supervises instructors in schools to provide regular developmentally appropriate lessons to students. These instructors can also be available as a resource to teachers and staff to help the students integrate the skills into their daily lives and to provide opportunities for mediating conflicts between individuals or groups of students.

Funding
Schools/organizations are responsible for finding their own funding to support these programs. We can provide some ideas regarding grants and other resources.