Other Life Skills Resources

Life Skills Handbooks has two other Life Skills Curricula that focus on life skills that support the prevention of HIV and AIDS.

One is aimed at those working with primary school aged children. This curriculum introduces 9-13 year olds to sexuality and relationships education and equips them with knowledge and skills to protect themselves from HIV.

The other is aimed at young people aged 15-25. Both curricula have been used and reviewed extensively in the field.

Click here for a selection of reviews of these curricula.

If you are interested in finding out more about these curricula, please get in touch.

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Here is an annotated list of practical life skills education resources for those seeking to develop children's life skills. Many of them focus on health and well being. The resources have been organised into five specialist areas and are free to download unless otherwise stated. At the bottom of the list are links to organisations who also produce good lifeskills materials.

Please let us know if you have any comments or additions to this list

1. Child Health Education

(Clare Hanbury) Children for Health: Children as Partners in Health Promotion. This book advocates, and aims to strengthen, the provision of good quality health education with and for all children, using examples of inspiring children's participation work being done across the world by dedicated educators and health workers. There are many objectives in this book, including broadening the idea of what health education is, providing basic facts on selective health issues, describing how effective health education programmes help children and their families - and how to implement them - and demonstrating how to achieve the objectives through quality planning, teaching and evaluation. To purchase from TALCUK click here

(Clare Hanbury) Child-to-Child and Children Living in Camps. This is designed for teachers, health workers, group leaders and others. The book includes activities can be used to improve the health and well being of children living in camps. Water and sanitation, malaria, disability and preventing accidents are some of the topics covered within in the four chapters. For the link click here . For a case study on a project that used this book to develop an award-winning project with traumatised children living in refugee camps in Rwanda, click here

(Various authors) 27 Free Story Books on a range of health topics for children of primary school age. Click here to download (the list is at the bottom of the page!)

(Clare Hanbury/Rachel Carnegie) Child-to-Child approaches to HIV and AIDS. This is a manual for teachers, young leaders and health workers. There are two sections and the first focuses on sexual health and the prevention of HIV and AIDS. Section Two focuses on coping and living with HIV and AIDS. To purchase from TALCUK. For link, click here

Our Future: Sexuality and Lifeskills Education for Young People. (Clare Hanbury member of writing team). This series of books and training materials contribute to a comprehensive strategy for sexual and reproductive health and HIV education for young people in and out of school.
It provides clear and factual information about puberty, friendship, gender, sexuality, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS and drug use. The books contain many learning activities and illustrations, which engage young people in understanding themselves and their world.. For the link, click here.

(Clare Hanbury) Mine Risk Education Booklet. This activity booklet provides ideas on helping children be alert to the dangers in mined areas, how to avoid these dangers and how to encourage others to do the same. It is aimed at those planning mine risk education projects for children and for those involved in mine awareness programmes as teachers or trainers. Click the link here

2. Life Skills Education (including values eduction)

(Clare Hanbury) The Life Skills Handbook. This book is a revised and updated version of a book published by VSO, An Active Learning Handbook for Working with Street Children. To Purchase The Lifeskilsl Handbook, click the link here.

(Diana Sterling) Parent As Coach. I have known the author Diana Sterling for many years and have become one of her accredited PAC coaches. The book and her approach focuses on building fundamental skills of how to foster respect and appreciation with children and develop in them responsibility and independence. I am in talks with Diana at the moment about adapting the approach for grandparents who are raising children whose parents are affected by HIV and AIDS To purchase, click the link here

(Aids Alliance) A Parrot on Your Shoulder: A guide for people working with orphans and vulnerable children. (Clare Hanbury was part of the advisory and review team). This fully illustrated activity guide is aimed at those who working with OVC's. Drawing on the experiences of the Alliance, its partners, and other organisations working in the field, it gives some pointers on working with children, including cultural and gender considerations. It includes 30 activities for engaging children in group work, as well as fun ideas for ice-breakers and energisers, group work and co-operation, observation, active listening and analytical skills, drama, mime and role play, and painting and drawing. To download click the link here

3. Child Participation, Child Protection and Children's Rights

Bamboo Shoots. A training manual on child rights, child protection and child-led community actions for facilitators working with children and youth groups. It was originally created by Plan in Cambodia. It was developed to: Increase children’s understanding of their rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC); raise children’s awareness of their rights and build their capacities to claim them; create opportunities for children to recognize, identify and prioritize issues and problems or gaps in relation to child rights violations; and provide opportunities for children to influence agendas and action regarding identified and prioritized child rights violations.To download, click the link here

4. Training Adults and Young Leaders as Participation Practitioners

(Clare Hanbury) The Tricycle System. This is a new framework for promoting children's participation in health and other child rights-related projects. It builds upon the 6-step Child-to-Child approach that I helped to develop as a result of many years of field work with The Child-to-Child Trust. New elements are ideas and activities developed out of work in mentoring, coaching and appreciative enquiry. For a summary of the Tricycle System click here.

(Clare Hanbury) We are On The Radio. A book and tape about children making radio broadcasts for other children and families about health and development issues important to them. This is only available from us. Please contact us to find out how to get hold of a copy!

5. Monitoring and Evaluation

(Clare Hanbury) Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills Projects for Youth Development for The Jacobs Foundation. (April 2011). For link click here

Author of Monitoring and Evaluating Children’s Participation in Health and Education. The Child-to-Child Trust. 2007. To purchase from TALCUK click here