Learning to Live: Youth Life Skills
Youth Life Skills is a strength-based program for youth ages 13 to 18 years of age.
It is a preventative and proactive program which focuses on quantifying and developing life skills and developmental assets of youth. The Life Skills program offers youth individual mentorship and opportunities to participate in various group activities.
The program hours are flexible to meet the needs of the youth and family.
A podcast about our program
SIGN Life Skills works with youth ages 12 to 20 to prepare them for the adult and working world. Services include one-on-one individual and group mentoring, opportunities to meet socially with their peers, and in all activities encourage them to utilize the 40 key internal and external assets that will assist them in their growth and development. In this podcast, we talk to Christopher Smith, the manager of SIGN Life Skills.
Project focusing on youth is now in year 2
Promoting the well-being of youth in Yorkton and encouraging and enabling their involvement in the community are among the focuses of a project of the Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours (SIGN) which is now in its second year.
Youth Resilience grew out of SIGN’s realization of the need to provide more proactive and preventive ways to increase mental well-being, decrease substance use and reduce negative behaviour among youth.
To do that, the project works with youth ages 12 to 18 to build resilience and involve young people in activities and decision-making in Yorkton.
Part of SIGN Life Skills, the project has been led by community youth worker Darran Teneycke.
“This is about engaging youth, building up their strengths. It is not about ‘fixing’ youth,” he points out. “The pandemic has had far-reaching effects, and we need to work together as a community to come out of this in a good way.”
“We need to involve our youth in that.”
Darran’s career has been spent working with young people, most recently as Superintendent of School Operations for the Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, and before that as Superintendent of Education for the Good Spirit School Division in Yorkton, principal of Columbia School, vice-principal and principal of Dr. Brass School, grade 8 teacher at Columbia School and phys ed teacher at Yorkdale School.
The Morris Foundation is generously providing funding for the first two years of the project. The foundation is managed by the family of George and Helen Morris. George Morris was the inventor of the Morris Rod-Weeder, and established his company, later called Morris Industries, in Yorkton in 1949.
Darran is working with youth in schools (elementary, high school and community college), existing youth centres and community agencies to build resilience, empowerment, and social and emotional skills through groups and one-on-one.
The project focuses on building the 40 Developmental Assets – positive qualities and experiences that help young people grow up healthy -- for and with youth in the city.
For more than 45 years, Search Institute (www.searchinstitute.org) has studied youth development and its connection to behavioural and community change. It emphasizes factors that can assist in healthy outcomes across gender, race/ethnicity and family income differences.
Half of the 40 Assets are external, focusing on the support young people get from the people in their lives. The other half are internal assets, which focus on young people's commitment to learning, their sense of self-worth, their positive values and the life skills they possess to make good choices.
Second year objectives
The project’s first year had the significant objective to cultivate community readiness, energy and commitment by using a collaborative approach working with partners including health, education, social services, RCMP, the city of Yorkton, non-profits, the business community, and youth.
Although SIGN has taken on a lead role in the project, it understands the need for collaborating with community partners to ensure success.
In the spring of 2022, almost 1,300 youth aged 12 and up were surveyed about their experiences in their family, school and community. The results from this survey are the cornerstone of future discussions with youth and community organizations on how to make our community a better place for young people.
Positive youth development includes:
- Working with youth in their schools, in community groups and in youth leadership workshops to help them develop leadership skills so they can also mentor other youth;
- A start on risk reduction by sharing the results of the survey with the community partners and youth, who will then be involved in creating a community plan to look at current youth initiatives and explore new ones;
- Work with young people and community partners to ensure youth can access the services they need when needed. Early intervention will lead to fewer crises among youth and help them navigate the assistance available in the community.
About Year 1
Year 2
Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours
83 North St. Yorkton SK S3N 0G9 | Tel 306-783-9409 | Fax 306-786-7116
345 Broadway St. W Yorkton SK S3N 0N8 | Tel 306-783-9424 | Fax 306-783-9426
SIGN provides services to those who live on Treaty 4 territory, the ancestral lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota and the Métis Nation. We affirm our relationship to the treaties that are integral to the foundation of Canada and commit to honouring their spirit and intent. We respect the diverse histories, languages, and cultures of the many people who have lived on this land, and we commit to moving forward in partnership with Indigenous peoples and nations in a spirit of respect, reconciliation and collaboration.
Copyright © Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours.
All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
Web site by UncommonSense Business Solutions.
Please note...
This website uses cookies for website traffic analysis. No personal information is stored. Please accept our use of cookies to continue viewing this site.