Website
Countr(ies)
India
Grade Level of Students Participating
Grades 4-9
Number of Students Participating per Year
2015-16: 1525 students
2014-15: 935 students
Year Organization Began
2013
Relationship to the public education system
Works in partnership with government schools, private schools and non-profit organizations to deliver life skills education programs.
Organization’s Vision and Mission
Vision: All children are equipped with skills and attitudes to bring about positive change in their lives and in society.
Mission:
- Engaging children in life skills education through fun and interactive school programs that leverage the power of drama, games, films and art
- Developing a replicable model for implementation in government and affordable private schools
- Sharing knowledge to enable independent implementation of Life Skills Programs in these schools
Brief Description of Program Activities
Apni Shala “designs and delivers life skills education programs to schools and non-profit organizations that wish to focus on social, emotional and cognitive development of children. Such development helps children solve problems, make better decisions and nurture healthy relationships.”
Apni Shala works with partners throughout the year to ensure that children are engaged to the maximum in this development process. All programs are designed according to the developmental needs of a child at their age, and the needs of the specific groups of children.
Apni Shala also works with parents “to help them play an active role in their children’s development of life skills.”
They are now beginning “to work with teachers and institutions to help them to independently engage their students in such development"
Apni Shala’s programs for children are tied together by two main aspects – experience and expression
Experience: “Community work, creative hands-on projects, drama and games provide the experiences which are rich with opportunities to build teamwork skills, leadership abilities, self-confidence, respect for different opinions and empathy.”
Expression: “Along with these experiences we weave together structured reflection sessions which create a platform for children to question, brainstorm, express themselves in an environment free of judgment.”
Program Content: Intrapersonal Competencies
Self-awareness (including awareness of their thoughts, values, beliefs, strengths and resources), understanding their emotional/affective abilities
Program Content: Interpersonal Competencies
Team work, collaboration, leadership, empathy, communication and respecting differences
Program Content: Cognitive Competencies
Problem solving, critical thinking, creative thinking
Program Content: Attitudes and Values
Respect for different opinions and empathy
Program Content: Pedagogy/ Active Engagement of Students
Apni Shala “uses drama, games, art and community projects to engage children in an immersive learning experience, one which is deeply connected with building social, emotional and thinking skills. A typical day for children engaged at Apni Shala would involve playing theater games, setting out into the community to conduct research, or reflecting and asking questions. These experience-based activities are woven into our curriculum to achieve life skills building objectives with the children. “
Service learning allows students to apply decision-making or empathy they learned to real world scenarios such as arguing with the local police or working with different stakeholders to fix a community water pipe.
Reference List
1All information on this table come from Apni Shala’s website and email input from Apni Shala’s Co-Founder.
Prepared by
Ashley Lee