CorStone Life Skills Program for Youth Launched in India

SAUSALITO, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Marin County nonprofit CorStone announces the successful launch of its Children's Resiliency Program (CRP) in New Delhi, India to provide social-emotional, conflict management and other life skills training to youth, primarily 12-18 year old girls, in high poverty communities. The CRP - India represents the first of many opportunities for CorStone to reach at-risk youth in vulnerable communities worldwide using culturally adapted methods and materials.

The program commenced with a 5-day intensive training in New Delhi for approximately 50 teachers from 5 cities and from more than 10 schools across the country. Beginning in November 2009, the teachers will in turn deliver CorStone's weekly structured curriculum in a facilitated peer support group format to over 1,000 students.

"CorStone's program positively impacts at-risk youth by enhancing their resilience to psychological disorders, while simultaneously providing them with the skills and support to deal with conflict and adversity in a healthy way - helping them to make better choices that can improve their lives and their communities," said Steve Leventhal, Executive Director of CorStone. "In many low income communities, using the school as the central venue for providing psychosocial skills and support is the best way to reach vulnerable children."

To assess the efficacy of the program, CorStone is implementing an in-depth program evaluation with 100 schoolgirls at the Hope Project, a local nonprofit that operates in a 400 year-old Muslim enclave in Delhi. CorStone has partnered with MacArthur Foundation Award recipient, Sangath, a local mental, behavioral and developmental health organization, to undertake a formal evaluation of the program.

Anticipated outcomes include enhanced emotional resilience among students at participating schools, as measured by positive changes in levels of optimism, internal locus of control, and social connections and decreases in the number and severity of disruptive incidents.

CorStone, a non-profit organization based in Sausalito, California, works to develop and support emotional resilience in children, families and communities so they can better deal with challenge, conflict and crisis. To learn more, visit www.corstone.org.