One of the goals of Peace For All Canada (PFAC) is to engage with community and inspire confidence in kids and youth. PFAC is running a home-work support program at its center towards this goal. We have found from our experience that these kids sometimes lack in soft skills like confidence, communication, problem-solving and team work. We strongly believe that these kids can perform much better in school if they get an opportunity to hone their soft skills. This will also indirectly help the efficacy of other programs we are undertaking to alleviate many of the knowledge and skill gaps that have been found in kids.
Problem Statement
Marginalized kids may face a range of personality issues such as alienation and depression. They may also have limited access to necessary mental health resources which forces them to manage these issues independently. Some children are just born tougher than others. Such individuals are better able to process, handle, and bounce back from stress and can handle more of it—on the average—than other people.
We found that some of the above issues affect the academic performance of kids and their overall progress in school.
Objective
Design and execute a personality development program based on drama and games for kids at PFAC center. Drama and games can be used as a tool for developing communication and receptive skills, or simply to foster enjoyment of drama[article here]. Drama games can be used to focus students’ attention, facilitate team building, and help develop social skills [article here]. Drama activities can be used with young learners to enhance literacy and build confidence [article here].
Expected Outcomes
This program is proposed for kids from age of 5 to 12. The purpose is to engage and teach kids some important soft skills using drama and games. Young kids in this age group respond better to games and activity based learning.
Some of the skills that will be covered and assessed are:
Self-Confidence: Drama based activities can help to build self-confidence by encouraging participants to maintain eye contact while talking and to speak more clearly.
Oral Communication: With structured and rehearsed processes, participants learn to speak more clearly, precisely and with more confidence, while learning how to vary their pitch and tone. They also learn the power of pause, the impact of body language, and how expressions play a prime role in communication.
Listening Skills: Listening is a skill that is usually hard to teach through any other form of training, but by listening to others’ dialogues effectively, paying attention to body language and intentional pauses, theater can make a difference.
Stage Fright: Drama based activities will help kids to overcome their fear of talking and performing in front of others – helping them feel more comfortable in front of an audience.
Teamwork: Drama brings people together and enables teamwork. Kids understand and start valuing the contribution of each member, irrespective of their role, which is a very powerful realization about teamwork that is seldom felt while working in organizations.
Creative Problem-Solving: In game based activities the group thinks and contributes toward problem solving, scriptwriting, selecting and arranging props. Oftentimes, resources are limited, which brings out creativity in the form of improvisation.
Self-Discipline: In drama, the participants must follow fixed allocated roles and adhere to the script word for word. Even rehearsals require participation by everyone. The experience creates a sense of discipline in them.
Self-Discovery: As the kids works together both formally and informally for days at a time, it helps them understand their potential, their strengths, weaknesses and impact on others.
Self-Development: Through self-discovery, observation and learning from their mistakes, kids are more aware of their key development areas.
Soft skills training is important for marginalized kids because it helps them develop interpersonal relationships with a strong sense of empathy. It also helps them monitor the emotions of others so as to come up with well-informed perceptions about others’ behavior and thinking patterns. Soft skills are a broad set of skills, competencies, behaviors, attitudes, and personal qualities that enable people to effectively navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals.
Requirements
An experienced coach with experience of engaging with kids using drama and games
Additional stationary to design and execute games and drama activities
Program
Weekly personality development program of 2 hours at PFAC center. Total class size of 10 students. Each program of 3 months.
Roles
Team Bio
Ayesha Quadri
Personality coach with 10 years of experience in conducting soft skills training for kids and youth. Script writer and theater director. She has passion for drama and team games. She has written and produced several plays in Toronto.