Skills for adolescence: experience with the International Lions-Quest program

This article describes the development of the Lions-Quest Skills for Adolescence program. The primary purpose of this program is to respond to the needs of young people by helping them become more self aware, more skilled, more able to make positive and healthy choices, and better able to make informed, aware, and considered decisions about their own behavior. Skills for Adolescence is one school/community/parent-based curricular program that attempts to address health, life skills, and prevention issues in ways that have clearly struck a common chord in numerous countries. The program's emphasis on effective communication, on self-efficacy and social skills, and on strengthening the family appear to have a strong appear in many different contexts and cultures. Careful attention to local needs during adaptation while employing collaborative strategies is an essential ingredient to crossing cultural and national boundaries.