Introduction

The Youth Life Skills can be accessed either through the Assessment and Facilitation Tools or the Youth Life Skills Tool. HSR developed one of the first on-line interactive programs for children (ERIKA) and youth (SAMANTHA) assessing life skills using cartoon characters, audio, and scenarios focusing on decision making, critical thinking, caring, personal values and social conscience. In addition, questionnaires (the outer ring of Life Skills Tools) are available that address sub-areas of the life skill areas (see Youth Resources for questions and sub-areas). One of the first questions is to decide what tool is best for your purpose and your audience. Looking at the Overview and Parent for Samanthan videos below is a good place to start. Professionals we suggest you use your goals and/or lesson plans and activities as a starting point for assessing best fit and look at our Life Skills evaluation in the Journal of Extension article called The Effects of Age, Gender, and 4-H Involvement on Life Skill Development, especially Table 3. Total Life Skills Mean Change Score by Project Areas (shown below where results found change varied by the type of programming and lesson plans and, possibly, context).

Parents wanting to look at life skills of their children may just want to run through the demonstration with their child using the links below and talk to them about it as they run through it. These demonstration pages of ERIKA and SAMANTHA do not collect data. Note that each internet browser will be slightly different. For example, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge will play the audios automatically while Safari and Firefox may require manual clicking on the play button. Parents can also print off the tool in Resources, have the child fill out the survey, and then discuss with them what they were thinking. Parents may even want to relate to the questions and think how they would have responded at the age of their child. If parents do want to track for what ever purpose, just register with HSR or teacher (if applicable). Families that register can set up multiple children to track if they desire.

Logging-in and Registration

A Log-in is required to use the tools in order to protect information. Data and reports are specific to each log-in. People may choose to use paper forms that may be created from the survey questions in Resources. If you do, please cite Human Service Research, Inc. as source for reports, publications, or proposals. At this time this site is free as long as funds allow. Customization is available at a cost. The main purpose of the registration is to set up a username and password that will help protect your data (keeping it confidential) and give you the ability to monitor and analyze your own data. We will require a contact person, email address, and information about your program/project/purpose. HSR will protect your data and only use it for research purposes to better understand the tools and possibly improve them in the future. HSR has collected information since 1994 from runaway and homeless youth, pregnant and parenting teens, homeless youth, juvenile deliquents, afterschool youth, 4-H, and more where HSR has always protected the information. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss. If you are interested please click here to Register.

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