What is REALskills?

REALskills is a project of The Family Centre, the name stands for Relationships Education And Life skills. REALskills has been developing and delivering programs in public high schools in the Tweed Shire since 2001.

REALskills is a whole community approach to supporting children and young people through the transition to adulthood. The REALskills Mission is: Schools, parents and community support services are working together to ensure... Children and young people have the awareness and skills ...To have healthy relationships with themselves and others... For now and the future. REALskills builds community around young people. Schools often work in isolation and may be short of the time, skills and resources to meet all the welfare and relationship education needs of students. Service providers can find it difficult to access schools and many young people can miss out on accessing timely support. REALskills builds a bridge between the school community and the wider community of social and health service providers, in an integrated way.

What does REALskills provide?

REALskills provides a suite of programs that support the welfare and relationship education needs of students, parents and teachers. These programs are designed to involve and utilise the expertise of community and health service providers. They allow for the sharing of specialist knowledge and facilitation skills, amongst service providers and school staff. They also provide a range of 'activities' across the school years, which address the relationship and life skills needs of those age groups. Through REALskills schools can enhance their capacity to meet the social development needs of all their students.

Current REALskills programs include:

• Targeted Year 4-6 - 'Being Me' is an 8 week program for 8-12 students in a mixed group drawn from Years 4-6 who have been identified as needing extra support. The program aims to provide students with the opportunity to explore effective communication skills build their self esteem & self confidence, manage relationships and difficult situations.
• Targeted Year 6 through to Year 7 - 'Move On Up' is for Year 6 students who have been identified as needing support with the transition process from primary to high school. The program consists of an 8 week program for 8-12 students in a single gender group plus another 8 week program for the same group once they reach Year 7. It supports the child's ability to understand and resolve issues including bullying, conflict resolution, relationships, hopes and fears, dealing with anger and transition from primary to high school.
• Targeted YEAR 8 or 9 - 'Being Real' Targeted boys and girls groups for students who require support regarding family relationships, peer relationships, self esteem, and risk taking, selected by school staff, attending on a voluntary basis, within school hours.
• Whole of YEAR 8 or 9 - 'Take a Stand' a one day program focussing on self respect, values, personal boundaries, peer pressure and being safe (drug and alcohol, sexual expression, violence and bullying)
• Whole of YEAR 10 - 'Switched On' a 1 or 2 day program focusing on healthy relationships, sex and sexuality, peer and gender issues, and working through difficulties in relationships. An optional add-on is a Leadership program for a select group of year 10 students who wish to take these ideas further and explore a peer leadership model
• Students or teachers - 'Link Up' Service provider panel for any year group or school staff - a half day program focussing on the introduction of community services and developing help seeking skills
• Parents - 'Soon They'll Be Teenagers' is for parents of children aged 9-12 years. The program aims to assist parents to understand what is happening for their child during the pre-adolescent development stage and what to expect during adolescence. Assists parents to develop skills to improve communication, manage behaviour, support positive relationships, change established patterns and how to have 'tough' conversations.
• Parents - 'Understanding Teenagers' A series of 4 x 2 hr workshops focussing on: understanding your teenager; drugs and alcohol; sex and sexuality; cyber safety and bullying
• Teachers - 'Getting connected' A one day program for school welfare teams from across a number of local high schools. The day is broken into: skills session with a local service provider; networking and sharing experiences; service provider panel with real life scenarios.

Training

The REALskills project is currently developing and trialling a range of training processes including a Community Bridging Day designed to support communities to take the first steps towards building a co-ordinated schools-community alliance across schools, government agencies and community services providers, parents and community members, to deliver REALskills programs.

Also being developed and trialled is training for facilitators in REALskills approaches and facilitation processes as well as specific products such as the whole of Year 8 or 9 'Switched On' program.

Funding

Current government funding is time limited and The Family Centre is seeking support to continue this important and valuable work.

The REALskills High Schools programs are currently funded by the Australian Government. The Murwillumbah Primary Schools programs are funded in a Community Partnership arrangement with YWCA Murwillumbah Communities for Children funded by the Australian Government.

For further information contact The Family Centre on: 07 5524 8711