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Preparing students with robust life skills, including social-emotional skills, is of paramount importance in today's world, particularly for children growing up in adversity. Dream a Dream was founded by 11 young people who wanted to engage with children who were terminally ill, abandoned, or HIV infected. The idea was to organize activities and games that would provide hope and happiness for these children. Over time, the team realized mere engagement could never be the solution for deep-rooted adversities. This article examines the organization.

The present study examines the effectiveness of an After-School Life Skills (ASLS) intervention to improve the life skills of 110 students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds at public schools of urban Bangalore in south India. These students completed ASLS intervention from 2014 to 2018 during which the life skills were assessed on a yearly interval and the data were analyzed using repeated measure ANOVA. The results show that ASLS intervention significantly improved the students' life skills. Post hoc comparisons at time 1 shows that young students who participated in ASLS intervention significantly improved their life skills over the 4 years' time, although no significant variances were observed between measurement periods. The overall effect was found to be significant in improving the life skills, which shows that integrating life skills education in the school curriculum is critical and a timely need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]