About YES! for Schools
a project of IAHV, a partner nonprofit of The Art of Living.
YES! for Schools is dedicated to providing youth with a healthy body, a healthy mind, and a healthy lifestyle. We do this by offering youth practical tools and life skills to manage stress and emotions. When students learn how to manage their stress in a healthy way, they exhibit greater confidence and motivation to succeed in school and make healthy choices when faced with life’s challenges.
Young people face emotional issues such as low self-esteem, depression and anxiety that are a source of great stress, which inhibits learning. Without a healthy alternative, students often turn to unhealthy strategies to cope with these problems including: smoking, alcohol or drugs, aggression and violence, and withdrawal from social interaction. As students learn to reduce stress and manage emotions they gain the ability to focus and perform well academically at school, as well as the ability to build more positive relationships with their peers, parents, and teachers.
Impact
70,000+ students
and teachers have experienced the YES! for Schools program
147 schools
Where we’ve offered programs
22 states
of the USA
9 years
of service
Students' Responses After Yes!
94%
Overall, I feel better and happier after this class.
90%
I feel more able to focus after this class.
89%
I am getting a better quality of sleep after this class.
92%
I feel able to manage my stress after this class.
91%
I feel I am better able to manage my emotions after this class.
95%
I feel significantly calmer and more relaxed after this class.
Program Brochure
Healthy Body
The Healthy Body module encourages physical fitness and healthy food choices through:
- Physical activity that includes exercise to stretch and strengthen the body
- Experiential processes that encourage mindful eating
- Interactive discussions on food and nutrition
Healthy Mind
The Healthy Mind module includes stress management and relaxation techniques that encourage a positive mental attitude through:
- Targeted breathing techniques that reduce stress, anger, anxiety, and depression; improve focus and concentration, and enhance learning ability
- Relaxation exercises that encourage a calm state of mind
- Experiential processes that revitalize human values such as responsibility, respect, kindness, belonging, honesty, enthusiasm and service
Healthy Lifestyle
The Healthy Lifestyle module includes social-emotional learning and life skills in conflict resolution through:
- Teamwork exercises that teach how to manage emotions and resolve conflict
- Interactive processes that encourage pro-social behavior, problem solving and cooperation
- Dynamic discussions that teach goal setting and good decision-making
- Practical knowledge that increases self-confidence and inner-strength to help students handle peer pressure and make healthy choices when faced with life’s challenges