Leadership. Life Skills. Healthy, Whole Person Development.

Life On Point meets weekly with students to encourage good decision making, help their peers develop and strengthen their leadership skills, and reinforce their sense of value and self-worth. Hands-on activities, field trips, poetry and essay contests, and service learning activities build on the weekly meetings, allowing teens to become critical thinkers and exercise leadership skills. The curriculum focuses on asset building in youth and includes the following units: Self-Discovery, Life Vision and Life Skills, Healthy Life Choices, Positive Support and Leadership for Service. Want more information about the Life On Point curriculum? Check out the theoretical framework.

This year, the Life On Point Program will reach over 1000 students in 16 area middle and high schools.

Does Life On Point Work?

During the 2011/2012 school year, On Point accelerated its evaluation rigor of Life On Point by completing an experimental design in an urban middle school. In the study, conducted by an independent evaluator, 65 students were randomly assigned to participate in a semester-long Life On Point group or to a control group, which did not participate in Life On Point until after the evaluation. Students completed questionnaires before and after the program, which were designed to measure each of the following five Life On Point outcomes:

1. Healthy choices—positive attitudes and intentions about abstaining from sex, alcohol and drug use, and violence
2. Academic attachment—commitment to working hard and staying in school
3. Self-efficacy in resisting negative peer pressure—confidence in being about to say “no” if friends exert pressure to participate in sexual activity, alcohol and drug use, and violence
4. Positive social support—perception of positive support from peers and adults for working towards positive life goals
5. Positive life vision—having a positive attitude about one’s future and making decisions that will have a positive effect on one’s future

In summary, students who did not receive the program until after the evaluation (control group) declined in all but one area, in contrast to students who received the program. Students receiving the program were found significantly more likely than the control group to make healthy choices, commit to work hard and stay in school, resist negative peer pressure, possess positive support from peers and adults, and have a positive life vision.