Curriculum

• Design Your Success: The Power of Intentional Goal Setting:
  This topic covers the power of positive self-image, discovering your vision and purpose, setting goals that motivate, and keys to achieving success in life.
   
• Workplace Presence: Dressing for Success:
  This topic includes a slide show, image presentation, personal appearance and grooming techniques.
   
• Physical Wellness: Tools for a Healthier Workday:
  This topic is highlighted as a life skill for maintaining health, increasing energy and obtaining balance for work. Basic breathing techniques and non-strenuous movements are taught to help reduce stress at work, avoid work-related injuries, promote relaxation, and increase concentration, all of which will ultimately result in greater productivity and less absenteeism.

• Thriving Under Pressure: Strategies for a Resilient Work Life:
  This topic includes the effects of stress on one's body and mind, how to recognize one's own stress signals and those of others, the specific contributors to workplace stress and strategies for dealing with it. This critical life skill topic encourages clients to have more power over their lives and better coping mechanisms for dealing with stress. Knowledge gained will increase success in the workplace which ultimately contributes to sustaining employment.
   
• Fuel Your Workday: Eat Better, Perform Better:
  This topic covers eating for energy and wellness. How to recognize the signs that trigger poor nutritional choices and appropriate ways to deal with these triggers will be addressed. Additionally, clients will learn the important life skill of making better nutritional choices through an understanding of healthy eating guidelines and weight management techniques.

• How We Work: Personalities, Communication, and Collaboration:
  This topic utilizes the True Colors career self-assessment tool to identify individual strengths and qualities in a fun and lighthearted way. It encourages clients to recognize, understand, and appreciate the differences in others and how these differences impact relationships at work. It also increases individual self-knowledge in relationship to job choice, self-confidence, respect, dignity, esteem, worthiness and character.
   
• Health-Related Barriers to Consistent Job Attendance and Performance:
  This topic explores health issues that could interfere with job performance and attendance. This will ensure that clients are aware of common viruses, infections, diseases, and conditions and the preventative measures one can take to avoid and/or treat them. This topic will also address employers’ expectations regarding attendance and absenteeism due to health-related issues.

• Building Bridges: Collaborating through Conflict in the Workplace:
  This topic focuses on effective communication, what you see versus what you get, blocks to listening, techniques for active listening, and role-playing activities that can be used constructively to assist any difficult situation in the workplace.
   
• Thriving as a Working Parent Today:
  This topic covers stresses of parenting and clarifies differences between discipline and punishment. Additionally, it provides solutions for overcoming obstacles such as being a single parent, childcare, and behavior problems that parents may face.

• Protecting Ourselves and Each Other: Violence Prevention at Work and Beyond:
  This topic outlines ways to identify and handle potentially dangerous or abusive situations that interfere with work. Domestic violence, the cycle of violence, obstacles to leaving a domestically violent relationship, warning signs, safety plan, effects on children, and myths versus facts about domestic violence will be reviewed. Additionally, examples of workplace violence will be discussed. Clients will gain an understanding of how violence or harassment in or brought to the workplace will interfere with job performance and is cause for dismissal from the job.

In the Three-Week program, participants have the same classes as the One-Week program. The topics above are expanded on and they have four additional topics in their curriculum.

• Workplace Wellness: Substance Use and Employee Health:
  This topic addresses the reality that workplace substance abuse is on the rise. Definitions for drug abuse, self-assessments to detect possible problems with drugs and/or alcohol, and referral sources to obtain help with addictions will be covered. Co-occurring disorders will be addressed as well.
   
• Anger Decoded: Understand, Manage, Grow:
  This topic will include the definition, causes, facts and perceptions about anger. Other possible topics include barriers to success in dealing with anger and techniques for dealing with anger.
   
• Money Matters: What They Didn’t Teach Us:
  This topic offers everyday tips on saving money. Included are inexpensive household tips for cleaning and cooking, budgeting, savings, understanding your credit score, improving credit, and obtaining a free credit report. Teaching-learning activities include lecture, games, exercises, discussion and interaction among participants.
   
• Workplace and Situational Safety:
  This topic covers basic knowledge regarding workplace safety, general first aid, and maintaining mindfulness and situational awareness in stressful situations.