The Art of Living

Youth Empowerment and Skills Workshop

A Proposal
Introduction
The Youth Empowerment & Skills (YES!+) is a life skills education and personal
development workshop conducted by Vyakti Vikas Kendra India (VVKI) to equip
students to excel both academically and professionally; to nurture morals, ethics, and human
values along with a sense of nationalism and social responsibility. VVKI is a Registered
Public Charitable Trust, founded by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in 1996 to implement and
promote educational, social, and developmental activities under the aegis of ‘the Art of
Living’ in India

The Purpose

“Education has five aspects – information, concepts, attitude, imagination and

freedom”
– His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The purpose of education is to prepare a person for life. To an experienced educationist, it is

a well-known fact that the age group of 18-30 years is extremely crucial. This is the age
where issues of career, relationships, sex, peer/parental pressures, and anxiety about the
future all come to the fore simultaneously. For a well-rounded education, it is vital to
develop mental clarity and emotional strength in the students to handle all these issues, in
addition to conceptual clarity on the subject matter. For a youth bogged down by these
issues, academic/professional performance and development to their full potential suffers.

About the Program

WHO defines Life Skills as 'the abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable
individuals to deal effectively with the demand and changes of everyday life.' And YES!+
exactly does that. YES!+ refines the 10 life skills as listed by UNESCO, UNICEF and
WHO. It addresses the key issues of the youth and provides them with practical and
sustainable tools and techniques with which they can handle all challenges of life with a
smile.
Today there are six main challenges faced by the youth:
1. Anger & Aggression leading to domestic and social violence.
2. Depression and Loneliness leading to suicidal tendencies.
3. Anxiety towards Sex, Relationship and Career leading to wrong choices, risky
involvements and HIV/AIDS.
4. Lack of Ethics, Moral and Integrity leading to corruption and self-centeredness.
5. Substance Abuse and Addictions leading to great loss of nation's valuable human
and economic asset.
6. Unemployability even after possessing a degree, leading to a huge percentage of
educated unemployed youth for the nation.

YES!+ effectively tackles all the above challenges and empowers the individual with
appropriate life skills that bring about an attitudinal and behavioural change. YES!+
graduates have been found to excel in their academics, extra-curricular and social
responsibilities building a strong alumni force for the parent institute and an empowered
youth force for the country.
Peer-to-Peer mentoring and counseling is an integral part of the YES!+ ongoing activities.
Post course, Follow-Up sessions are also conducted for practicing of the techniques
taught in the course.

Research Statistics:

A study conducted on CEOs, by Stanford Research Institute & Carnegie Mellon

Foundation in the USA: Long-term job success depends 75% on people skills and only
25% on technical knowledge.
A study done by Harvard University: 85% of jobs & promotions are because of the
candidate’s attitude & soft skills and only 15% due to facts and figures engineers have.

Program Benefits

The YES!+ Workshop builds and enhances the following life skills / abilities in
youth.

Stress Management Creativity and Innovation

Communication
Leadership
Skills

Teamwork Ethics and Integrity

Decision Making Negotiation Skills

Course Format

A typical YES!+ course is a minimum of 18 hours and a maximum of 30 hours

program, taught over 6 consecutive days for 3-4 hours each.

Post Course Follow Up Sessions (2hrs) for participants can be conducted twice a month for
six months and once a month there after. If the institution offers YES!+ course for the next
academic year, those already graduated from the programme can attend the follow up
sessions being conducted for the new batches.

Program Structure

YES!+ is a brilliant blend of physical exercises, yoga, meditation, profound breathing

exercise, practical knowledge tips, interactive group processes, talks, presentations, music,
dance and fun based learning oriented games.
 The program also aids in:
i. Coming out of depression and suicidal tendencies
ii. De-Addiction - be it drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or tobacco
iii. Control of anger, aggression, anxiety and violence

The obvious result is well rounded youngsters improve their performance and bring laurels
to their educational institute both at their workplace and in society. It has also been our
experience that students who have undergone the program look upon the institution with
a lot of respect (for understanding their life in a larger context and providing them with
the tools when they needed it most).

The YES!+ Experience

YES!+ programs are conducted at colleges and universities across the world and over
the last 5 years, more than 150,000 students benefited from the program in India alone.
Today, The YES!+ is taught in over 50 cities in India and over 40 countries in the world.
It is fast emerging amongst the quality-conscious institutes and organizations as the
premier youth empowerment program for investing in future leadership.

 In Feb-March 2011, The Art of Living successfully completed the execution of the
'Manavathe' project in partnership with the Department of Collegiate Education, Govt.
of Karnataka, India. Under this project, YES!+ was taught to 25358 urban, semi-urban
and rural second year college students across 338 Government colleges spread over the
29 districts of Karnataka. 320 trainers and 500+ volunteers were involved in this project.

 YES!+ is now offered as an Induction program in the following premier institutes:

 XLRI – Jamshedpur
 IMT – Ghaziabad
 IBA -Noida & Bangalore
 IMS-Dehradun
 SIMC –Bangalore

 The YES!+ Program is conducted on the campuses of the leading educational

institutions across India as such:
 IIM - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore
 IIT - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati
 Banaras Hindu University
 NIFT- Kolkata, Hyderabad
 Indian School of Business
 N.I.T – Calicut, Jamshedpur, Kurukshetra
 JNU, Delhi
 DTU, Delhi
 ICFAI
  CEPT, Ahmedabad
 YMCA, Faridabad
 Medical Colleges (Delhi)
o MAMC and MAIDS
o LHMC
o AIIMS
o VMMC
 Delhi University Colleges
o Shri Ram College of Commerce
o Sri Venkateshwara College
o Delhi College of Arts & Commerce
o Shaheed Bhagat Singh College
o Jesus and Mary College
o South Campus
o Dyal Singh College
o College of Vocational studies
o Gargi College
o Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce

 It is taught for credit and/or as an official health services workshop in universities such
as:
 Cornell University
 Stanford University
 University of Wisconsin-Madison
 University of Texas A&M

 The YES!+ workshop was conducted as a part of the rigorous training for state, national
and international championships at Pullela Gopichand Nimmagadda Academy of
Badminton, Hyderabad.

 Recently, under the Art of Living Banner, Rapid Chess Tournament was organized for
40 participants. Also 3 Grand Masters and 3 International Masters have done the Art of
Living course.

 The YES!+ workshop was conducted during ICAI (The Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India) 4-week Residential program at its Centre for Excellence,
Hyderabad.
Testimonials from leading institutes indicate the immensely beneficial impact of
YES!+ and other Art of Living programs on the youth.
Workshop Modules comprise of:

 Methodology of group discussions and role-playing to inculcate life-skills.

 Team games to develop public speaking and interpersonal communication skills.
 Talks and Presentations to bring out attitudinal and behavioural changes.
 Breathing techniques (like the world-renowned and well-researched Sudarshan Kriya) to
flush out stresses and toxins.
 Aspects of Asanas and Pranayama to increase concentration and clarity of mind.

Financial Implications
The projected budget proposal is for the academic year of 2018 - 2019. The membership fees
is Rs.1000 for a new participant. This offer amount is applicable for current proposal only.

Infrastructure requirements to be provided by the institute

 Clean, well-ventilated hall, could be A/C, large enough to accommodate all participants
lying down
 Clean Mats / Durries / Gaddas (one per participant) for the hall, covered with clean
sheets.
 Sofa or two chairs for faculty members along with a small table.
 Good Audio / Video and Sound System comprising of
1. 1 lapel mike
2. 1 Cordless Mike (preferably non-FM)
3. 3 additional Mikes
4. CD + Cassette player
5. Projector (with Screen) connected to PC, with PC’s audio connected to the Venue
Audio System

If certain equipment is not available with the institution, we will provide it.

Disclaimer
We will have a backdrop of Art of Living & YES!+ during the workshop. Art of Living
reserves the right to ask a participant to leave if s/he is found not following the rules or
disrupts the decorum of the workshop. YES!+ does not impose any ideology (dogmas) or
change of lifestyle but presents facts for the youth so that they are empowered to make
informed choices. It does not conflict with any faith/ religious beliefs/culture/spiritual
practices/masters, but can actually compliment it.