Nonprofit Helps Kids Make Better Decisions (NAPS)—Our kids are facing choices every day—from smaller decisions such as choosingfriends, to major life-shaping decisions about important issues: school, sex, drugs and more. While young people need to learn how to make good decisions, for the most part, schools aren’t teaching this critical skill. An innovative nonprofit, the Decision Education Foundation (DEF), is working to change things. Are kids making good decisions? Do they even know how? Founded in 2001, DEF has been developing course materials and training educators and youth counselors in the basics of quality decision making, i.e., “teaching the teachers.” In 2010, DEF announced a major initiative—the creation of an online curriculum designed for direct delivery to late middle school/early high school students. Slated for release later this year, DEF’s online project will use the powerof the Internet to open up a wealth of learning opportunities for kids everywhere, providing an engaging, interactive resource that can be accessed in schools, homes, after-school programs, and youth organizations. For more information about DEF andits programsor to see currently available teaching materials, visit the foundation’s website at www.decisioneducation.org.
