Life skills are not treated as add-ons, but as essential capacities needed to navigate uncertainty, complexity and change in the modern world. Dream a Dream also developed the Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS), a scientifically validated, India-contextualised tool that demonstrates how low-cost life skills interventions lead to measurable gains in cognitive, emotional and social development among children facing adversity.
Equally central is the role of relationships. Young people consistently shared that the presence of at least one non-judgemental, caring and empathetic adult was critical to their ability to thrive. In response, Dream a Dream works extensively with teachers, educators and youth workers, helping them reimagine their roles from instructors to facilitators of growth.
Through training support, the organisation enables adults to build empathy, authentic listening and trust, creating safe spaces where children feel seen, valued and capable of imagining new futures. Beyond individual programmes, Dream a Dream recognises that children cannot thrive if the systems around them remain oppressive.
While life skills build resilience and agency, social norms related to gender, caste, class and other structural inequities often restrict young people’s choices. Therefore, Dream a Dream works at a systems level, partnering with state governments to integrate Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into public education through curriculum redesign, teacher training, assessment reform and whole-school approaches. Initiatives such as Delhi’s Happiness Curriculum, Uttarakhand’s Anandam Pathyacharya, Telangana’s Chelimi and Jharkhand’s Harsh Johar curriculum aim to reframe the purpose of education itself from narrow academic success to holistic thriving.
Ultimately, Dream a Dream defines thriving as the ability of a young person to have agency, make choices and grow with resilience, responsibility and happiness. By combining life skills development, caring adult relationships and systemic transformation, Dream a Dream enables children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds not only to overcome adversity, but to thrive in a fast-changing world.
Working with the education ecosystem is essential because young people’s ability to thrive, especially when growing up with adversity, is shaped not only by individual skills but by the schools, policies, social norms and institutions around them. While direct programmes can build confidence and life skills, these gains are often limited if education systems and societal structures remain inequitable or restrictive. System-level work enables change at scale, reaching millions of children and young people, ensures equity and inclusion, and shifts narrow definitions of success towards wellbeing, agency and lifelong learning. By co-creating with governments and institutions, system change becomes embedded, owned and sustainable.
To embed powerful ideas into the education ecosystem, we as an organisation, strive to become a microcosm of the world we want for our young people built on the values of equity, dignity and inclusion. To translate this into organisational policy, we created our People Philosophy, designing our work culture through an intersectional lens, moving beyond conventional notions of workplace practices to create a space where everyone feels supported, included and accountable for the impact we create. This process is led collaboratively by a voluntary and cross-functional group of team members who frame and implement the philosophy, engage in deep reflection on personal biases and surface team concerns. By embedding our values into organisational policies and everyday practice, the People Philosophy enables our team to thrive, sustain emotionally demanding work, and model the change we seek to influence at scale.
Read the full story that first appeared in The New Indian Express dated Feb 22, 2026 here:
Leave a Reply