Mission
To equip youth and emerging adults with life skills and introduce them to the emotional, social and financial realities of being a parent by providing a free, relevant and research-driven curriculum to schools, colleges, and youth-serving agencies.
Vision
To empower youth and emerging adults to be good stewards of their decision-making responsibilities across their lifespan.
Parenting: It's a Life is a free curriculum designed for grades 7-12. It introduces teens to the financial realities of being a parent, responsible decision-making, healthy relationships, peer pressure, and concepts related to paternity and child support. The teaching materials are a valuable addition to courses in Family and Consumer Sciences, Life Skills, and Health.
Access the FCS National Standards supported by Parenting: It's a Life curriculum here:
The PIAL curriculum is divided into 10 modules that can be used independently. The materials can be shared and adapted by teachers and youth-serving professionals. Under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0, you must give appropriate credit to Parenting: It's a Life (PIAL) including sharing our website (https://childwelfareproject.hs.iastate.edu/parenting-its-a-life/). You may not use the information for commercial purposes.
Click the button below to request access to the PIAL curriculum.
Teen Dating Violence Awareness Program
Parenting: It's a Life (PIAL) offers a teen dating violence awareness program for students called "ADMYRE: Advocating for My Relationships" created in collaboration with the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Iowa Child Support. During the simulation, students walk through one of eight short stories based on real-life scenarios of unhealthy relationships. Students make decisions as if they are the main character and then discuss how the relationship impacts the lives of their story's characters. As a result of the program, students will be equipped to identify unhealthy relationship characteristics and be empowered to use resources and promote healthy relationships in their own lives. We encourage you to have a school counselor present for students in case they need to talk to someone about what they experienced during the program. Based on research findings, youth are giving it two thumbs up!
For a limited time, PIAL is offering to send you a free ADMYRE Kit complete with the story cards and everything you need to provide the program to your school or organization. If you prefer an asynchronous program, PIAL is offering ADMYRE Online in both a high school and middle school version. Requesting either of these free options allows you access to online resources and a complimentary subscription to our quarterly ADMYRE newsletter.
For more information and to schedule a simulation:
The entire curriculum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. This license requires only that you attribute the original content to the Iowa State University Child Welfare Research and Training Project and share your creations in a similar manner.
