About

PIAL is a multi-component life skills program designed to introduce middle and high school youth and emerging adults to the emotional, social, and financial realities of parenting and provide resources to them before they reach parenthood.

The youth curriculum (7th-12th grades) includes topics such as Healthy Relationships, Cost of Raising a Child, Resiliency, Mental Health, and Career Readiness - online only. 

Mission

To equip youth and emerging adults with essential life skills including healthy relationships, career readiness, mental health, resiliency, digital health, and parenting awareness so they can thrive in adulthood with confidence and purpose.

Vision

A generation prepared for life: elevated into compassionate, resilient individuals ready to shape their futures and strengthen their communities.

pial classroom
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Requesting the PIAL Curriculum

PIAL supports Iowa educators with high‑quality, evidence-informed, no-cost learning experiences for teens. To ensure you feel confident delivering the curriculum, we ask educators to complete two steps before receiving access to each module.

Step 1:

Complete the PIAL Prerequisite Course to learn about the PIAL methodology, modules, and program evaluation. You’ll hear from our content creator, educators, our lead facilitator, and other PIAL staff. The online course takes about 15 minutes to complete.

Step 2:

Schedule an in-person visit with one of our trained college-age facilitators and full-time staff. Seeing the module delivered live gives you a realistic look at the key ideas in action. A separate visit request is required for each module you would like to access.

Step 3:

After our visit, you’ll receive digital access to the facilitator guide, slideshow, and accompanying materials for that module. Note: If you recently hosted a PIAL visit, please select the option for “returning educators” on the form.

The Iowa State University Child Welfare Research and Training Project conducts this work through a contract with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (BOC-24-003, Carl Weems PI).

Creative Commons License 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.