CorStone Life Skills Program for Youth Launched in India

SAUSALITO, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Marin County nonprofit CorStone
announces the successful launch of its Children's Resiliency Program (CRP) in
New Delhi, India to provide social-emotional, conflict management and other
life skills training to youth, primarily 12-18 year old girls, in high poverty
communities. The CRP - India represents the first of many opportunities for
CorStone to reach at-risk youth in vulnerable communities worldwide using
culturally adapted methods and materials.

The program commenced with a 5-day intensive training in New Delhi for
approximately 50 teachers from 5 cities and from more than 10 schools across
the country. Beginning in November 2009, the teachers will in turn deliver
CorStone's weekly structured curriculum in a facilitated peer support group
format to over 1,000 students.

"CorStone's program positively impacts at-risk youth by enhancing their
resilience to psychological disorders, while simultaneously providing them
with the skills and support to deal with conflict and adversity in a healthy
way - helping them to make better choices that can improve their lives and
their communities," said Steve Leventhal, Executive Director of CorStone. "In
many low income communities, using the school as the central venue for
providing psychosocial skills and support is the best way to reach vulnerable
children."

To assess the efficacy of the program, CorStone is implementing an in-depth
program evaluation with 100 schoolgirls at the Hope Project, a local nonprofit
that operates in a 400 year-old Muslim enclave in Delhi. CorStone has
partnered with MacArthur Foundation Award recipient, Sangath, a local mental,
behavioral and developmental health organization, to undertake a formal
evaluation of the program.

Anticipated outcomes include enhanced emotional resilience among students at
participating schools, as measured by positive changes in levels of optimism,
internal locus of control, and social connections and decreases in the number
and severity of disruptive incidents.

CorStone, a non-profit organization based in Sausalito, California, works to
develop and support emotional resilience in children, families and communities
so they can better deal with challenge, conflict and crisis. To learn more,
visit www.corstone.org.

SOURCE CorStone

Diana Iles Parker of Spoken Media, +1-415-388-8281, cell, +1-415-225-8121,
diana@spoken.me