Best of Coping is a resilience suite program developed at the University of Melbourne by Erica Frydenberg and Catherine Brandon. It is based on the research into coping and on soundly established cognative-behavioural psychological principles.

The Best of Coping program is taught in 10 modules (one hour sessions) and is designed to provide teachers, youth workers, social workers and counsellors with a structured, comprehensive program for helping adolescents develop resilience and coping skills to deal with common problems and situations.

The program contains modules covering a range of topics, including getting along with others, asking for help, problem solving, decision making and goal setting. The program can be tailored to the specific needs of the students or clients.

The Best of Coping program is based on the research and experience gained from the popular Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS)- a self-report inventory that assesses the capacity for using various coping strategies. The program uses the same concepts as the ACS and can be used as a follow-up intervention program. The materials consist of a Facilitator's Guide, which provides background information, guidelines for facilitating a session, suggested activities and a Student Workbook which provides scenarios and activities to be completed by each student.

Research demonstrates that young people with an optimistic, effective coping style feel better about themselves, are happier, persist better and achieve more. OzChild’s training program for instructors is made up of hands-on and interactive sessions based on the Best of Coping Program.

Would you like to look after a child for a weekend, a few days, a few months or longer? Do you work, but still have some time and energy to care for a child?

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