You Can Do It! Education’s main purpose is to support communities, schools,and homes in a collective effort to optimise the social, emotional, and academic outcomes of all young people.

Its unique contribution is in identifying the social and emotional capabilities that all young people need to acquire in order to be successful in school, experience wellbeing, and have positive relationships including making contributions to others and the community (good citizenship).

YCDI’s mission is to realise, through the following beliefs and actions:

  • The building of social, emotional, and motivational capacity of young people rather than on their problems and deficits.
  • The encouragment of prevention, promotion, and intervention efforts (school, home and community) in order to build the social and emotional strengths of young people.
  • The development of a strength-building approach, where YCDI seeks to build the capabilities of adults (community, school, home) associated with positive outcomes in young people.

The 5 Keys of YCDI! Education
Our core purpose is the development of young people’s social and emotional capabilities, including:

  1. Confidence (academic, social)
  2. Persistence
  3. Organisation
  4. Getting Along, and
  5. Resilience.

Central to the development of these 5 Key Foundations is instilling in young people 12 Habits of the Mind, including:

  1. Accepting Myself
  2. Taking Risks
  3. Being Independent
  4. I Can Do It
  5. Giving Effort
  6. Working Tough
  7. Setting Goals
  8. Planning My Time
  9. Being Tolerant of Others
  10. Thinking First
  11. Playingby the Rules, and
  12. Social Responsibility

This last point includes the values of Caring, Doing Your Best, Freedom,Honesty, Integrity, Respect, Responsibility,Understanding, Tolerance, and Inclusion.

Included in our core purpose is the elimination of social and emotional difficulties and disabilities (“Blockers”) that constitute barriers to young people’s learning and well-being, including:

  • Feeling Very Worried
  • Feeling Very Down
  • Procrastination
  • Not Paying Attention or Disturbing Others, and
  • Feeling Very Angry or Misbehaving.

YCDI is deliberate in restructuring negative Habits of the Mind that give rise to these Blockers and in the explicit teaching of alternative positive Habits of the Mind.

This approach includes positive, caring relationships with young people.

However, it is clear that in order to change the developmental trajectory of young people with poor mental health (emotional, social and behavioural challenges) and learning outcomes and to accelerate their social and emotional development, it is vital that schools, homes and communities be transformed so that the responsibility for supporting and educating, including quality social and emotional learning experiences and caring relationships, is shared throughout the community.