Karen Kolb, Site Creator

Karen Kolb, the creator of basic-life-skills-made-easy.com, has been involved with social service agencies for almost 20 years. Her volunteer work, B.A. in social work and paid positions have all provided extensive experience in creating and facilitating skill-building workshops for inner-city youth and others with significant barriers to success.

In 2000, Ms. Kolb was hired to develop a program for domestic violence survivors. For the most part these are women, who because of low self-esteem, find it hard to access resources and difficult to believe they can be successful. The result was the creation of The EXCEL Program©Synergy Services, Inc., a 5½-hour life skills and job skills program that includes five workshops (Self-image, Communication, Workplace Relationships, Goal-setting and Job Search).

EXCEL quickly became a resource that could benefit anyone with barriers to obtaining and/or maintaining meaningful employment. At the end of 2007, EXCEL was offered at 14 locations throughout the Kansas City area. This included all six domestic violence shelters, two county detention centers and two homeless shelters. From August, 2000 through 2007, more than 3,000 men, women and teens participated in at least one of EXCEL’s five workshops, with 95% reporting increased understanding of the topics discussed.

In 2008, Karen Kolb started Skill Power LLC and created two new programs:

• The Power of Skills© Program is a self-guided life skills development program that covers 23 topics and includes 36 life skills activities. This program can also provide a basis for small group discussions or a life skills curriculum.

• The Skill Power Mini-workshop Series© is an employee-focused program consisting of 12 mini-workshops that cover topics critical to job success. These workshops can be self-guided or provide a foundation for staff meeting discussions.

Kolb is also the author of three books: Life Skills Made Easy; Common Sense Management / Leadership; and Basic Life Skills and Job Success, which is the book version of the Skill Power Mini-workshop Series.

(All programs and books are described in greater detail and available for purchase at the Skill Power website.)

Having worked with thousands of people skeptical of overcoming their current situation, Karen Kolb promotes the development of strong basic life skills. The challenge of helping people believe they have the power to take control of future success continues to be Ms. Kolb's primary motivator, and the reason for creating and maintaining this informational website. Basic life skills made easy provides fundamental, easy-to-apply suggestions for building basic life skills and becoming more successful in the future. Additional information and resources will be added as developed.