A national program has been growing in the Salt Lake Valley to combine character development with regular school studies.

Learning for Life, a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America, uses mentors who teach 30-minute lessons on character values to schoolchildren in grades K-6. The program, established in 1991, helps schoolchildren "regain a sense of ethics," said Linda Keyes, director of the program for the Great Salt Lake Council.

These mentors conduct lessons and activities on topics such as respecting others, resolving conflicts, coping with stress, and covers skills such as money management and consumer awareness. The program tailors its lesson plans to different groups of grade levels.

Learning for Life serves schools where many of the students struggle with poverty and challenging life situations. More than 12,500 students took part in the program this school year, Keyes said.

The program helps teach these children core values the children might not have had a chance to learn, Scott Brown, chairman of council's Learning for Life steering committee and an attorney in Salt Lake City, said. He said many children come into the valley with poor English skills and from places where the need to simply survive has superseded learning character values.

"We're trying to carry Learning for Life to the areas that are most deeply impacted first," Brown said. He added, however, that the program is expanding to schools in less disadvantaged areas.

As schoolchildren develop positive character traits, their studies improve, Brown said. "We've got to teach the whole child."

Keyes said a major benefit the program brings is "a recognition by children that they have power over choices they make."

"Learning for Life mentors teach kids to manage responses to stress and anger and other emotions in positive, appropriate ways," Keyes said. "Mentors are positive role models and help students understand that they have another adult who cares about them."

While mentors in the program are not counselors, Keyes said the students learn that they can talk to someone about their problems and get help.

Learning for Life held day camps in May for schools in Mill Creek Canyon on land owned by the Boy Scouts of America.

Students at the camps moved from different stations participating in activities that reinforce and put into practice what these children learn during school, Keyes said. She added that some of these children are seldom able to get out of the urban life of the valley.

The camps hosted more than 3,500 students in May.