What Overcoming Obstacles does

Overcoming Obstacles is a nonprofit educational organization founded in 1992 and operated by the Community for Education Foundation, headquartered in New York. It publishes a free, research-based K-12 life skills curriculum that educators can access directly through its website without registration, covering topic areas such as self-awareness, goal-setting, problem-solving, communication, and leadership. The curriculum is built on the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) framework and is designed to be customizable for classroom use.

The organization operates with a small team of 1-10 employees and reports reaching 180M+ students, 800K+ educators, and an international footprint spanning 190+ countries. Its product surface includes a digital library of lesson plans, the My Overcoming Obstacles platform (which integrates with Google Docs and Google Slides for teacher customization), and translations in Spanish and French with German and Tagalog forthcoming. Validations have come from the National Dropout Prevention Center (2013), the Riley Institute (2015-2016), and two rounds of Rutgers University educator surveys (2021 and 2025).

The business model is non-commercial: the curriculum is distributed free of charge, with no registration requirement and no paid tier. Operating costs are covered by board member generosity, and the organization maintains a GuideStar Platinum transparency rating. There is no revenue-generating customer segment; the "customers" are school districts, individual teachers, and nonprofit partners who consume the content at zero cost. Notable leadership includes founder and Chairman Jill Siegal Chalsty and Managing Director Vincenzo Capone.

Name

Overcoming Obstacles

Legal name

Community for Education Foundation, Inc.

Website

https://overcomingobstacles.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Overcoming Obstacles is a nonprofit that publishes a free, research-based K-12 life skills curriculum to 800K+ educators across 190+ countries, operated by a small New York-based team under the Community for Education Foundation.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

K-12 Life Skills Curriculum

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Support Services (6117)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Interactive Practice & Skill-Building (Drills, Games, Mastery Practice) (EDAFACAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Adaptive Learning & Personalized Instruction Software (EDAJAMAE)

Keywords

• Life skills curriculum
• K-12 education
• Social emotional learning
• Classroom curriculum
• Educator resources

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Free Educational Content Distribution: As a nonprofit organization, Overcoming Obstacles provides all curriculum materials and services completely free of charge. The organization is funded through the generosity of board members and operates as the curriculum publishing division of Community for Education Foundation. No revenue is generated from curriculum sales.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Overcoming Obstacles provides a free, award-winning, research-based K-12 life skills curriculum delivered through an online Digital Library portal. The curriculum covers more than 30 essential life skills through hundreds of activity-based lessons across four grade-level tiers (Elementary K-2, Elementary 3-5, Middle School, and High School), with downloadable PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Slides formats. Educators can customize lessons through the My Overcoming Obstacles platform integrated with Google Docs.

Product overview

Overcoming Obstacles provides a free, award-winning K-12 life skills curriculum published by the nonprofit Community for Education Foundation. The offering consists of a core K-12 Life Skills Curriculum organized into four grade-level tiers — Elementary K-2 (12 lessons), Elementary 3-5 (12 lessons), Middle School (11 modules, 61 lessons), and High School (14 modules, 75 lessons) — delivered through the Digital Library portal with downloadable PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Slides formats. The My Overcoming Obstacles free account enables educators to customize any lesson using Google Docs, and supplementary offerings include translated materials in Spanish, French, and 28 additional languages, student surveys, overview videos, and video conferencing support. The curriculum covers more than 30 life skills including communication, decision-making, goal-setting, conflict resolution, anger management, empathy, financial management, and career readiness.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Overcoming Obstacles K-12 Life Skills Curriculum A free, award-winning, research-based K-12 life skills curriculum published by Community for Education Foundation, providing hundreds of activity-based lessons covering more than 30 skills including communication, decision-making, goal-setting, conflict resolution, problem solving, and respect. Organized into four grade-level tiers (Elementary K-2, Elementary 3-5, Middle School, and High School), with downloadable lessons, activity sheets in PDF and PowerPoint formats, and Google Slides editable templates.
• Overcoming Obstacles Digital Library An online hub where educators can view, download, and customize all K-12 resources for free. Access includes curricula, student surveys, training guides, translations, and supplemental resources. No registration or personal information is required for basic access.
• My Overcoming Obstacles A free educator account platform that enables users to customize the full K-12 curriculum via Google Docs integration. Registered users can modify lessons and share their modifications with the community. Includes access to video conferencing support for curriculum questions and implementation strategies.
• Elementary K-2 Curriculum Grade-level tier for Kindergarten through 2nd grade students featuring 12 lessons on fundamental life skills including listening, fairness, coping skills, self-control, kindness, cooperation, resolving conflicts, respect, integrity, having a positive attitude, being responsible, and becoming a good friend.
• Elementary 3-5 Curriculum Grade-level tier for 3rd through 5th grade students featuring 12 lessons covering empathy, integrity, perseverance, respect, coping skills, positive attitude, cooperation, teamwork, conflict resolution, peer pressure handling, good citizenship, and responsibility.
• Middle School Curriculum Grade-level tier for 6th through 8th grade containing 11 modules with 61 total lessons covering Getting Started, Confidence Building, Communication, Decision Making, Goal Setting, Managing Personal Resources, Studying Effectively, Problem Solving, Resolving Conflicts, Looking to the Future, and a Service Learning Handbook.
• High School Curriculum Grade-level tier for 9th through 12th grade containing 14 modules with 75 total lessons covering Getting Started, Confidence Building, Communication, Decision Making, Goal Setting, Problem Solving, Resolving Conflicts, Skills for School and Beyond, A Game Plan for College, A Game Plan for Work, Getting the Job, On-the-Job, Managing Your Life, and a Service Learning Handbook.
• Translated Materials International and translated versions of the K-12 curricula and student activity sheets. The full K-12 curriculum is translated into Spanish and French, with German and Tagalog versions coming soon. Student activity sheets are available in 28 additional languages including Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Haitian-Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Kinyarwandan, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Thai, Tongan, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Xhosa, and Zulu.

Quantifiable outcome

• 92% of educators would recommend Overcoming Obstacles to other educators (2025 Rutgers University survey)
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature2 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Sanford Harmony: Free and low-cost SEL program for K-8 students including lessons on communication, empathy, and problem solving; highly comparable delivery model (free, downloadable) and skill coverage.
• Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (RULER): Research-validated SEL curriculum (RULER) for K-12 schools built on emotional intelligence principles; competes for the same evidence-driven district customer who values measurable student outcomes.
• EVERFI: Offers K-12 digital courses in life skills, financial literacy, and SEL topics, distributed through schools and districts; competes for the same educator budget and curriculum-adoption cycles.
• CharacterStrong: Provides K-12 social-emotional and character education curriculum (including life skills, leadership, and advisory programs) targeting schools and districts—a direct curricular substitute for Overcoming Obstacles.
• The 7 Mindsets: Provides a SEL/life-skills curriculum built around mindset principles for K-12 students, commonly deployed in advisory periods—a near-identical use case to Overcoming Obstacles.
• Botvin LifeSkills Training: Evidence-based substance-abuse prevention and life-skills curriculum for K-12 schools, focused on communication, decision making, and personal life skills—high conceptual overlap with Overcoming Obstacles' skill domains.
• Committee for Children (Second Step): Publisher of Second Step, one of the most widely adopted K-8 social-emotional learning curricula; competes directly with Overcoming Obstacles for district SEL/life-skills adoption across U.S. elementary and middle schools.

Broad incumbents

• Newsela: K-12 content platform with social-emotional and life-skills content in addition to its core literacy/reading offerings; comparable 'free or low-cost curated content for educators' model but broader subject scope.
• Common Sense Education: Provides K-12 resources spanning digital citizenship, SEL, and life skills with a broader portfolio (including media and parent-facing content); overlaps with Overcoming Obstacles on life-skills curriculum but is not solely focused on this niche.
• Nearpod: K-12 interactive lesson delivery platform with SEL/life-skills content among many categories; competes indirectly by enabling educators to deliver and customize lessons in a more interactive, tech-forward format.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/OvercomingObstaclesLifeSkills
• Xx.com/OOLifeSkills
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/overcomingobstacles

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Overcoming Obstacles