We created this innovation after 5 years of working with schools and families in Bajos de Mena, one of Chile’s most vulnerable communities. While we initially focused on tutoring children in math and what we then called “virtues,” over 100 conversations with families, community leaders, teachers, and experts revealed that the reason they trusted us was not the academic support, but the way we helped children develop values and social skills. They told us this was what they most needed yet felt least prepared to teach.
After these findings, we spent months conducting research to validate what they had shared. The evidence confirmed the urgent need to strengthen children’s social-emotional skills, as well as the positive, long-term effects SEL can have on wellbeing and life outcomes. We also found that teachers and families lacked the tools, time, and training to address these needs, reinforcing the opportunity for meaningful impact.
As we committed to helping the community, we discovered a major gap in Chile’s national curriculum: a mandatory weekly class called “Orientation”, created to foster holistic development, but commonly unused due to limited guidance and resources.
Schools, especially in vulnerable contexts, face increasing challenges related to wellbeing, classroom climate, and student engagement. Our solution provides a structured, play-based, and context-sensitive approach that equips educators and families to close these gaps and support children’s holistic growth
Our innovation is a school-based SEL program delivered through a 25-lesson, 45-minute curriculum taught by each school’s own teachers during the regular school day. Every lesson includes structured weekly plans, interactive books, editable slides, short learning capsules in our digital platform, and age-appropriate playful learning materials. The model is grounded in international SEL frameworks such as CASEL and informed by evidence from meta-analyses like Durlak et al. (2011), combined with Trabün’s decade of experience implementing this program in more than 110 schools. Endorsed by Chile’s Ministry of Education, it uses a play-based, engaging methodology that fosters positive bonds, emotional safety, and meaningful learning.
Additionally, the innovation provides comprehensive implementation support for teachers and school leaders through a structured, capacity-building process that includes training sessions, meetings, classroom observations with feedback, and continuous guidance. This process is designed to build institutional capacities within schools, ensuring they can sustain high-quality, faithful implementation over time.
We monitor quality through perception data from students, teachers, and school leaders, consistently showing improvements in wellbeing, school climate, and teacher confidence. A Randomized Controlled Trial is also underway, to be completed in 2027, providing rigorous causal evidence of its effectiveness in developing social and emotional skills.
Our innovation began with a small group of schools and has grown organically to 110 institutions across Chile, reaching over 65,900 students and 2,200 teachers in 13 of the country’s 16 regions. Its expansion has been driven by schools’ need for effective lesson plans, materials, and training, and by the ease with which the program integrates into the school day and national curriculum, aligning with all Ministry requirements and adapting well to diverse contexts.
Over the past two years, we strengthened contextual adaptation, improved teacher support, and commissioned an external Process and Results Evaluation. We were also selected as one of Chile’s top eight educational innovations, which enabled the launch of a rigorous Randomized Controlled Trial. Additionally, we created a K–8 Family Component and launched an SEL Diploma for school leaders to enhance in-school implementation.
In the next 2–3 years, we aim to reach all regions of Chile, deepen our technological tools for curricular adaptation, complete the impact evaluation, and advance toward becoming an evidence-based public policy that ensures sustained SEL development for all students. We also aim to compare the impact of two implementation models being tested in the RCT, continue scaling nationally, and begin international implementation across South America.
Also, Trabün currently operates with 62% financial sustainability, and we aim to reach 75% next year, reinforcing our long-term viability.
Continuous improvement is one of Trabün’s core principles and a key driver of the impact, relevance, and scalability of our innovation. During the first three years, the program was refined annually based on classroom experience and systematic teacher feedback, ensuring it remained practical, engaging, and easy to implement across diverse school contexts.
Two years ago, we initiated a deeper improvement process. Each year, we revise four grade levels and enrich them with age-appropriate complementary resources created by our own team—stories, videos, podcasts, and interactive materials designed to strengthen engagement and support teachers with ready-to-use content. These updates incorporate insights from focus groups with students and teachers, as well as semesterly satisfaction surveys that help us understand effectiveness and contextual fit. These also help us modify our training and follow up meetings.
To ensure continuous, real-time refinement, every lesson includes a “master link”: a QR code teachers and Trabün staff use to suggest improvements immediately after a class. This mechanism creates an ongoing feedback loop that enhances fidelity, responsiveness, and long-term sustainability. Through this iterative, evidence-informed process, our innovation becomes increasingly impactful, adaptable, and aligned with the evolving needs of schools and learners.
Schools can contact us directly or through our website or social media channels. They are then invited to a brief meeting where we present the program and the implementation models available in their region. After this, the school receives all documentation to review, discuss, and confirm participation, including the grade levels they wish to implement.
Once the school accepts, we begin with a meeting with school leadership to get to know each other and to review key enabling conditions that will support a smooth and effective implementation. This is followed by a full-day training session for teachers and leaders, which all implementing educators are expected to attend, prior to the start of the school year.
During the first week of the school year, schools receive all student and teacher materials, gain access to the digital platform, and begin implementation. From that point onward, they receive continuous support from Trabün to ensure quality and fidelity to the program’s design.
