WiserEarth UK
The Wiser UK group aims to bring together WiserEarth members based in the UK. We aim (among other things) to further the vision of WiserEarth and Paul Hawken in helping put up a mirror to the movement, to connect and create alliances between those working towards a more just and sustainable world. We hope that this 'flocking' effect will enable us to improve ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Mar 20, 2009
Updated: Nov 24, 2009
Membership: Open
Semi-Private
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Building Resilience in Kids
Our Mission
BRIK is a small, lean non-profit helping children who have been stressed by poverty and trauma. We help children directly and through their caregivers to build resilience. But wait -
What Is Resilience? — Resilience is the ability to bounce back, to weather a storm. But what builds resilience in children and adolescents?
Relationships, research shows, are what build resilience. A relationship with parents and other family members is best, but when these are strained by immigration and poverty, children often look for connection at school or after school programs. In fact, teachers are often the people children who have survived abuse and trauma remember as the person who “got them through.”
To foster the relationships that build resilience, Building Resilience in Kids offers:
Making Connections at School: an innovative training for teachers and after-school workers based on research from the Stone Center at Wellesley and the Harvard Graduate School of Education work on girls’ development.
Art From the Heart ℠: a program for middle school children who have difficulty getting along, and a curriculum and training on art from the heart for counselors. A training will be offered this fall. Contact us!
Girls on the Brink of Adolescence: a program for mothers of preadolescent girls
Kids on the Brink of Adolescence: a program for teachers and parents of middle school children
Drums and Poems ℠: an interactive, after-school literacy building program for children
To learn more about our individual programs, please visit our website at BRIKontheweb.org
Our first program was Art from the Heart, a successful innovation in prevention of adolescent problems like suicide, drug use and dropping out by building relationships among middle-schoolers. For suburban children, discussion groups work well for this. But For urban, at-risk children, discussion formats do not always work. They need an activity to do together and an immediate product. In Art from the Heart, connections are instead made through a collaborative art project in which verbal skills are less essential but cooperation is key.
Art
from the Heart is now used in the following settings in Lowell and Lawrence,
MA, both high-crime, low-income cities. To date we have:
- introduced Art from the Heart to 38 after school
programs in Lowell.
- trained five of six middle school social workers in
Lowell Public Schools to use Art from the Heart.
- trained workers at Lawrence Community Health Center
to use Art from the Heart in an obesity-prevention group.
We also work with
teachers and after school programs and we have
- held Making Connections at School groups at five
low-income locations.
- created Building Relationships in School: Discovering
Your Relational Intelligence for teachers in underserved schools.
- partnered with Science Club for Girls to add relationship-building
to their program.
- developed Drums and Poems, an innovative way to
develop cooperation and literacy skills
WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH ALL OF THIS BECAUSE WE USE 95% OF EVERY DOLLAR ON PROGRAM. Staff donate office space, volunteer time, and are paid by the project. Our fiscal agent is Community Teamwork Inc., a 501c3 organization.
Copyright© 2009