October Newsball 2018
Playing catch-Up with the Life is Good Playmakers
Earlier this month I had the honor of giving the closing address at the 2018 ACEs Conference, presented by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and the Center for Youth Wellness.
As many in our community know, ACEs stands for: Adverse Childhood Experiences. It’s the clinical term for the really, really bad stuff (abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, etc.) that derails a child’s healthy development. In fact, the CDC and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard cite ACEs and toxic stress as the greatest health risk facing our children.
The Life is Good Playmakers Program has been helping childcare professionals better understand the impact of ACEs, toxic stress, and early childhood trauma for years – resulting in improved quality of care delivered to more than 1 million kids each year in schools, hospitals, social service agencies, and enrichment programs throughout the U.S. and Haiti.
There’s a lot of research on the negative effects of ACEs. The most recent studies show that children who suffer four or more ACEs prior to the age of eight are 200% more likely to contract deadly diseases (like heart disease, diabetes and cancer to name a few) and that excessive ACEs in childhood can lead to a 20 year decrease in life expectancy!
However, in both life and in the game of poker, beating four aces is difficult but not impossible.
Four aces dealt to a child, granted, is a hard hand to come up against, but it’s no match for the two, three, four, five, and six of hearts. In poker, a straight flush beats four aces every time – and it doesn’t even require Kings, Queens, or Jacks – just regular, old cards.
In life, beating ACEs requires safe, loving and joyful relationships with skilled adult caregivers who have open hearts, a shared approach, and the passion for playing like our kids lives depend on it. Because they do.
Thank you for being a part of the Playmaker Movement and for going all in on the power of optimism and loving, life-changing relationships.
Love & Peace,
Steve Gross, MSW
Chief Playmaker, Life is Good Playmakers
GOOD PROGRESS
Our Work in the Field
Childrens Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota
For more than two years Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota has been engaged in a Deep Impact Partnership with the Life is Good Playmakers. Our partnership focuses on helping nurses, staff, specialists, and executives create optimal places and conditions to deliver high-quality care to their most vulnerable patients and their families. This month the LiGP team traveled back to Children’s Minnesota to kick off work with a third cohort of over 70 hospital-wide staff to engage in a series of Playmaker workshops and retreats.
UMASS Boston
For the second year in a row, UMASS Boston and Professor Anne Douglass, Founder & Executive Director of the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation, has joined forces with lead members of the LiGP team, Emily Saul and Rebecca Sanderson to design and lead a course called: Teaching Superpowers: The Science of Building Resilience in Early Education and Care Settings. The course is heavily influenced by the LiGP signature Playmaker Program and is now offered to early education undergraduates enrolled at UMASS.
Family & Children's Aid
Family & Children’s Aid (FCA) based in Danbury, Connecticut operates more than 20 mental health and behavior support programs out of seven offices across Connecticut in order to best serve many of the state’s most vulnerable children and families. Their work includes more than 52,000 out-patient visits a year, and for more than a decade the executives and staff have been applying the LiGP program to make lasting, positive connections with their patients and across their team. This month the LiGP met with a core team of FCA leaders on site in Danbury to facilitate an advanced Playmaker workshop to continue building a sustainable Playmaker culture across the organization.
GOOD GROWTH
Our Work to Raise Support
INC. 5000
On October 17-19, Life is Good’s Co-Founder, Bert Jacobs, and President, Lisa Tanzer, each presented at the annual Inc. 5000 Conference in San Antonio, Texas. They shared brand stories on the power of optimism and our integrated model for helping to solve serious social problems by doing better business. Part of Bert’s and Lisa’s presentations included a call to action to support the LiGP program in schools, hospitals, and social service agencies across the U.S. and Haiti. Thanks to the generous attendees of Inc. 5000 more than $60,000 was raised in less than 36 hours!
Turn your next corporate gathering into a gathering of good with leaders from Life is Good
Band of Good
Every dollar donated to the LiGP makes a big difference, and every story behind each donation matters a great deal. This month Ryan, Henry, James, Lucy, and Ollie – five superhero kids from Boston made a movie called Band of Good. It had a zip line, a big battle scene, lots of buildings, and most importantly, it was a lot of fun to make. At their “parent premiere” the budding filmmakers also sold homemade t-shirts, posters, and concessions to raise $920 to help kids heal through the Life is Good playmakers.
Life is Art- 5th Annual Gallery of Good
Thanks to more than 100 talented artists and a dozen generous sponsors, our 5th Annual Life is Art: Exhibit & Auction raised more than $30,000 to help kids heal through the Life is Good Playmakers! This annual fundraiser, which took place at the Life is Good Tavern, on Thursday, November 1, showcased the strength of our creative, courageous, and compassionate superpowers!
GOOD PEOPLE
Our Playmakers
Playmaker Spotlight- Brooke Floyd
By: Playmaker, Brooke Floyd
I remember going on long nature walks as a kid with my grandfather along my grandparent’s farm in Missouri. My grandfather was a farmer, a hunter, and a science teacher. He loved pointing out the differences of the natural world; how the trees needed carbon dioxide and folks needed oxygen, and how we could all get what we needed from our differences.
My grandfather instilled a sense of beauty, wonder, and hope in me; hope for our world and for all of us who get to live on it. He was a master at pointing at how nature could take care of us—as long as we continued to take care of nature.
I held on tightly to the wisdom of those nature walks and summers in Missouri as I grew up, earned my education, and started volunteering for an organization in Jackson, Mississippi called Stewpot.
Stewpot had a simple mission: Feed the hungry. Volunteers focused on getting people a good lunch by providing free, healthy meals at a local church. Shortly after seeing the positive effects of a hot meal, it became clear that the most vulnerable men, women, and children of our community were hungry for so much more.
They needed safe places to sleep, trusted medical care, and access to education. The world around them wasn’t reflecting the care that they needed. Stewpot wanted to change that, and so did I.
Stewpot became a regional leader of compassionate support, providing shelter, meals, college counseling, job training, financial literacy, and early education to thousands of good people in real need across our community. And through a 20-year evolution of field experience and advanced education, I became a leader within Stewpot and currently serve as our director of Children’s Services.
The hardest part of getting to do this job that I love to do…is seeing kids stop being kids. I think of it as getting older before their time, and I’ll never really get over the heartache that comes with helping a child unlearn that getting older means getting harder. I’ve known far too many five-year-olds who’ve suffered far too many traumas.
Not being completely overwhelmed by the adversities, the injustices, and the complexities that seem irreversible is a constant challenge. It’s almost too easy to trick myself into thinking that things can’t change and that my part doesn’t really matter.
That’s how I found myself connected to the Life is Good Kids Foundation and engaged with the Playmaker Program. I traveled to Boston for a Playmaker retreat, not entirely certain what I would gain, and left with a renewed sense of connection and joy for myself, my team, and for the kids I serve.
I uncovered and rediscovered what my grandfather taught me on those nature walks so many years ago: To take care—even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hardest.
Take care of yourself, so that you can take care of the people and places around you. Take care of differences, recognize their relationships, and focus on the ways these relationships and differences can grow more good.
I didn’t have a word for it before that weekend in Boston, but now I know that my grandfather was my Playmaker. The lessons from my grandfather, along with the philosophies and practices I’ve gained from the Playmaker Program, continue to ground me in being a Playmaker to every child who comes through our doors.
The Life is Good Kids Foundation is grateful to Brooke and all of the 10,000 Playmakers working in schools, hospitals, and childcare organizations across the U.S. and Haiti .
GOT NEWS?
If you have news about a program, fundraiser, or event in support of The LiGP, let us know. We love hearing from you!
