September Newsball 2018
Playing catch-Up with the Life is Good Playmakers
This morning, when I dropped my kids off at school, something magical happened. They both ran into the building smiling.
Now for my daughter, who just started kindergarten, this came as no big surprise. She loves all that kindergartenery stuff. But, for my son, who just started second grade, and who would rather get a series of tetanus shots than sit down to read for 10 minutes, I was stunned.
Turns out that despite the increasing academic demands of second grade, school is still a safe, loving, and joyful place. This is largely due to the huge emphasis that the educators at the school place on social and emotional wellness.
I can’t think of anything more important to our family than the social and emotional wellness of our children, and I can’t think of anything more important to our world than the social and emotional wellness of all children.
The most important factor in determining a school’s capacity to support the social and emotional development of its students, is the social and emotional wellness of their teachers and staff.
Simple as that.
Loving teachers help to nurture loving students. Creative teachers help to nurture creative students. Grateful teachers help to nurture grateful students. After all, you can’t spread to others what you do not have for yourself.
Each year through our Life is Good Playmakers signature Playmaker Program, we help more than 10,000 teachers and childcare professionals strengthen their own social and emotional wellness.
The result is more than a million vulnerable kids having the same experience that mine did this morning – racing in, excited to learn, and ready to be taught by leaders who love them.
Thanks for making more good mornings possible for more good kids.
Love & Peace,
Steve Gross, MSW
Chief Playmaker, Life is Good Playmakers
GOOD PROGRESS
Our Work in the Field
Boston Public Schools
Thanks to an anonymous grant, this month the Life is Good Playmakers and Boston Public Schools officially kicked off our Deep Impact Partnership. Over the course of the next two years, teachers, administrators, and specialists connected to the BPS Early Childhood Education and Behavioral Health Departments will gain access to our Playmaker Program along with ongoing coaching and specialized tools from our team. Our work will enhance BPS’s Comprehensive Behavioral Health Model (CBHM) and help staff create optimal environments to foster the healthy social, emotional, and cognitive development of their students.
Dudley Promise Corps
For many years the Life is Good Playmakers has offered our Playmaker Program to aspiring teachers and leaders at Dudley Promise Corps. Connected to the AmeriCorps program, Dudley Promise Corps is committed to providing students with the extra academic, social, and emotional support needed to ensure that they are on track for college and career success, while developing the skills to remain engaged leaders committed to social justice. This month, Dudley Promise Corps members enrolled in a Playmaker 101 workshop to learn more about the impacts of toxic stress, the science behind the importance of responsive relationships. They walked away with tactical and practical steps one can take to increase personal capacity for optimism and create safe, loving, and joyful places for kids to learn, thrive, and heal.
Ludlow Public Schools
Through a keynote address earlier this month, our founder, Steve Gross introduced the entire Ludlow Elementary School System to the science and stories behind spreading the power of optimism. Steve shared how Adverse Childhood Experiences (traumas related to such things as poverty, violence, and illness) can have lasting, devastating effects on the healthy development of our kids. He also shared the research that indicates that effective treatment of childhood trauma requires safe, loving, and authentic relationships with adult caregivers. Steve reminded the audience that teachers and other childcare professionals are uniquely positioned to help kids heal, and that by creating optimal environments to foster more authentic relationships, they can best help their students see the good in themselves, in others, and in the world at large.
GOOD GROWTH
Our Work to Raise Support
Investing in Boston
Earlier this year, the Life is Good Playmakers were awarded renewed funding from an anonymous foundation focused on improving the quality of care and education to the most vulnerable children and families across Massachusetts. This generous grant of $100,000 over the course of two years supports our Deep Impact Partnership with Boston Public Schools. To learn more about sponsoring the Life is Good Kids Foundation and our Playmaker Program in schools, hospitals, and social service agencies please email, Morgan Cirillo:
ROI- Return on Impact
On September 20, more than 60 optimists who engage with the Life is Good Playmakers as major donors, program partners, board members, and advocates gathered at our offices in South Boston to hear from leaders at Family & Children’s Aid, the Newtown Police Department, and Boston Public Schools. Our guests shared how the LiGP Program continues to make a lasting, positive difference for the kids they serve and the teams they employ. For years, demand for our signature Playmaker Program has far outweighed our capacity, and this gathering provided an opportunity for those from the business and philanthropic communities to hear firsthand how their investment in our growth continues to make a difference.
Life is Art- 5th Annual Gallery of Good
On Thursday, November 1, the founders of Life is Good, Bert and John Jacobs, along with our own Steve Gross will transform the Life is Good offices into Boston’s best homegrown art gallery. It’s our 5thAnnual Life is Art: Exhibit & Auction to benefit the Life is Good Playmakers and our work to help kids heal. Showcasing original pieces of art from Life is Good partners and employees, and from loyal supporters and grateful beneficiaries of the Life is Good Playmakers, this special event presents a (literal) picture of the good we can continue to grow through our courage, compassion, and creativity.
Secure Your Tickets or Register as a Life is Art Signature Sponsor
GOOD PEOPLE
Our Playmakers
By: Playmaker, Kim Whitmore
There’s this feeling I get when I walk into our school—a good one. It’s like coming home.
I can confidently say as a teacher, mom, and resident, that Hawley Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut is an “O’Playsis:” an oasis of play. It’s a safe, loving, and joyful place to learn and to be.
I never knew that word, “O’Playsis,” before engaging with the Life is Good Kids Foundation’s Playmaker Program, but now it’s one I couldn’t imagine teaching, caring, or even being without.
It’s an important word for me to know as a second-grade teacher in this town. I’m aware enough to know that it’s important for any teacher to have in any town, but for me, here and now, it feels especially important.
There’s a knowing in Newtown that we can’t unknow; it’s a knowing that comes from devastating loss.
I came to know it after the sudden loss of our eight-year-old son, Collin, who died in February of 2016 from a brain disorder called arteriovenous malformation (AVM). And as a community, we’ve come to know it too.
Overwhelming experiences can be acknowledged, processed, released, and maybe even healed. But they’re never really forgotten.
What I’ve learned is that once you know trauma, it’s even more essential to know (in the same kind of lasting forever way) compassion, humor, authenticity, fun, gratitude, and above all else, love.
For whatever reason, these positive, life-saving skills far too often get labeled as “soft,” even in elementary education. But they’re not. Learning your feelings and how to share them is as essential as learning how to read and write and do math.
My colleagues at Hawley Elementary and neighbors across Newtown are knowers. We know our relationships with ourselves, others, and our community at large are what build a stronger, more resilient foundation for learning, thriving, and connecting.
It’s why we know the value of O’Playsis.
What I find most valuable about the Life is Good Kids Foundation’s Playmaker Program is the intentional focus on social-emotional learning. On the emphasis on the power of relationships, and the practical and tactical tools they offer adults, so that we, as teachers and caretakers, can create optimal spaces for our kids to safely learn and lovingly thrive.
So, that we, as adults, can create optimal spaces for ourselves to safely learn and lovingly thrive.
The Playmaker Program reminds us that we can’t share what we don’t have – and here at Hawley Elementary, and at home here in Newtown, we know there’s a lot of good to share.
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!
