Kids Helping Others

Source: VIP Pet Services

By Sam Piha

When my son was six, he suddenly decided that he did not want to visit the city of San Francisco anymore. After a discussion, he explained that seeing the under-fed pets of the homeless made him feel sad. I asked, “What can we do to help them?” He suggested that we could fill ziplock bags with pet food and pass out to the homeless with pets, and we did! He later volunteered with a local animal shelter to help with their “adopt a pet” events. It was through these experiences that he learned the value of helping others. Today, as an adult DJ, he regularly sponsors canned food drives to benefit his local food bank. 

This blog focuses on the value of kids helping others.

HOW KIDS LEARN TO HELP OTHERS 

According to Google AI, a more detailed explanation of how young people learn to help others includes:

• “Modeling and Role-Playing: Children learn by watching the adults around them, so parents and caregivers should model caring behaviors, such as helping others, being kind, and showing empathy. 
• Empathy and Perspective-Taking: Teaching children to understand and share the feelings of others is crucial. This can be done through reading books with relatable characters, discussing situations where people may be feeling sad or frustrated, and encouraging them to imagine how others might fee.
• Encouraging Small Acts of Kindness: Start with simple acts of kindness, like sharing toys, helping with chores, or offering a compliment. As they become more comfortable, they can gradually take on more challenging tasks.
• Providing Opportunities to Give: Organize family volunteer activities, donate items to charity, or participate in community events where children can help others. 
• Discussing the Importance of Helping Others: Talk about the positive impact of helping others and how it makes people feel. Discuss the importance of kindness and compassion and encourage children to think about ways they can make a difference in their community. 
• Celebrating Acts of Kindness: Acknowledge and praise children's efforts to help others. This reinforces positive behaviors and encourages them to continue helping. 
• Encouraging Sharing and Cooperation: Teach children the value of sharing and cooperation. This can be done through games, activities, and everyday situations where they need to work together to achieve a common goal. 
• Focusing on the Joy of Giving: Help children understand that helping others can be a rewarding experience. Encourage them to focus on the positive feelings they get from helping others, rather than the potential for praise or reward. 
• Making Giving a Part of Everyday Life: Integrate acts of kindness and helping others into daily routines. This can be as simple as helping a neighbor carry grocery or offering to help a friend with their homework.” [i]

Source: www.pexels.com

BENEFITS ACCRUE WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE ACTIVELY LEND A HELPING HAND

There are many benefits that come when young people actively help others. They include: 

• “Generating Optimism: When children see that they can make a difference in the world around them, they renew their sense of hope and learn to face challenges with persistence and optimism.
• Building Empathy: Engaging in volunteer opportunities can make a powerful and lasting impression on children by helping them to understand and show concern for others’ feelings, circumstances and needs
• Discovering a Sense of Community: Local volunteer opportunities offer kids a unique chance to build a stronger connection to their neighbors and communities, instilling a sense of pride and belonging.
• Accepting Civic Responsibility: As children also build a stronger connection to community, they can also begin to understand their role within it, developing social awareness and taking on civic responsibility. 
• Expressing Gratitude: When children give to those who are in need, they learn the importance of being grateful for what they have and for their ability to help others.
• Gaining a Sense of Purpose: When kids are given the opportunity to choose how they’d like to contribute to a cause, like helping to clean up a park or collecting items for donation, they benefit from having some agency over their experience and find a strong sense of purpose in the work they do.
• Taking on New Experiences: Volunteering can help children build character by introducing them to unfamiliar experiences that challenge them to build new skills.
• Boosting Self-Esteem: Whether they contribute to a cause virtually or in person, as young volunteers help provide solutions to problems, they learn that they have the power to effect change, boosting their confidence and building their self-esteem.
• Learning to Collaborate: Many volunteer experiences offer the chance to engage in teamwork, learn from others’ varied perspectives and build friendships.” [ii]

For a full briefing paper on kids helping others, click here.

 

Demand 21st Century Community Learning Center Funds 

Be Released by the White House/OMB

GO TO: https://win.newmode.net/afterschoolalliance/releasethefunds

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END NOTES:
[i] Google AI, How Do Young People Learn to Help Others?
[ii] National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, 10 Lessons Children Can Learn by Volunteering

The Wonder of Being Kind

Source: Character.org

Sixth grade student, Aishi Roy, wrote this essay, which was originally published by Character.org’s The Laws of Life essay contest. This contest encourages elementary, middle, and high school students to reflect and write about a core value that means the most to them – and why.

...

It all started one Monday during lunchtime as I was scouting for my usual group and they were nowhere to be seen in the cafeteria.  

When I noticed a new girl sitting alone at lunch. Her name was Anne, and she seemed shy and nervous. I remembered how it felt to be the new kid in school since I have moved a lot, so I decided to go over and asked “Mind, if I sit here?” Anne nodded. I asked her where she is from. Anne replied, “From Russia.” 

I realized that she was not only new to school but also to the USA. It was a much bigger shift for her than I thought it would be. At that moment, I thought I could develop a new friendship; in this way, I would learn something new and help her with things around school. For the next couple of days, we started hanging out during lunch, and I would help her with small things. It was like a chain reaction of kindness, all because one person took the time to show a little compassion. All of my friends started doing the same. 

It felt like being nice and kind is like having a magic touch that can truly transform the world for the better. It's not a word, it's a way of living. Just imagine if everyone treated each other with kindness, what a world that would be! 

I have found that in my school life, when I am helping a friend with their studies, lending an ear to someone in need of support, or consoling someone who is feeling down, kindness has the ability to make an impact on people's lives. When we extend warmth to others it motivates them to reciprocate in kind. 

Moreover, kindness isn't about how we interact with others; it also encompasses how we treat ourselves. It's vital to extend kindness towards ourselves—to practice self-compassion and self-care. This entails being gentle with ourselves, forgiving our missteps and acknowledging our value. By being kind to ourselves we enhance our ability to display kindness towards others. 

In essence kindness is indeed a strength that resides within each of us. It holds the potential to transform the world through acts of goodwill. As a 12-year-old I hold the magic power to impact those around me positively by doing small acts of kindness. 

Let’s spread kindness everywhere we go and see how the world transforms into a joyful place, for everyone. Keep in mind kindness isn't merely an action we take; it's a reflection of ourselves. Lastly, kindness has this ability to spread from one person to another like wildfire.

MORE ABOUT…

Aishi Roy is a 6th grader at Rose Hill Middle School, Washington.

 

 

The Laws of Life essay contest sponsored by Character.org encourages elementary, middle, and high school students to reflect and write about a core value that means the most to them – and why.

Character.org is a non-partisan organization that advocates for character.

It is comprised of educators, researchers, business and civic leaders who care deeply about the vital role that character will play in our future. Their worldwide network empowers people of all ages to practice and model core values that shape our hearts, minds, and choices. Their mission is to provide global leadership, voice, and resources for developing character in families, schools, and organizations. 

Youth Write About Kindness

Source: www.pexels.com

The Laws of Life essay contest, sponsored by Character.org, encourages middle school and high school students to reflect and write about a core value that means the most to them – and why. We are committed to promoting youth voices, thus below we offer 2 youth essays recognized in the Laws of Life essay contest that focus on the importance of kindness. Note: Character.org is accepting student essays which they can submit for the 2024 contest over the summer. To learn more, click here

Kindness (Makes Me Happy)

By Addison, Grade 6 – Lasalle Springs Middle School – MO

What would our world be without kindness? What if nobody ever held the door open for you? What if the cashiers never said, “Have a nice day?” We often take these small acts of kindness for granted, but we don’t realize how sad our world would be without them. It seems normal for these small acts of kindness to be done by some people, but what if we all did some? We should all commit to doing random acts of kindness every day, because even the smallest things can lift someone else's spirits. One act of kindness that is simple and genuine is compliments. 

Everyone thinks of compliments in their head every day. Just imagine if every time you thought of a compliment you said it out loud to the person you were thinking about. Not only does kindness make others happy, but it can make you happier too. Think about the last time you did something nice for someone. It probably made them feel really good, and their gratitude probably made you feel good too. If everyone committed to being kind, our world would be so much happier. 

I really only started paying attention to kindness about a year ago, but it has become a really important characteristic to me. I started noticing all the opportunities everyone has every day to be kind. After that, I realized how happy it made me feel to say thank you to bus drivers and teachers, compliment others, and just being nicer overall. It makes me happy to make others happy. I love seeing people smile when I say or do something nice for them. It has been so eye opening to understand how important kindness is, and I believe that everyone has the chance to accomplish this feeling too. Kindness isn’t hard, and it’s free. Just think about how if everyone was kind, how happy our world would be.

Source: www.pexels.com

Kindness Means the World

By Lila, Grade 7 – Pelham Middle School – NY

It’s hard to believe that this society in which we have family, friends, peers, co-workers, and lovers can be so messy and cruel. There are bullies, litterers, abusers, controllers, and so many others. These people are the ones who start fights, make others insecure or scared, and make the world a worse place. Others just stand around and watch it happen, either because they don’t care, they are scared to step in, or they don’t understand what’s happening. 

However, there’s quite an easy way to fix these problems that ruin the Earth and the living things on it. It’s called kindness. Kindness, by definition, is “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate”. This can be shown in many different ways, whether you’re listening to a friend when they need support or helping sick animals in the ocean. No act of kindness is less important than the other, as they change the world for the better, no matter how slow the change is or unimportant it may seem. But not everyone has the means or energy to do this, much less even think of it. 

Source: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/

Those are the ones who break society’s standards and the people in it, uncaring and bitter. They may reply to a post on Facebook, calling someone dumb, or they may attempt to hurt someone in ways unthinkable to the average person. Even acts that seem like they mean nothing change something, even by a little bit. In order to see this world thrive, to see it become a better place with people looking at each other with care and beauty and not disgust or horror, society needs to drop their selfish ways. The world needs to know what kindness feels like in order for the world to improve. 

Source: How Do Elementary Students Show Kindness to Others?

With kindness, people wouldn’t get judged for being different, wildlife would get more care, people wouldn’t get abused or teased, standards would lower, the environment would be cleaner, and so much more. This is why kindness is so important to me. With kindness, the whole world would change for the better, as long as everyone has it and has the desire to act upon it. Even one person doing the wrong thing could lead to the victim taking it out on other innocent people, becoming a chain. But if everyone could be kind and see what others and our Earth are going through, they would see the impact of their decisions. The world isn’t like this yet, but it may be one day. With one step at a time, the human population could become better and better, but it will take a while. As long as other people hold the same beliefs as me, my dream may become a reality. Everything counts, no matter how small the action may seem.          

MORE ABOUT...

Character.org is a non-partisan organization that advocates for character. Character.org is comprised of educators, researchers, business and civic leaders who care deeply about the vital role that character will play in our future. Their worldwide network empowers people of all ages to practice and model core values that shape our hearts, minds, and choices. Their mission is to provide global leadership, voice, and resources for developing character in families, schools, and organizations. 

Help impact the lives of young people in the Lahaina burn zone. In Aug. 2023, Maui experienced one of the worst wildfires in Hawaiian history. 

The How Kids Learn Foundation is sponsoring a bake sale to benefit the Maui Family YMCA and provide afterschool activities for Lahaina youth.

To learn more or donate virtually to our bake sale, click the link below.

https://bit.ly/49mknyX

A Youth Leader Speaks Out on Kindness and the Youth Mental Health Crisis

Source: Simply Wholehearted

By Sam Piha

Meet Axel Perez. He has been a youth leader and activist since he was 15 years old. He is now 20 and Co-Founder/ President of Simply Wholehearted. Axel recently participated in a How Kids Learn Foundation webinar entitled “Promoting Kindness in Afterschool Programs” and will be featured in a future webinar on March 15, 2023 entitled, “Youth Led Efforts to Improve Mental Health.” 

We interviewed Axel Perez about his non-profit, kindness and youth mental health and below are his responses.

Q: Briefly, what is your story? How did you start? 
A: The idea of Simply Wholehearted was present way before it became the organization it is now. In my sophomore year of high school, at the age of fifteen, I started a podcast named “This Teenage Life,” where I discussed real-life issues teens experience as young adults. When I realized I wasn’t going to be a teen forever, I changed the route of my podcast, rebranded to “Simply Axel” and began talking about societal issues, like the separation of families at our borders. Running the podcast with this type of content, I didn’t feel as passionate as I wanted to be. At this point in my life, I had served my fourth year on Student Council (ASB) as Student Body President, Southern Regional Director for the California Association of Student Leaders. I found myself surrounded by leadership but lost when it came to my podcast, and that’s when it clicked! I should make leadership content. 

After realizing I was passionate about leadership and had the experience, knowledge, and resources around me, I began sharing my vision and working alongside outstanding individuals to create leadership development curricula and activities. This focus on leadership led us to “Simply Wholehearted”. Simply Wholehearted wouldn’t have come to life without the support of Magaly Barajas and the EduCare Foundation team.  

At this point, “Simply Wholehearted” became a leadership organization. Leadership groups in our community struggle to afford leadership development services that other privileged groups get to attend or receive benefits from, which is why I made it my goal to offer these services to historically excluded students. Since then, we have served over two thousand students for free through several workshops, private training, and leadership curriculum. Our podcast offers topics on leadership with a supplementary worksheet for students to tag along, and our program, Empower Wholehearted, provides a groundbreaking curriculum, interactive activities, and wholehearted connections that will leave teams empowered and expand their reach and impact.

Q: Can you describe your non-profit, Simply Wholehearted? 
A: Simply Wholehearted is a non-profit organization providing leadership opportunities to historically excluded students in low-income communities, creating game-changers who live, lead, and inspire. Our goal and mission are to provide equal access leadership with no borders because we believe that leadership shouldn’t be exclusive to specific communities. 

Simply Wholehearted was founded based on my experience with leadership in high school. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to get involved with several organizations, but my peers did not have the same opportunities. After realizing communities like mine were not receiving leadership development, curriculum, conferences, or leadership opportunities, I decided to change that factor and give back to my community in a way that would create a generational impact.  

Q: It seems we live in a time in which meanness is in vogue. Do you agree with this? And why do you think this is so? 
A: I agree that we are living in a time with high stakes regarding hate, meanness, and pain. I believe this is due to the political, racial, and gender divide that our country is facing. We have forgotten that we are all human and have emotions underneath our beliefs. During the beginning stages of COVID, we learned how to become compassionate and empathetic as we were all experiencing the same emotions. However, as COVID became prolonged and we began to go back to our everyday lives, we forgot how to be compassionate. We no longer made an importance to be kind and understanding towards others.

Q: What can we do in afterschool to prevent meanness?
A: Afterschool enrichment is vital to students. An essential factor that afterschool programs should focus on is ensuring their programs offer students a life-learning skill as a takeaway. Along with enrichment, teaching students skills like leadership, integrity, compassion, and gratitude will help improve not only the lives and characters of these students but the culture and climate of your campus and community.

Q: How do you define Kindness? 
A: To me, kindness is the act of being empathetic, caring, and loving towards those around you and with whom you interact. To be kind is to be human and to come from a place of understanding when coming across others, leaving everyone with a positive experience. 

Q: What can we do in afterschool to promote kindness? 
A: Afterschool programs can prompt kindness by creating campaigns with pass-it-on cards or random acts of kindness where you randomly show appreciation to staff and/or students by giving away items like popcorn, candy, snow cones, etc. The main idea is to accomplish an act of kindness that will randomly make someone’s day. We may not know what everyone is going through, but we can show gratitude and appreciation toward them. 

Q: How is kindness related to youth leadership? 
A: Kindness is a trait that leaders must practice. When you become a leader, you are no longer on the frontline producing the work. You are building the team that is producing the work. Kindness is one of the many traits that will earn you respect from your peers which will create a stronger bond and impact your organization in a more meaningful way. 

Source: Simply Wholehearted

Q: What mental health changes have you seen in youth due to COVID? 
A: Post-pandemic, we saw the youth struggle with several mental health issues. For youth, it is vital for them to interact with peers and society, as well as explore their surroundings and challenge their abilities. None of this was possible during the pandemic, and still, to this day, we find restrictions with the acknowledgment that COVID is still around. This is how the youth became impacted. 

Mental health challenges I continue to see in our youth due to COVID-19 are physical insecurities, anti-social tendencies, anxiety, depression, and many others. These challenges presented themselves as we were stuck at home with no social interaction and living our lives behind the screens of our devices. The lasting effects are some that we are still dealing with today and are challenged to overcome.  

Q: How can youth be involved in improving the mental health of their peers? How does this interact with youth leadership? 
A: Youth can get involved by becoming advocates of change and mental health. It is vital that youth speak up and destigmatize mental health, but most importantly, amongst their peers. Sharing their stories and what has helped improve their mental health is a great start, as well as creating school-wide campaigns to recognize mental health and share resources with the school community. Reaching out to school staff, district services, and community organizations and collaboratively bringing them all together to create an awareness event creates an opportunity for youth leadership, especially when it’s student-run and organized.

 

MORE ABOUT…

Axel Perez is the co-founder and president of Simply Wholehearted, an Expanded Learning Program Lead for EduCare Foundation and an educator from Lynwood, CA, who is dedicated to helping students receive equal opportunities in leadership. Axel, a former participant of EduCare programs, now advocates for the important impact afterschool makes on youth. Axel is an inspiring organizer, activist, and creative leader committed to make sure leadership has no borders.

The Radical Power of Kindness and Joy in Afterschool Programs

By Sam Piha

It seems we live in a time in which meanness is in vogue, whether it's social media, political discourse, cyber bullying, violent actions, or hate crimes. To learn more we interviewed Stu Semigran, Co-Founder and President of the EduCare Foundation. His responses are below.

Q: Do you agree that meanness is in vogue? And why do you think this is so?

A: It certainly appears as if discord, againstness, and striking back is increasingly evident in our world.  Many people are feeling threatened and fearful with a great need for power, to gain control, and stake out positions of being “right” and claiming others as “wrong”. Righteous judgment is on the loose. On one level, people are dealing with more stress and are looking to feel more secure. One misdirected approach for establishing a sense of personal security may be to stake out a position, hold on tight and defend it, and then combat anything that might shake that position- threaten that false sense of inner security.

Source: www.pexels.com

It takes a strong sense of self (apart from our righteous beliefs) and a solid foundation to withstand and be receptive to other points of view. Building that deeper core of self-awareness and self-acceptance leads to a freedom to step into a world where opposing opinions, beliefs, and points of view are not threatening. 

Building greater self-acceptance and self-compassion opens the way to more readily respond to others with more acceptance and kindness. The path out from meanness- to tolerance, to understanding, and to compassion- is each person’s responsibility. Educating towards that is the aim of Heartset® education.

Q: How would you define “Kindness”?

A: Kindness is a generosity of heart. It is expression of loving in action. It has infinite expressions. It may be a mere thought, a wish, or prayer for another. It is a willingness to risk sharing love and compassion and perhaps being rejected or misunderstood. Kindness can be expressed quietly or very demonstratively. It may be seen or go unnoticed. Nonetheless, it is setting a tone, a pervasive foundation of caring and unconditional love. 

Kindness provides the encouragement and the fortitude to keep going when life is tough by knowing that you are valued, supported, and cared for. 

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”- Desmond Tutu

 

Q: What can we do in afterschool to prevent meanness? What can we do in afterschool to promote kindness?

A: As adults we can promote kindness by taking care of ourselves, expressing kindness with others, encouraging our students to treat themselves kindly, and by teaching kindness activities on a regular basis so it becomes a way of relating. There are many excellent resources for teaching compassion, empathy, and kindness. One, developed through EduCare, is Making the Best of Me: A handbook for student excellence and self-esteem, that includes over 200 easy-to-use, engaging activities for afterschool and school day classes.

Community service projects are terrific opportunities for students to build the lifestyle habit of expressing kindness. Practicing acts of kindness individually and as a group or class are impactful, joyful ways to begin to redirect a pattern of meanness to one of acceptance and compassion. Acts of kindness and community building become important parts of the kindness formula. The mindset and heartset of giving and receiving kindness set a personal habit and lay a solid foundation for students to continue to develop throughout their lives.)

Source: EduCare, Lynwood, Ca.

Q: Can you give an example of kindness between youth and their peers or community?

A: One example is the Take Action Campaign (TAC), a far-reaching initiative launched in 2008 by Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD’s) Beyond the Bell and facilitated by EduCare and several community partners. TAC gives thousands of high school students leadership opportunities by celebrating the arts, serving their schools & their local communities, and empowering them to mentor their peers. Projects have included volunteering at homeless shelters & food banks, environmental cleanups, tree planting, food and clothing drives, unity building events, and student led advocacy campaigns around issues important to them. In school year 2022-23, students from 37 LAUSD high schools are participating in TAC.

Q: You recently wrote a book Heartset Education: A Way of Living and Learning. Can you say a little about the book and whether it would be useful for afterschool leaders?

A: Students need to have their minds ready to learn. However, to become active learners, a lot of our young people need more than that. They don’t just need a new mindset; they need a new heartset. When the heart is set in a good place, the mind is open and receptive. When heart is troubled, the mind is cluttered. So heart and mind have to go hand in hand. 

Q: Can you describe what the Educare Foundation does? 

A: EduCare Foundation’s mission is “to inspire and support young people in empowering themselves to become responsible citizens, courageous and compassionate leaders, and live their dreams.” In 1987, EduCare piloted the ACE (Achievement and Commitment to Excellence) Program in one Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) middle school. ACE focuses on the social-emotional learning (SEL) elements of character development, personal management, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal skills. EduCare’s flagship ACE Program became the forerunner to the educational movements that today bear many names: Character Education, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), and Trauma-Informed Teaching. To learn more about EduCare’s efforts, check out their website here.

Q: Why did you start this organization? 

A: Why EduCare? It was a chance, an opportunity, a pressing need that I saw to do something that I thought was missing in education- to address an obvious need of my students who were coming into my classroom when I was a middle school teacher in LA. I could see that they were lost in many ways. For many, their wholistic needs, not just physical needs, but their emotional, mental and social needs as well, we're not being addressed and attended to.

I wanted them to be healthier and happier and be in a place to succeed academically. I felt they needed to develop greater self-awareness and personal development tools so they could believe in themselves, ignite their desire, and gain the skills for creating a successful and fulfilling life. I wanted the chance to touch their hearts, open their minds, and hopefully assist them in empowering themselves to transform the trajectory of their lives. 

Michael Funk

“As I drove up to the school, the blighted neighborhood was giving off all the signals of distress. But when I walked into the school, it was like when the Wizard of Oz turned from black and white to color! You could feel the positive energy, the love. I have been around high quality after school and youth development work for over 25 years. What I witnessed while visiting the ACE Program was some of the most transformational and powerful moments I have ever seen.”- Michael Funk, Director of Expanded Learning Division, California Department of Education 

[You can view a Zoom webinar featuring Stu on this topic, by clicking here.]

MORE ABOUT…

Stu Semigran is the Co-Founder and President of the EduCare Foundation. With over 35 years of experience as an educator, he has facilitated thousands of youth, professionals, educators and parents in Heartset® education, SEL, leadership development, and afterschool management. His new book, Heartset® Education: A Way of Living and Learning, has been rated a #1 Amazon New Release Bestseller. His previous book, Making the Best of Me: A Handbook for Student Excellence and Self-Esteem, is used in schools worldwide. He was recognized in 2012 as a David Chow Humanitarian Award Foundation recipient for his service to youth. 

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