Nearly ten years ago, Scarlett Lewis lost her son Jesse in the Sandy Hook school shooting. This past March, as part of SEL Day, Lewis spoke about her journey from loss to action.
Her realization was that social-emotional learning (SEL) programs can help build school cultures that reduce bullying and violence, and nurture emotionally intelligent, empathetic kids to grow up to be successful leaders, workers, spouses, and community members. She concluded that the young man who killed the children and teachers at Sandy Hook would never have done so had he experienced SEL in his schools when growing up.
She went on to found the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safer and more loving communities through no cost Character Social Emotional Development programs (CSED) that are suited for all stages of life.
The good news is that now there are evidenced-based SEL programs like Lewis's which are readily available for implementation in school and community programs during the summer and year-round. There are also a multitude of free programs and tools for parents to use at home as well.
Here are two free and timely resources for parents:
PBS Kids has an excellent resource, Helping Children with Tragic Events.
EQuip Our Kids!, a national nonprofit SEL awareness and advocacy organization, has compiled a free family emotional health toolkit for parents and caregivers to download.
No comments:
Post a Comment