5 People You Meet In Heaven

Mitch Albom wrote the book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  His book was transformed into a movie of the same name.  In this book, Eddie, a war veteran, feels that his life has been meaningless as he has spent his days in the dull routine of repairing the rides at a seaside amusement park.  However, when he arrives in heaven he meets five people for whom he has had a profound impact.  He also meets a large group of folks who he affected less directly than the others. 

 Have you ever wondered what 5 people you might meet in heaven—people for whom you have made a difference.  Perhaps one of them will be your own mentor and role model.  While they certainly impacted your life, you changed them as well.  Each of you recognized your own unique gifts and talents because of the connection.  We know that every young person needs and deserves a positive role model and mentor.  It is essential as we all struggle to navigate a world that is yet to be determined.  We live in a time of ambiguity and a positive role model and mentor can be the most essential part of staying grounded and on track.

Like Eddie in the story, you might also meet a large number of people that you have impacted more indirectly.  While you might not be able to be a mentor or role model for the youth directly, you can support the efforts of those who work with youth daily.  Your financial support will help Entrusted Legacy provide training and coaching for these dedicated youth workers.  We need you and the children need you.  You can make a difference in the life of a child.  Donate at www.entrustedlegacy.com.  

Leaving a Legacy—Why Is That Important?

When you are young one of the last things you are thinking about is leaving a legacy.  Your focus is on the here and now—the living you are trying to make and the lifestyle you are eager to create.  What if there was a way to also create a legacy that you probably wouldn’t even notice?  There is!  Did you know that if you began investing a dollar a day when you are 21, you will have every opportunity to give over $20,000 to support a cause and something you believe in during your lifetime?  And when your investment combines with the investments of others, the power of working together makes a difference.

Entrusted Legacy gives you a way to make a difference in the lives of youth by seeing to it that the adults who work with them are well prepared to be a positive role model and mentor.  Every investment of $60 has the potential of reaching over 300 youth, and that is a conservative estimate of the ripples that are set in motion.  Begin building your legacy today.  Invest on our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org 

Donate, Change Today!

The difference between yesterday and today’s youth is that today, many youths lack the positive role models to help them recognize their unique potential. I’m sure sometime in your life, you have had a mentor of some sort guide you to the successful adult that you are today. Why not continue this trend of guidance with today’s youth?

Entrusted Legacy, a non-profit dedicated to finding the necessary resources to help adults become mentor’s to today’s youth, wants to ensure that every youth has someone they can look up to. And not just someone who makes a brief appearance in their lives, but rather, somebody who will invest in today’s youth by helping them recognize their potential and guiding them so they can grow into successful adults.

There are many ways that you, a reader of this article, can help Entrusted Legacy fulfill our commitment to today’s youth. Some of the ways that you can help might be to just share this article with colleagues. You can also inform somebody about the cause by directing them to our Facebook Page and help us raise 250 likes, follow us on Twitter and help us gain 200 followers, volunteer your time, OR you can donate on our Indiegogo's Donor Page or our Website's Donor Page.

Because there are so many different ways to get involved, you are in no way obliged to donate any monetary items to our non-profit organization. But, I feel motivated to tell you that the monetary donation we ask from you will neither bankrupt nor burden you. Rather, the donation we ask for is just this, a donation. If you feel inspired, motivated, interested, or driven to donate, let it be from your own volition. If you are drawing blanks as to what is “appropriate” for a donation, allow me to help you by informing you how your donation invests in the success of youths.

·         $50 donation allows 1 staff member a full year’s worth of curriculum. This is the equivalent to $4.57/month OR 1 Venti Starbuck’s Latte/month!

·         $200 provides a staff member with access to the staff development training program for the year

·         $500 provides an entire school site staff with the staff development program and curriculum for the year.  

During these past few years alone, education across the nation has experienced many drawbacks. The decline in funding for education has come with many disadvantages such as: fewer staff members, 

cutting after-school programs, getting rid of art programs, an inability to offer necessary school supplies, and even forcing some schools to shut down completely. While your donation to Entrusted Legacy will not solve the education crisis in America, it will help.

Entrusted Legacy, as previously stated, has a commitment to make a positive impact on the youth in California and programs across the nation. Your donation, therefore, would help Entrusted Legacy by funding training and supporting the adults who work with today’s youths in these programs. If you are not convinced of our purpose yet, think of this—local after-school programs provide youth with a safe place to be after they have been released from school.

When a school experiences a budget cut, the first programs to go are usually after-school programs. In order to operate at a high capacity and have a strong sustainable program, staff development implementation is paramount to making an after-school program into a long lasting, thriving, legacy.We can't do it alone. With your help, you can support this mission to provide youth with well-equipped, positive adult role model.

Entrusted Legacy-IRS Tax #27-2049633

Mentoring

There is a lot of debate about the difference between mentoring and coaching, according to Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring, "Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximize their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be."

The MentorSET website posts this additional information:  “Mentoring is a powerful personal development and empowerment tool. It is an effective way of helping people to progress in their careers and is becoming increasing popular as its potential is realized. It is a partnership between two people (mentor and mentee) normally working in a similar field or sharing similar experiences. It is a helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect.

A mentor is a guide who can help the mentee to find the right direction and who can help them to develop solutions to career issues. Mentors rely upon having had similar experiences to gain an empathy with the mentee and an understanding of their issues. Mentoring provides the mentee with an opportunity to think about career options and progress.

A mentor should help the mentee to believe in herself and boost her confidence. A mentor should ask questions and challenge, while providing guidance and encouragement. Mentoring allows the mentee to explore new ideas in confidence. It is a chance to look more closely at yourself, your issues, opportunities and what you want in life. Mentoring is about becoming more self-aware, taking responsibility for your life and directing your life in the direction you decide, rather than leaving it to chance.”

As an organization that believes in the power of mentorship, Entrusted Legacy believes that there is certainly an element of coaching that goes into mentoring and also into being a positive role model.  However, we believe that the key ingredients of empathy and empowerment take mentoring a step further.  Gradual Release of Responsibility is a learning theory that for me defines the mentor-mentee relationship.  If you consider Gradual Release as a teeter-totter, in the beginning, the mentor is holding the mentee aloft and gradually, over time, releases the “hold” to the mentee, all the time supporting and scaffolding the release.  In the end, the mentee is empowered to handle it, whatever the “it” may be, on his/her own. 

Please join with Entrusted Legacy as we work to support the development of positive role models and mentors.  The ripples of this work will know no boundaries.  Contact us at support@entrustedlegacy.org

What’s Your Point of View?

What are you passionate about?  What is it that you want to accomplish?  I saw a clever license plate the other day and it shared this message:

LV♥NLOL

After pondering the message for a while, I realized it said, “Live, Love, and Laugh Out Loud.”  I would agree with this sentiment, but I would also want to add “LAL” or Leave a Legacy.  I think it is important that each of us leave the world better than when we arrived, in other words leave a legacy that will support the realization of possibilities in our fellow humans. 

Entrusted Legacy has a passion to ensure that everyone has a positive role model and mentor.  When I reflect on my own life I think about those special people who acted as a guide for me simply by being who they were and then being willing to share that with me.  They expected nothing in return and took pleasure from being the mentor and role model that I needed.  Entrusted Legacy strives to ensure that those who are in a position to be that positive role model and mentor, those who work with youth in the space afterschool, are well prepared to take the helm.  If you don’t have time to be a mentor yourself, leave a legacy that will support both the mentor and the mentee.  Contact us at support@centrustedlegacy.org or visit our website for more information.  www.entrustedlegacy.org

Entrusted Legacy’s Work

Entrusted Legacy’s bottom line is to holistically train adults to be personally and professionally effective.  ETL’s efforts are focused on adults who work with youth. Developing positive role models who effectively demonstrate the capacity, character and competency to practice the advanced citizenship required in a global society, is our quest. Entrusted Legacy is committed to the notion that “it takes a village” to positively influence the choices our next generation of adults make. From pre-schoolers to young adults, we must provide opportunities for youth to prepare and practice for the real adult world.  

When youth are involved with a well-trained role model and mentor, they are being prepared to be a self-sufficient adult who can build positive relationships with family, friends, and colleagues, and practice advanced citizenship by giving back to the community. Educating youth by example makes the metamorphosis of becoming a self-reflective adult an empowering instead of an enabling process. Just as caterpillars turn into butterflies, our youth will turn into adults, and our efforts will help them to become contributing members of society—teachers, ministers, bankers, construction workers, doctors and nurses, entertainers, service-industry professionals, and certainly parents of the next generation.

With the support of Southern California Edison and Consult 4 Kids, Entrusted Legacy has provided the DowneyASPIRE program with both online and face-to-face training.  We captured this training through pictures.  

Each person has a unique contribution to make to the world and certainly people cannot be duplicated. However, this ETL system of education, complete with best practices employed to unleash the power of youth, can be endlessly replicated. For us, it is not a question of “if” you get involved, but rather a question of “how” will you get involved. Entrust your legacy to us. Volunteer your time, give financially or introduce us to others who might be interested in volunteering time, giving financially or better yet, do all three! Impact the lives of youth everywhere. The greatest education in the world without the ability to implement successfully is futile. Join us as we empower current and future citizens.

Check out our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org or by contacting us at support@entrustedlegacy.org

Everyone Needs A Mentor

Entrusted Legacy’s mission is to see to it the people who work with kids in afterschool programs have the training and development they need to be a positive role model and mentor.  The importance of positive role models has been documented.  The Health and Guidance Organization says “Role models are highly important for us psychologically, helping to guide us through life during our development, to make important decisions that affect the outcome of our lives, and to help us find happiness in later life.”  

"The Health Guidance for Better Health "  They go on to say, “A good role model should be someone hard working, creative, free thinking and moral.”  At Entrusted Legacy we believe that we can connect people to the training they need to be successful. 

Role modeling and mentoring go hand in hand.  Mentors provide guidance, inspiration and an "Engine"  that catapults the student farther and faster than [he/she] would by [his/her]s own means. To be a mentor is to leave a legacy to a fellow human being and hence to society at large. Mentoring has long been a tradition of humanity. It is the way we learn naturally.”  Mirna Santana "The Importance of Having a Mentor"

The United States Justice Department agrees.  Public Service announcements tout the importance of becoming a mentor to the youth in your own neighborhood and community.  Eric Holder, Attorney General states, “Join with the Justice Department in defending childhood.” 

We encourage you to join with Entrusted Legacy to sponsor afterschool professionals as they become the mentors and role models that they would like to be and our youth deserve.  Check out our website at "Entrusted Legacy" or contact us a support@entrustedlegacy.org

Everyone Needs A Mentor

At Entrusted Legacy we believe in the “Big E,” that is “Everyone.”  We believe that if everyone does a little, if everyone learns how to be a positive role model and mentor, that we can change the world.  We know that being with an effective role model and mentor can change lives.  We know this because we can think about our own role models and mentors, both past and present, and the things we’ve learned from them.

Interestingly, in the play, Wicked, there is a lyric that captures the importance of having a positive role model and mentor:

“I know I’m who I am today because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun,

Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood…

Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.”

When we think about leaving a legacy, what better way to do this than to have someone say, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.”  Mentoring is like throwing a rock into a placid lake.  The ripples begin in the center where the rock plunged, but the effects of that plunge can stretch to the edges of the lake, making an impact all along the way.  This is how we leave a legacy—we “Pay It Forward!” Let us know how you are being a positive role model and mentor for youth.  Share your stories with us at support@entrustedlegacy.org