Rediscovering Hope—Our Greatest Teaching Strategy

Richard Curwin wrote the book, Rediscovering Hope—Our Greatest Teaching Strategy, over two decades ago, but the message is still relevant.  While I agree that “hope is not a strategy,” I do believe that it is an essential ingredient for people to move from where they currently are into a brighter and more meaningful future. 

In his book, Curwin spends some time discussing the meaning of “at risk.”  We all have our definition for this, but it boils down to youth being “at risk” of dropping out of school and not achieving their full potential.  Instead of spending time on what “at risk” is, Curwin devoted space to what causes youth to be “at risk” beyond the typical things we identify.  He begins by sharing that youth begin to be “at risk” the first time they feel unwelcome at school or in an afterschool program.  They begin to be “at risk” when they feel that there has been an attack on their dignity. They sense other youth are valued and appreciated while they are not.  They start to be “at risk” when they are labeled and cynicism sets in when youth believes, “What’s the use?  No matter how hard I try, I’m not good enough.”  Once the seed has been planted, the feelings and actions that become synonymous with “at risk” begin to manifest, the spiral down speeds up.

What can we do to mitigate this spiral and transport youth from “at risk” to “in opportunity?”  We have to believe that afterschool programs are for kids, all kids, and that when we support them it begins first by building a relationship with them.  We must let youth know that we value them for who they are and that we believe they have something important to contribute.  We must help them begin to HOPE again.

Hope is not one of those “one size fits all” things.  There are different kinds of hope.  Hope can mean dreaming or wishing for something to happen that is beyond our control.  This kind of hope is like passive perseverance.  In other words, I hope this happens but I’m not really doing anything about it to make it so.  When we cling to this type of hope if something concrete and wonderful happens, then we can consider ourselves fortunate or maybe even lucky.  A second kind of hope is based on faith, the deep down inside you feeling that things will turn out all right.  This kind of hope too, is beyond our control with the exception that we believe it can be so.

The third kind of hope involves taking some sort of action—or being proactively perseverant  I think of the story of former astronaut Jose Hernandez who applied 12 times to be an astronaut----the first 6 times with passive persistence and the last six with proactive persistence.  When hope resembles this, it becomes actionable, and with actionable hope we have great possibilities.  One person commented, “People with hope chase rainbows and sometimes catch them.  Those without hope see little reason to try.  They do not believe that rainbows can be caught and that even if a rainbow could be caught, it would be nothing more than colored mist.”  Positive role models and mentors give substance to rainbows. Hope gives youth the courage to be a rainbow chaser. 

Please join with Entrusted Legacy in promoting hope; hope that is about forming a positive future.  It is proactive when we begin to orient ourselves to this future we have imagined.  It is the beginning of our future self and of being convinced we have the capacity to become so much more than we are.  If you are not able to work directly with youth to support them as a role model and mentor, then support someone who is.  Invest in the future by investing with Entrusted Legacy.  Contact us at support@entrustedlegacy.org or by going to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org  

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 

Many Hands Make Hard Work Light

What do hands, synergy and recycling have in common?  How do these three distinct things connect. 

When I was young, my mother used to tell my sister and me, “many hands make hard work light.”  We knew that those weren’t her words originally, I’m not sure how, but we got the message.  She expected us to work together and help each other out whether that was folding clothes, weeding the garden or doing the nightly dishes.  Many times she joined her hands with ours to make the work lighter for all of us. 

Steven Covey would share that we need to work together to synergize and not only make hard work lighter but change the face of the hard work altogether.  He believed that by working together, working to understand one another we created a space for something better that any one of us could have thought of on our own.  He labeled this notion as Habit #6. 

I would also like you to consider the whole notion of recycling.  Fifty years ago people may have saved things but it was not because they were interested in recycling but rather because many of them had lived through the Great Depression and learned that is was best to throw away nothing.  However their children (the Baby Boomers) learned that the world was disposable.  Evidence of this can be found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which stretches for hundreds of miles and have formed a nebulous, floating junk yard.  However, as our consciousness was raised, recycling hit most everyone’s radar and it is challenging to throw anything away that we think might recycle.  You find “blue cans” regularly, even in cities that require you to pay for the privilege of recycling.  The notion of many hands applies to this as does the notion of synergizing to accomplish something you couldn’t do on your own. 

Now it seems to me that out-of-school time should want to be the “next recycling” effort.  Imagine what would happen if everyone understood that afterschool programs are as essential as recycling.    What if everyone understood how important role models and mentors are for the youth who spend time in the afterschool programs?  What if everyone understood that if everyone does a little, what we end up with is a lot? 

Please join us in making a difference. Contact us at www.entrustedlegacy.org or at support@entrustedlegacy.org