Changing the World—One Child at a Time

Who made a difference in your life?  Was it your parent, a teacher, a youth worker, a minister, your neighbor?  Did they help you through the rough patches?  Did they listen while you talked about your hopes and dreams?  Did they encourage you to run a mile, enter the science fair, sing a solo at the spring concert, or learn how to plan a completely nutritious meal?  Did they help you navigate a world that you found confusing and concerning?  If the answer to any of these questions is “yes” then you benefited from having a positive role model and mentor in your life. 

You have the opportunity to pay that forward.  Join with others who profited from this sort of support and are investing money in the staff development and training of youth workers who act as this essential piece of the puzzle.  At Entrusted Legacy your monthly contribution of $10.00, $15.00 or $25.00 can make a difference in the life of a child.  And the impact is exponential as helping the adults will help both directly and indirectly every youth he/she comes in contact with.  Go to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.com

Why We Work with Those Who Work With Youth

Working with youth is about touching the future and making a difference in someone else’s life when the impact of your work is magnified by the recipient themselves.  Youth are like sponges, soaking up as much as possible so they can figure out how to navigate the world.  People who work with youth experience the thrill and the frustration inherent in unleashing the power of these young people to become what they were meant to be. 

In the song, You Raise Me Up, the chorus reads:

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up... To more than I can be.

To raise youth up is our goal and we believe that goal can be achieved by supporting the adults who work with youth.  The possibility in each young person to stretch forever is its own reward, and to be a part of the support is more than gratifying.  A quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln, "No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child" captures the essence of the work of positive role models and mentors. 

Please join with us at Entrusted Legacy to increase the impact we have on youth and the adults who work with them.  Donate to this worthwhile work by going to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org  We welcome your support and help.  Together we CAN make a difference.

Investing in the Future

Have you viewed the YouTube Video, Did You Know?  It was updated for 2012 and can be watched at :

  

Did You Know 3.0 (Officially updated for 2012) HD

In this video it asks questions beginning with, “Did you know”.  Here are some of the questions:

• China will soon be the number one English speaking country in the world?
• 25% of India’s brightest and best youth is a number larger than all the youth in the United States?
• ½ of what is learned in college by Freshman will be outdated by the time the young adult is a Junior?
• We are preparing youth for jobs that don’t exist which will solve problems we don’t even know about with technologies that haven’t yet been invented?
• There were 31,000,000,000 searches on Google last year?
• There are 5 times the number of words in English today than there were when Shakespeare was writing?
• In one newspaper issue today the reader gets more information that he/she would have had in a lifetime in the 1800’s?

The video ends with the question—So, what does it all mean?

For us at Entrusted Legacy it means that we need to be sure our youth have the positive role models and mentors they need to be able to develop the grit and resiliency needed to meet these challenges.  Entrusted Legacy has partnered with Consult 4 Kids to provide a comprehensive staff development program tailored for their needs.  Learn more about us by visiting our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and trust your legacy with us. 

Building Capacity

Building capacity is an approach to development that “focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing the abilities that will allow them to achieve measurable and sustainable results.”  "BUILDING CAPACITY"  Capacity building is not just about today it is also about the future.  Building capacity empowers people to reach their potential.  Building capacity impacts the lives of individuals, and also impacts families and communities as well.

Each of us has possibilities within us that are not yet recognized.  As we grow and learn we strengthen our capacity to “become”.  To help youth unleash the power within them, it is essential that they have a positive role model and mentor to help guide the way.  A role model is someone to emulate, a person to guide you on your way as you learn how to navigate the world.

 

We know that grit and resiliency are results of having a positive role model and mentor.  At Entrusted Legacy we are championing the people who work with other people’s children in out-of-school time programs.  While everyone can’t be the person who works with youth, everyone can support those who work with youth.  Entrust Your Legacy with us as we support the development of role models and mentors.  Go to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and invest today.

Hand Up, Not a Hand Out

There are a number of different “Hand Up Not A Hand Out” programs that you can subscribe to.  The Downtown Sacramento project is focused on reducing panhandling in downtown Sacramento by encouraging compassionate folks to donate to a trusted provider who will support the hungry and the homeless.  The Stand Down Program in San Diego works with homeless veterans which focuses on giving veterans a safe haven until they can reconnect with the world.  The federal Lifeline program is there to help families stay in touch, especially in these challenging economic times.  All of these programs are filling existing needs.  They are intervening in the lives of people who need support and a hand-up.

Entrusted Legacy takes a look at this challenge from a different vantage point:  prevention rather than intervening once something has gone awry.  Entrusted Legacy is interested in proactively supporting the development of role models and mentors so youth can make the connections needed to build resiliency and grit.  The work being done around the importance of non-cognitive skills (Paul Tough—How Children Succeed) confirms our belief that these two essentials supports the full development of young people and that the best place to develop those non-cognitive skills is with a caring role model and mentor.  

Entrusted Legacy has partnered with Consult 4 Kids to provide a comprehensive staff development program tailored for their needs.  Entrust Your Legacy with us.  Invest today in the future of all of our children and youth.  Find out more about Entrusted Legacy on our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org   Help us to support those who work with other people’s children every day be an outstanding role model or mentor.  

Why Is Delayed Gratification Such An Important Trait?

We live in an instant world.  When you are talking with someone and a question is raised, before you know it they’ve whipped out a smart phone and are looking for the answer.  We have instant mashed potatoes, instant pudding, instant messaging, and instant credit.  A lot of work has been done around the importance of delayed gratification.  Below is an article that you might find interesting.

"The Power of Delaying Gratification"

“In 1970 psychologist Walter Mischel famously placed a cookie in front of a group of children and gave them a choice: they could eat the cookie immediately, or they could wait until he returned from a brief errand and then be rewarded with a second. If they didn’t wait, however, they’d be allowed to eat only the first one. Not surprisingly, once he left the room, many children ate the cookie almost immediately. A few, though, resisted eating the first cookie long enough to receive the second. Mischel termed these children high-delay children.

Interestingly, the children who were best able to delay gratification subsequently did better in school and had fewer behavioral problems than the children who could only resist eating the cookie for a few minutes—and, further, ended up on average with SAT scores that were 210 points higher. As adults, the high-delay children completed college at higher rates than the other children and then went on to earn higher incomes. In contrast, the children who had the most trouble delaying gratification had higher rates of incarceration as adults and were more likely to struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.

Which all suggests that the ability to delay gratification—that is, impulse control—may be one of the most important skills to learn to have a satisfying and successful life. The question is, how do we learn it?

The answer may lie in the strategies Mischel's high-delay children used. Rather than resist the urge to eat the cookie, these children distracted themselves from the urge itself. They played with toys in the room, sang songs to themselves, and looked everywhere but at the cookie. In short, they did everything they could to put the cookie out of their minds.

Taking his cue from these high-delay children, in a second study, Mischel placed two marshmallows side by side in front of a different group of children to whom he explained, as in the previous study, that eating the first before he returned to the room would mean they couldn’t eat the second. He then instructed one group of them to imagine when he stepped out of the room how much marshmallows are like clouds: round, white, and puffy. (He instructed a control group, in contrast, to imagine how sweet and chewy and soft they were.) A third group he instructed to visualize the crunchiness and saltiness of pretzels. Perhaps not surprisingly, the children who visualized the qualities of the marshmallows that were unrelated to eating them (that is, the way in which they were similar to clouds) waited almost three times longer than children who were instructed to visualize how delicious the marshmallows would taste. Most intriguing, however, was that picturing the pleasure of eating pretzels produced the longest delay in gratification of all. Apparently, imagining the pleasure they’d feel from indulging in an unavailable temptation distracted the children even more than cognitively restructuring the way they thought about the temptation before them.

In other words, one of the most effective ways to distract ourselves from a tempting pleasure we don't want to indulge is by focusing on another pleasure. So the next time you find yourself confronted with a temptation—whether a piece of cake, a drink of alcohol, or a psychoactive drug—don't employ willpower to resist it. Send your attention somewhere else by imagining a different pleasure not immediately available to you. For if you can successfully turn your attention elsewhere until the temptation is removed from your environment or you remove yourself from its environment, the odds that you'll give in to your impulse will decrease more than with almost any other intervention you can try.”

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, check out Dr. Alex Lickerman's book, The Undefeated Mind, which is available at Amazon.com.  You might be an interesting read.

Let us know what you think by contacting us at support@entrustedlegacy.org

Empowerment

What if you had the capacity to empower youth to exceed beyond all expectations?  What if you had the opportunity to empower role models and mentors for youth to be a guide for those who come to them looking for support?  What if you could impact the lives of youth and change the path a family is on?  What is you could unleash the power of a person to excel and reach his or her unique potential and share his or her unique talents and passions?

With Entrusted Legacy you have that opportunity.  We are committed to train adults to be personally and professionally effective.  Our efforts are focused on adults who work with youth.  We believe that developing positive role models who effectively demonstrate the capacity, character and competency to practice the advanced citizenship required in a global society is essential. 

Systematically we teach adults to routinely demonstrate and practice prevention strategies with youth, rather than waiting for problems to occur and having to implement intervention strategies. As the saying goes “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of intervention”. Educating youth in this way makes this 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.

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 doing the same.  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.

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

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

Making a Difference

Are there any sweeter words to hear than, “I couldn't have done it without you?”  At the end of every campaign season and throughout the Hollywood awards season, we hear the powerful and the famous say those words.  But it isn't just those who hear those words from the powerful and famous who want to know they have made a difference.  We all desire to know that the world is a better place because we have lived, loved, laughed, and learned.  So how, when we are neither powerful nor famous can we make this happen?  We at Entrusted Legacy believe that the combined efforts of caring and sincere people across the nation can make a difference.  There is the notion of six degrees of separation which postulates that all of us are linked through a network of connections that emanate around each of us.  Mathematically, it brings forward the idea that we each know 200 people and that those 200 know 200 who know 200 and so on.  By the time you work through the exponential effects of this thinking, every one of us, no matter where we live and play, is connected.  As we see the world figuratively shrinking we can be even more convinced that this is the truth.

Entrusted Legacy believes that we can make a difference by developing positive role models and mentors for youth.  This requires that we get ready to “run this race”.  While practice and application of knowledge are key, having that knowledge to begin with is often the weakest link.  Please join us at Entrusted Legacy and help us to help those who work with youth in informal learning sessions each and every day.  Entrusted Legacy and our affiliate have the means and materials to support the development of role models and mentors 24/7 through web-based staff development.

Log on to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and invest in the future today.  We can do this work together.