Want Great Kids & Great Schools?

I'm a former journalist and publisher ( I founded the LA Weekly newspaper) who when I was an editor discovered there's an emotional intelligence  (EQ) training  called Social -Emotional Learning currently in 10% of schools nationwide that gives their students HUGE advantages.

These schools teach their students the skills to overcome their own pain, anger, frustrations, acting out behaviors, and limitations, along with skills to resolve confilcts and relate beautifully to others, set goals and achieve, and make good decisions

Grades improve, disruptive behaviors go down dramatically, schools become remarkable places, and the kids are more successful in life...it's incredible, in fact, what the training can bring about.

What moved me about this is the possibility of getting two things accomplished at once:  Dramatically improving children’s lives and school performance (the U.S is rated low among developed countries in reading, math and science proficiency and high in bullying, drug usage,  classroom disruptions and student suicides) and. secondly,  developing adults with the capacity to create a healthier society. 

Once I had absorbed visits to some of these schools I decided to stop running media companies (I was on my 6th) and form  a nonprofit (at www.equipourkids.org)
to educate the public that the very biggest difference that you can help make for all children is the same that you can help make for most ills of the world. 

HANDS DOWN, it is helping raise human emotional intelligence (EQ not IQ) on a mass level, starting with this generation of kids and their struggling and under-performing schoolsin the U.S.

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to deal with ourselves and others in a wonderful and healthy way – which, as I discovered, is a mindset and skillset that can be learned.  I have yet to meet an adult who didn't wish she or he had such training in their schools, myself big time included.

There are few distresses in school, in our personal lives or in society - from individual depression, to relationship pain, to sexual harassment to crime and war - that can’t be traced to the current lower-than-healthy general level of EQ skills. We also have yet to meet an adult who didn’t think that the world would be a healthier place if people had these skills.

Which is why our goal is 100% of schools.


Here are some incredible stats: 

-  Core test scores climb an average of 11 points or 20%.
-  Negative behaviors like bullying, violence, classroom disruptions, drug usage, dropouts and suicide decline dramatically - by up to 90%.
- Student and teacher satisfaction climbs by 70% and more.
- Parent approval is 95%.
- Studies show that even some pre-school exposure to Social-Emotional Learning  (SEL) is a predictor of greater success in life and of positive contributions to one’s community, and this across racial, ethnic, economic and class lines. (More video samples of the training and testimonials from students and parents below.)

So if this  learning is so great, how come only 10% of schools fully implement it? 

The reason is simple:  Parents, the public and legislators don't know about it!  So they don't demand it , fund it, and make it happen in their schools.

That's where we come in. 

 I teamed up with some business-owner friends who have supported youth developments programs for years, and we founded the BigEQ.org project and its EQuip Our Kids! campaign. 

We've learned from our research that once parents learn about  the many benefits,  they act and require schools and legislatures to prioritize SEL.  And they tend to get help from now-informed friends, family and other elements of the public. 

The training is affordiable, teachers and school administrators love it once they are freed-up from less effective requirements, and the case for legislators funding it is unbeatable. Studies show it saves $11 to $15 per student per year in other costs.

Please support our campaign to get the message out about this life-changing learning, and help us get it ultimately to every child.  

Here is precisely what every donation will make possible:

• $5 can buy 4 bumper stickers saying "We Support Emotional and Social Learning in All Schools." 
• $10 can buy 5,000 social media ad impressions. 
• $100 can buy outreach to 100 businesses to add “To give all children a chance to be their best selves, we support Emotional and Social Intelligence Learning in all schools!” to their marketing materials. 
• $500 can buy a print ad reaching 200,000 parents. 
• $1,000 can buy 5 localized TV or radio spots reaching 100,000 people. 
• $2,500 can pay the monthly fee for an outreach coordinator working with PTAs and others. 
• $5,000 can pay the monthly fee of a new sponsorship expert who can raise far more than that from businesses. 

Your donation will also bolster our underway outreach to major businesses and community institutions to share our call for universal SEL skills training in their own marketing.  

Our combined media and outreach campaign will also generate funding from businesses and the public to expand the campaign.

EQuip our Kids!, by the way, has been endorsed by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and former federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and other civic, business and education leaders. 

Also we've been endorsed by Scarlett Lewis, the Sandy Hook mother who, after the murder of her 6-year old son, decided that the youth who killed him and the other 19 children and 6 teachers did so out of his own emotional pain that he likely would have learned to manage  had he experienced SEL in his education. Accordingly, she raised funds and hired staff to create a free-to-schools SEL program...and has become a national spokesperson for the cause. 

You can directly track most of  human pain,  divisiveness, hate, violence, abuse, huge prison populations, internet trolls, and the kinds of madness to the fact that on a mass level, we were not introduced to the SEL mindset or taught its skills when we were young.  


By investing in our children and giving them the tools they need, they'll change the world for the better, to one where people can hear each other and solve their personal and collective problems and challenges. Otherwise there's no chance  this will happen -  you just can’t fix all the negativity from the mindset that created it.

At BigEQ.org  you can learn more about us and how you, your business or organization can be part of the larger movement we belong to.

(By the way, we are a fiscal project of Earthways Foundation. So your donations are tax-deductible.) 

(Hooded girl photo above couresty of Picbay.com.)
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HERE'S AN INFOGRAM THAT DETAILS SOME OF THE CHANGES KIDS CAN EXPERIENCE WHEN SCHOOLS PRIORITIZE THESE SKILLS AND MINDSET.


Here's me, some team members and recent graduate Sklyar Wichert illuminating the dramatic realities for children and the positive effects of  EQ  for our public awareness campaign: 


Here  are samples of what children experience in the classroom: 


And here are  some student testimonials:


And  now what parents have to say:


Here's a 90-second video above with a female voiceover.


And here's the 90-second video  above with a male voiceover (share whichever you prefer):


And here is a 50-second video we are using in our promotional campaign: