EduHeart: Education for Empathy and Ethics
The Instituto Visão Futuro is dedicated to the development of the human being & of a new consciousness living with the realization that we are all connected
About You
About You
First Name
Susan
Last Name
Andrews
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Instituto Visão Futuro
Organization Website
Organization Country
Brazil, SP, Porangaba
Country where this project is creating social impact
Brazil
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
Administrator, Counselor.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
In Brazil, 1 out of 3 students, up to 14 years, old has suffered aggression at school: there is no school without bullying. Children have been pressured towards better performance since early age. Comparing to 10 years ago, these same children experience considerable stress in their lives, carrying responsibilities and emotional burdens. Schools tend to focus on the refinement of cognitive skills and they lack on educating children in resolving their internal conflicts and unbalanced emotions they bring to school every day. This scenario this is causing a nearly unbearable situation with stressed and discouraged teachers and feisty children uninterested in learning.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
The project “EduHeart: Education for Empathy and Ethics” teaches children in a playful and creative ways, important techniques of self-management, emotional balance and mental focus that will be useful the rest of their lives. The project develops the ability to manage stress and transform negative emotions into positive attitudes through practical techniques to stimulate the "relaxation response" and reduce harmful stress hormones. This helps the child to develop the ability to face life's challenges with energy and optimism. The storytelling and fun activities develop multiple intelligences in children and inspire universal ethical values and free expression of their full potential. This methodology is shared with teachers and parents of public and private schools throughout the country.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
In several states of Brazil, the 48hs training is granted for free for teachers from public schools that cannot invest in training. The training includes exercises and practices to manage their own stress - yoga, diaphragmatic breathing, self-massage, deep relaxation and meditation. These techniques are passed on to children in the classroom afterwards that quickly transforms the classroom into a peaceful environment. During the trainings, teachers are inspired to rescue their charm in the noble mission of teaching, to develop their own creativity in storytelling and theater to make teaching more attractive and dynamic. Teachers do theater exercises, discovering their "inner artist" and learn how to tell stories in the "Magic Circle", a scenario built on the floor with dolls and ordinary objects in order to fascinate children and pass the ethical messages in a playful manner. Teachers are empowered to create democratic classrooms, with empathic listening in the meetings, establishing collective rules, negotiable curriculum, and collaborative projects. All these components, through an artistic and dynamic approaches, besides nurturing team work, develop a collective and cooperative consciousness in the school. And especially rescues teachers and students’ self-esteem.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Our approach distinguishes by creativity: the stories are charming, surrounded by fantasy and drama, they are told with music, gestures, dance and even rap! Furthermore to systemic approach, it works with body, intellect, emotion and spirit, it promotes positive and accelerated change for both individual and collective levels. The use of theater in education boosts the classroom and channels children’s excitation to the creativity. The approach is not merely verbal, with discussions on ethics and values, but uses practical exercises like breathing, relaxation and cardiac coherence to open the heart. This results in an EXPERIENCE of empathy that comes from within. The generated environment of positivity replaces the bullying, violence and conflict in the classroom with empathic communicatio
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
EduHeart is a systemic approach with arts and scientific exercises to relieve the stress of teachers and students to encourage empathy.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
Emphasize the EXPERIENCE of empathy that comes from the heart in order to change. Not just a verbal approach. Igniting the Inner Light
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
We train about 1000 teachers throughout Brazil, offering training to educators-multiplier in 10 cities. We spread a "Circle of Love Kit" for kindergarten and pre-school for more than 3000 parents and teachers, which includes a guide, CD and DVD with the techniques used in the EduHeart program.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
Next year, we want to train and coordinate 50 multipliers who can help expanding EduHeart across the country, taking the project to Departments of Education in 25 cities, and offering free trainings fro hundreds of teachers of public schools. Over the next three years, we want to increase the number of multipliers and thus increase the number of targeted teachers. Create and develop a "complete kit" for elementary school (1st to 5th year), with a guide, CD, DVD, "Letters of Emotion" (based on the research of Dr. Paul Ekman), that teaches children to recognize and balance their emotions; develop entertaining flipcharts on the physiology of respiration and brain, and materials for storytelling. Distribute these kits at cost price to thousands of teachers and parents across the country.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Refining EduHeart process, preparing "kits" of materials, and training 25 multipliers in 10 cities.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Preparing the EduHeart "kit", the materials that teachers will use in the classrooms.
Task 2
Make the latest refinements in the process
Task 3
Training 25 multipliers in the end of July 2012, who will offer training to teachers in 10 cities throughout Brazil.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
We will train and coordinate 50 multipliers who can help expanding EduHeart program in 25 cities throughout Brazil.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Supervise and support the multipliers trained in July 2012
Task 2
Disseminate the positive outcomes obtained with the teachers from 25 cities for the media and supporters
Task 3
Organize a financial support, enough to expand the project to additional cities in 2013
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
When the project founder herself experienced great inner transformation resulting from such practices, and has begun to teach adults on how they could transform their lives as well. It has become obvious that these practices should begin from childhood in order to enable a person to grow with a firm internal values and positive attitude in life that could help to overcome all obstacles. The founder has pursued a continuous research and studies in psychology, neuroscience and endocrinology, and it has confirmed the belief that empathy is the basis of ethics and pro-social attitudes, which are essential for the formation of a new civilization of cooperation and compassion.
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
It is important not only for its financial assistance to make the project sustainable in the long term, but to form a network of partners united in the mission to bring the importance of humanization in the education field. We can join efforts emphasizing the importance of fondness in the classroom, creating an environment of empathy and understanding among children, parents and teachers - and not only to mobilize campaigns "anti-bullying."
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
The Instituto Visão Futuro, and the national network is composed by psychologists, educators, artists, and facilitators of interpersonal experiences and cooperative games, which brings a systemic approach to the subject and the use of multiple intelligences in all performances. But more than staff qualifications, we highlight team’s integral dedication to a new paradigm of community vitality and true democracy based in love - it has to start with the kids!
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Networks will be both the need and supply, because in this age of affluence and anxiety we must join forces to offer an alternative for educators and parents that restores affection and trust between people and in order to provide peace and joy at school and at home. A strong network that could mobilize events in partnership and publicize the importance of love & empathy in education in the media
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