Embodied Empathy: Physical Movements for Social and Emotional Wellness
This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Embodied Empathy.
Approximately 20 words left (160 characters).
About You
About You
First Name
Jeanne
Last Name
Weierheiser
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Embodied Empathy
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, CA, Encino
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States
Is your organization a
Business
Your role in Education
Other.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for less than a year
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Current education system often kills off creative thinking and children’s natural love of learning because it disconnects them from their innate wholeness and intelligence. We want to support education that nurtures and connects kids to their own well-being, inner strengths, imagination & wisdom through playful, embodied learning experiences. Embodied Empathy seeks to equip students with the inner resources to meet challenges, resolve conflict, & achieve goals in a positive, peaceful, & productive manner. Increased stress levels are having a negative impact on our children, teachers, & classrooms. While academic achievement is being compromised & bullying & classroom conflicts are on the rise, budgets are being cut & stressed out teachers have very few resources to support a healthy classr
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Embodied Empathy provides cost effective resources to educators to teach students proven skills that reinforce emotional regulation and wellness. Through yoga, meditation, mindfulness and movement students develop awareness of their own emotions which enables them to meet their own needs and in turn recognize the emotional needs of others. It is through this process of being cognizant of taking action to meet one’s own needs via self care that the student is able to objectively assess the needs of others and act from their balanced center rather than reacting from imbalance and unmet emotional needs
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
When someone buys one of our instructional DVDs (designed for classroom use) at full price we send a free DVD to a teacher who has requested one. Currently we have a list of over 500 teacher requests. As DVDs are purchased via our online stores, we ship a free DVD to a teacher on our list. Buyers can also leave a comment with their purchase specifying a school that they would like to receive a DVD whether they are already on our list or not. Teachers are added to an email list where they are notified of upcoming webinars and encouraged to join our online communities via Facebook for continued support. For teachers of children ages 3-7, Move with Me Action Adventures provides a free DVD. For teachers of students 7 and up, Shanti Generation provides a free DVD. This Buy 1 Give 1 model enables us to get these resources into the hands of teachers who want them at no cost.
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?
There are many organizations teaching yoga, mindfulness and related classes to kids in schools. There are not many producing video resources. Yoga Kids and Yoga Calm are the only ones I know that also have some video tools for schools. What distinguishes us is our unique combination of story and creative movement, yoga and self-regulation techniques that enable children to learn via a narrative format and practice social-emotional awareness and skills within a relevant context.
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]
We create instructional DVDs for classrooms that promote mind-body fitness and social emotional development
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
Our programs combine story, creative movement, mind body techniques, yoga, meditation & Brain Gym exercises to create well being
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
The schools and homeschoolers that use our resources report high levels of satisfaction. Kids are engaged physically and so building fitness, educated socially and emotionally for enhanced behaviour and empathy, and empowered personally for improved confidence and ability to self-care and regulate.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
At this time we have 500 teacher requests for our DVDs which we have amassed in less than 2 months with very little marketing efforts. We aim to reach 10,000-20,000 classrooms in the next 3 years which would impact approximately 200,000- 500,000 students. This would result in healthier classrooms, healthier communities and a happier and healthier lifetime for each student who learns the skills taught on the DVDs. It would also result in healthier teachers as they too practice along with the children and enhance their own abilities to manage the daily stresses faced in the classroom
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Fulfill the existing 500 requests already placed by teachers in addition to all requests gathered in that 6 mo. period
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
social media campaign and community outreach by Off the Mat into the World http://offthemat.org
Task 2
production of promotional video by Big Happy Day productions.
Task 3
Article written and published on Edutopia.org, MindBodyGreen.com and ElephantJournal.com
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Collaboration with at least 10 large yoga and learning related organizations.
Task 2
We will have developed working relationships with at least 50 schools where we will track the impact of our program on the stude
Task 3
We will have initiated at least 1 research study that uses our program to measure the benefits of yoga in the classroom.
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]
I have created yoga-based curriculum for pre-K through high school. Yoga is the best system for the education of self, health, values and compassion that I and trained hundreds of classroom teachers. I saw first-hand that the average teacher or parent could not lead/teach what I can do with kids as a yoga and movement specialist but that kids profoundly benefit from it. So, I needed to make video classes. It was clear that I could make a greater impact through this format.
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
At this time our partnerships are loose. We have verbal agreements with a number of organizations and businesses that share our content within their networks and support our program by making their communities aware of it.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
We currently have a highly motivated and creative staff. We utilize interns for many tasks and will continue to do so in the future. We will also add more writers to our staff as budget permits so that we can maximize our outreach online via articles and blog posts.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
 | 58 weeks ago Jeanne Weierheiser submitted this idea. |
