Children Mending Hearts: Kids Helping Kids

Since its inception in 2009, Children Mending Hearts has helped over 12,000 disadvantaged youth become involved in practicing Global Citizenship and positive social activism. The thing we’re most proud of is helping children of ALL cultural, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds learn that they have the power to make a positive difference in another child’s life. After participating in our community outreach events or after school programming, we have seen countless children – most of whom are themselves challenged by poverty, community violence and limited educational opportunities – gain a sense of empowerment as they discover that they have an innate capacity to make life better for someone else. As their sense of pride and self-esteem grows, they become eager to reach out and help in their communities.

Some of Children Mending Hearts’ additional achievements include:

- Providing free, sustained after school programming for hundreds of youth living in Los Angeles neighborhoods challenged by drugs, gang violence and poverty;

- Developing a CMH blog that educates thousands of Los Angeles parents and youth about volunteerism, Global Citizenship and positive social activism;

- Sponsoring outreach trips to Haiti, Darfur and Democratic Republic of Congo, where we provided thousands of children living in crisis with arts and educational workshops, in addition to providing them with basic necessities such as shoes and school supplies;

- Holding large-scale public children’s events in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, where hundreds of children learned about the importance of volunteerism and Global Citizenship and participated in projects to help their local communities;

- Successfully developing and implementing our Global Arts After School program, including publishing a formal curriculum that teaches middle school-aged youth the importance of acting with empathy and helping people in their own communities as well as the world at large.

Our goal is to teach L. A. youth about the importance of social connectedness & give them concrete skills for civic engagement & volunteerism they can use as adults. Based on that goal, our evaluation measures include:

#1: Measuring Program Participation: We will enroll at least 620 youth annually in our Global Arts After School Program.

Evaluation Method: We will use three quantitative measures to meet projected benchmarks:

• Enrollment statistics will be kept at each program site, to track total enrollment & compare site-by-site participation;

• Attendance records will be kept for each After School Program cycle, to accurately measure how consistently students attend the program & what percentage complete the entire program;

• Percentage increase in community partnerships will be tracked, to help us meet benchmarks for our goal of increasing partnerships by 50% in 2013.

• We will administer pre- and post-participation surveys to students, to assess how their knowledge and attitudes are influenced by project participation. The surveys are a two-part measure that a.) scores responses to questions about program content regarding empathy skills, positive social skills and global citizenship and b.) provides a Likert Scale-based survey of students’ attitudes about the importance of volunteering, helping people in need and whether their own feelings of self-esteem are influenced by helping others;

• We will conduct three appreciative inquiry sessions to gain qualitative feedback from our partner organizations about program strengths/weaknesses, logistical considerations, what the most valuable benefits were to students and ways to enhance future outcomes.

If we want to see long-term, sustained improvements in Los Angeles’ Social Connectedness, then we need to connect with Los Angeles youth at a formative age, so that volunteerism, empathy and community engagement become a routine and expected part of their lives. Here’s how our project will benefit Los Angeles and its citizens:

Over the next five years, our project will:

- Enroll at least 3,100 local youth in a sustained, hands-on educational program that teaches volunteerism, civic engagement, empathy skills and Global Citizenship;

- Provide those students with meaningful, hands-on volunteer projects that encourage them to keep up to date on current events, “practice” their social activism skills and gain confidence in their ability to effect positive change in their communities;

- Offer safe and supportive after school environments in neighborhoods currently challenged by drugs and gang violence;

- Use our social media, marketing and outreach resources to continue promoting the importance of teaching L.A. youth about Global Citizenship and community engagement;

- Teach cultural appreciation and racial tolerance by integrating many of Los Angeles’ rich, multicultural artistic and cultural traditions into our after school curriculum;

- Use our public outreach events and High School Advisory Council to bring together youth from diverse neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles, affording them opportunities to work together on youth-based charitable and humanitarian issues.

Our project’s impact on LA 2050 indicators includes:

Social Connectedness – Our project directly teaches Social Connectedness (volunteerism, civic engagement, positive social skills and empathy skills) to youth at a formative point in their development. By reaching our goal of enrolling 620 youth annually in our Global Arts After School, we will educate as many as 22,200 students by 2050, helping them develop and solidify their identities as voters, community activists and Global Citizens;

Education – Participating youth will receive quality, in-depth instruction in Global Citizenship, current events and fine arts – subjects only minimally covered in many public school classrooms;

Public Safety – 90% of our programs sites are in neighborhoods where gang activities and youth violence are problematic. Over 550 youth each year will benefit from the safe, structured, off-the-streets programming we provide free of charge.

Arts & Multiculturalism – Through the Global Arts After School Project, two of Los Angeles’ strongest assets – the arts and a richly multicultural population – will be used as powerful teaching tools for building positive social change in local youth.

Children Mending Hearts’ philosophy is that if we teach young people how to have generosity of spirit – how to genuinely care about and help fellow human beings - they will benefit from a sense of self-worth and personal empowerment for the rest of their lives. Here’s what success looks like to us in terms of Social Connectedness in 2050:

First, we envision a public education system where all youth receive instruction in civic engagement, global citizenship and even basic emotional literacy along with their core academic classes. We’d like to see classrooms where the three “E”s – empathy, encouragement & empowerment – are taught alongside the traditional three “R”s. Those educational efforts would include supervised, hands-on volunteer projects at every grade level and extracurricular “volunteer teams” at every middle school & high school that are given the same status & recognition as athletic and academic teams.

Secondly, we see a Los Angeles comprised of people who aren’t just Los Angelenos, but Global Citizens. Globalization is a fast-developing reality & Los Angeles is becoming a microcosm of the world at large, in terms of ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as huge socioeconomic disparities. By 2050, we imagine a city of Global Citizens who see beyond those divides when it comes to basic self-worth & are committed to the idea that all people - around the world and at home – are neighbors who deserve self-dignity, respect, safety and health.

Lastly, we assume that electronic media will continue to play a huge role in shaping Los Angeles’ perceptions and priorities. A recent study by the Pew Research Center* found that American children now spend an average of 7 ½ hours a day using electronic media such as computers, & iPods. Media can either help or hinder social connectedness – research has proven that positive electronic media use can promote pro-social behaviors such as altruism, cooperation and tolerance. Yet unsupervised media use amongst children fuels social isolation. Children Mending Hearts has a vision of Social Connectedness that includes all citizens – but particularly youth – living with a healthy balance of real human connectedness & an abundance of positive electronic media use that inspires social good. We believe that’s attainable. After all, if you care enough to sit down at your computer, take the time to read over the amazing possibilities presented on the LA 2050 website & vote with your heart, then we can help your fellow Los Angelenos do the same.

*Pew Research Center: Internet & American Life Project, 2010