January Newsball 2019
Playing catch-Up with the Life is Good Playmakers
I’m really good at making New Year’s Resolutions. I’m just not so good at keeping them. I’ve spent many a January 1st promising to eat less, exercise more, spend less, save more, watch less, read more, etc., only to break these promises before Valentine’s day.
This past January, I made a New Year’s resolution to stop making the same old resolutions. Instead of focusing on doing stuff more or doing stuff less, I decided to simply focus more on the stuff that I’m doing.
I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve eaten something without really tasting it, or exercised without really feeling it, or bought something without thinking about whether or not I really wanted or needed it. Perhaps if I were able to “show-up,” for each and every experience, pay attention to how these experiences make me feel in that moment and beyond, then I would be better able to determine what I need in order to live what Mary Oliver calls my, “one wild and precious life.”
Helping kids show up for their one wild and precious life is what the work of the Life is Good Kids Foundation is all about. However, for kids whose lives have been impacted by overwhelming stress and adversity, showing up for each and every moment is difficult. It’s hard to be present when your stuck between the pain of the past and the fear of the future. Playmakers create powerful moments that allow kids to show up for the now – a now where they can feel safe. Feel powerful. Feel love. Feel joy. Feel wonder. Feel inspiration. Feel alive.
Bob Marly once said, “who feels it knows it.” Perhaps all of the answers to life’s greatest questions are inside each of us and all we have to do to find them is pay attention.
Happy New Year. May 2019 be filled with all of the good that life has to offer.
Love & Peace,
Steve Gross, MSW
Chief Playmaker, Life is Good Playmakers
GOOD PROGRESS
Our Work in the Field
Boston Public School
We moved into our second phase of partnership with Boston Public Schools. This month, 30 staffers from McKinley Schools and the BPS Behavioral Health Department gathered at our headquarters in South Boston for a Playmaker 202 Workshop. McKinley is actually four schools in one and is unique within the BPS system for its intense focus on emotional and behavioral needs. Every student at McKinley as has an IEP, Individualized Education Program. The LiGP program was invited to McKinley to support teachers and staff with the disposition and tools necessary to create a culture rooted in optimism and to underscore the critical importance of self-care in service of their work.
Pathways for Children
Pathways for Children is a leading provider of education and care programs on the North Shore of Massachusetts serving more than 500 children and their families from 14 communities. They have year-round programming, including Head Start and Early Head Start, and centers in Gloucester, Beverly, and Salem. The Life is Good Playmakers was invited to offer a series of Playmaker Retreats and Workshops to support more than 80 members of their staff to help them further develop the optimal conditions and approaches for caring for many of the region’s most vulnerable children.
Quincy Public Schools
Last fall, the Life is Good Playmakers led a series of Playmaker Workshops for all of the Kindergarten teachers across the entire Quincy Public School System (representing 11 different elementary schools). Our team was invited to deliver a Playmaker 101 Workshop to share our framework for creating optimal learning environments that are empowering, connecting, joyful, and engaging. The Playmaker Program made such a lasting, positive impact on those who participated, that this month we’ve been invited back to Quincy to partner with all of the 1st Grade teachers this winter, and come early spring, all of the schools system’s guidance counselors as well.
GOOD GROWTH
Our Work to Raise Support
2018 Gratitude Report
Take a look back at all of the good you generated through the Life is Good Playmakers and our signature Playmaker Program in 2018. Our annual Gratitude Report provides an overview of the schools, hospitals, and social service agencies who benefited from our work and approach, as well as a review of the major donors, events, and corporate partners who made it possible to raise more than $1 million dollars to improve the quality of care delivered to more than 1 million kids growing up amidst the traumas associated with poverty, violence, and illness.
Board of Directors
As 2018 drew to a close, the Life is Good Playmakers welcomed three new leaders to our Board of Directors:
Mark Muller, is a longtime supporter of the Life is Good Kids Foundation and friend of the Life is Good Company. Currently living in Austin, TX, Mark is a philanthropist and social entrepreneur who is deeply passionate about learning from people who have overcome adversity and helping the country’s most vulnerable children.
Molly Rambo is a Financial Advisor at Waddell & Reed based in Narragansett, RI who passionately advocates on behalf of her clients in order to help them pursue their most important goals. She’s deeply committed to the power of optimism and knows firsthand how responsive relationships with adult caregivers can make lasting, positive changes for children who’ve experienced trauma.
Charlene Giacin established and grew her impressive career within global compliance at GE, where she currently serves as the Global Ombuds Leader. While Charlene currently makes her home in Boston, she originally came to the Life is Good Playmakers through our longtime partnership with Family & Children’s Aid in Danbury, CT – an organization that offers high-quality, innovative mental health care for children and families. Charlene is also personally connected to our ongoing outreach to the schools and communities across Newtown, CT.
For more on the LiGP Board of Directors, email Morgan Cirillo, our Manager of Donor Relations.
2019 Boston Marathon
For the fourth year in a row, the Life is Good Playmakers will be represented at the Boston Marathon! Longtime Playmaker, Chelsey Munsey will be running those 26.2 in April to support our mission to spread the power of optimism to help kids heal. Read the story behind Chelsey’s bib and make a gift to help her surpass her fundraising goal of $10,000 to further our cause!
GOT NEWS?
If you have news about a program, fundraiser, or event in support of The LiGP, let us know. We love hearing from you!