PEAR & FableVision/Reynolds Connect the Dots!
New CONNECT & THRIVE SEL/Wellness Program for Elementary Schools
Features Storybooks by Peter H. Reynolds
We’re excited to announce that we have formalized our collaboration with Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) to accelerate delivery of urgently needed mental health and wellness supports for schools across the U.S. and beyond.
Incubated at McLean Hospital and Harvard, PEAR has been at the forefront of researching the development of resilience in educational settings with expertise around the challenges educators and youth face today - already providing implementations of its wellness advisories for high school students. To meet the increasing need at earlier ages, PEAR tapped Boston-based educational media and program provider FableVision/Reynolds TLC to bring PEAR’s research-based solutions to younger students and their teachers.
We’re now offering a special, new co-designed program called Connect & Thrive: Story-Powered Circles for Elementary Student Success. The program offers a unique blend of the PEAR approach to student advisories - also known as “circles” - and the globally-acclaimed storybooks by #1 New York Times best-selling author/illustrator Peter H Reynolds. Reynolds’ books (The Dot, Ish, Say Something, Be You, etc.) are paired with key student development areas, such as resilience, mental health, belonging, and youth voice, all of which play a critical role in overcoming, growing and thriving through adversity. The stories provide a warm, engaging way to provide context for the most up-to-date research and strategies on mental health and youth development, which helps not only young learners navigate adversity to "learn, dream, and thrive,” but also supports their teachers and caregivers at the same time.
Nationally recognized developmental and educational psychologist, founder of Partnerships in Education & Resilience (PEAR), and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Gil Noam, EdD, Dr. Habil. underscores the importance of supporting teachers in the process, “After all our research, one thing that became clear was that teachers are overwhelmed, and don’t know exactly what the support curriculum should be. They’re asking, “But how do we do this? We don't know it ourselves in our own work situation. When we’re not feeling socially and emotionally supported, how can we actually give this support to students?”