Tag Archives: Guest Blogger

These days, more people than ever are thinking about how they can make a difference for others in their community, which is great because, from homelessness to environmental awareness, there are plenty of causes that need more attention. If you have the drive to make a difference, now’s the time to step up. Janet Campbell of Elder Spark shares some advice about different ways that you can take action in your town today.

Brothers as Allies, a curriculum from The Council for Boys and Young Men, is a program that changed my life forever. Four years ago I was struggling to find my identity. Hungry for a chance to have real interactions with youth. To truly be in the field and help. Help every student I encounter get at least .01% closer to their dreams. Some may see a small percentage, but the trajectory that shifts from the curricula provided by One Circle Foundation literally saves lives. It saved mine.

... Through my work, I am lucky and blessed to help enrich and empower girls and young women to pursue their intellectual pursuits with confidence, curiosity, and agency. This is my purpose! This is what I was born to do. Just today at our Circle of Peace, which is a daily community gathering amongst students and staff, I recited the Horizons pledge to remind our scholars that we are all sisters in this:  I promise to lift other girls up, have their backs, and make it safe for them to be exactly who they are. Every time I look in the mirror, I’ll remind myself that I am not alone, that I am beautiful, that my voice matters, and that I am enough. To anyone and everyone, including all of the young women that I have served and will serve, THANK YOU for making a difference in my life! Though that imposter syndrome creeps up every now and then, you all are the remedy that treats me every time! I am enough and so are you!  Next week, we will celebrate all things GIRL and everything that we have accomplished, persevered through, and fought for. It is a day where we uplift girls and women all around us, all over the world, those who are silenced and those who have amplified, past and present, here and now. What a day to celebrate women and girls! I challenge you to make a promise and commitment to continue to make an impact in a girl’s life. 

Let me ask this: what happens when children don’t have “Real Models” to look up to? What happens when the very people that brought children into this world don’t exemplify healthy love? What happens when children don’t have a village? What if I said, “When the community children stop crying, the community is dying.”  I invite you to stop reading for a moment and think about that. I was reared in a time where as soon as the street light came on I had to be back at the house. A time where if I was doing something I had no business it was OK for someone from the village to say, “All right now, you know better. Do I need to call your grandparents?” A time where grandma always had a home-cooked meal. I was reared to be respectful, yes mam/ no mam, or yes sir/no sir

The pandemic took anything that was challenging already in schools and poured gasoline on it.  Rather than punish kids or try to cure the problem, our job is to help them get through it.  The number one thing a kid needs while dealing with trauma or toxic stress is a loving, caring, reliable adult, per Harrison Bailey III, principal of Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  Too many kids, which, consequently, are our future workforce, have been castaway, kicked out of their home, or virtually disregarded due to lack of parent involvement, lack of a healthy

I’ve been considered selfish in my lifetime and hard to work with, I’ve been called a bitch (I may have earned that one a few times), and as an adolescent, I followed through with a plan to take my own life. Just one of these behaviors is enough for some people to distance themselves. Luckily, I have had people in my life who have stuck by me. They gave me the support I needed to grow, to learn, and most importantly, they gave me multiple chances. I think about this when I’m working with families who are struggling, when I’m facilitating structured support groups for youth, and when I’m showing up for my friends and family.  How I show up is important to me.

Articles continue to pop up on my newsfeed about how the pandemic has been detrimental to the mental health of many, especially young people. The isolation, lack of connection with peers, and the uptick in violence within homes and racism within communities during the last 2+ years have led to a mental health crisis for youth.  According to the 2021 CDC Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) of 7,705 high school students, nearly half reported they persistently felt sad or hopeless and experienced emotional abuse in the home, while The Trevor Project’s 2021 Survey showed that 70% of LGBTQ+ youth stated that their mental health was “poor” most of the time or always during COVID-19.  In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) declared a national emergency in children's mental health. AAP President, Gabrielle A. Carlson said, “We are caring for young people with soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality that will have lasting

I always knew that I had the heart to help people, but I was not clear on the path to go about it. When I think back to how I got where I am, I am often taken back to this specific time. I was a first-year at Arcadia University and I was opening a bank account for the first time all by myself. I do not remember a lot of it. It was such a mundane errand to run, but what I do remember is a conversation that I had with the bank teller. She was asking me what my major was and I told her that I wanted to go into a trauma counseling field. Then, she asked me if I experienced anything similar to what they have. I told her no. She shifted into a more serious tone and asked me how I was going to relate to anything that they tell me if I have not gone through it. That one conversation made me question my decisions. How was I going to counsel if I could never relate? Now, I am a mental health counselor intern at a high school in Philadelphia. After spending some time learning my way around and getting to know some of the youth, they have started to open up to me

The One Circle Foundation blog is actively seeking guest writers. Email blog@onecirclefoundation.org to pitch a blog post and inquire about becoming a One Circle Foundation blog contributor.