This great program came to our attention today, and we wanted to help by spreading the word about their need for Mom & Baby volunteers to participate in their 2013/2014 program.
This great program came to our attention today, and we wanted to help by spreading the word about their need for Mom & Baby volunteers to participate in their 2013/2014 program.
Roots of Empathy are seeking parents, whose babies will be between 2 and 4 months of age in October that may be interested in volunteering to participate in the program as instructors.
About Roots of Empathy
Roots of Empathy is an award-winning national and international not-for-profit organization with programs in elementary school classrooms. Our mission is to build caring, peaceful and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults. The program was first offered as a Toronto pilot of six programs in Kindergarten and Grade One in 1996 and has since reached more than half a million students on 3 continents worldwide. Research has shown significant and lasting effects in reducing levels of aggression, including bullying, among school children by raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy.
Roots of Empathy, in partnership with the Toronto District School Board, offers programs in elementary school classrooms across the city. Our volunteer instructors are trained to deliver our curriculum to the students through 27 classroom lessons which aim to increase the students' capacity to understand their own and other's emotions and to be able to use this information to regulate their behavior, creating a more caring and compassionate climate inside the classroom and beyond.
At the heart of the program is a parent and baby who will accompany the instructor into the classroom 9 times throughout the school year. The instructor will coach the students to observe the baby's growth and development at each visit and to pay particular attention to the parent-infant bond, the attachment and attunement that allows the parent to read baby's cues and to determine their needs. The students very quickly come to love "their" baby. The parent will share insights about their baby and their experience of being a parent and the instructor will use this as a lever to inspire conversations with the students that make connections to their own lives. Lessons taught by our instructors provide important learning opportunities for the students to reflect on personal experiences, preparing them to become responsible citizens and responsive parents.
You can find more information about the organization and its programs at www.rootsofempathy.org.
