BRANCH OUT
about
worth:
community
"TOO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE in the US are failing to reach self-sustaining adulthood..."* WORTH: Community is built around the idea that young people have the capacity to reach their potential AND contribute back to the community--with a little help. We believe that help lies in the power of restoring mentoring relationships as a way of life--not a one-time event. With 7,000 high school students dropping out per day and 30% of college students dropping out after the first year in the United States, our families, neighborhoods, and communities aren't functioning properly. WORTH: Community dreams of reversing that trend by cultivating mentoring relationships inter-generationally and across cultural barriers and business realms to empower a generation to arrive at adulthood as fully formed, confidently resilient, self-sacrificing problem solvers...because our families, neighborhoods, and country depend on it.
Through mentoring (one-on-one and group) AND community partnerships built around the 5 themes* below, WORTH: Community will equip young people with the knowledge, resources, and support to become thriving, active and engaged citizens.
RESIST CONSUMPTION
Teaching young people to learn the habit of finding pleasure in the essentials of life and feeling gratitude for them—that they develop and understand a real sense of what they need.
EMBRACE THE PAIN OF WORK
Organized around idea that Character comes before Credentials. If our children are going to become real adults, they need to know that difficult tasks are things to be conquered, not avoided.
CONNECT ACROSS GENERATIONS
Adolescents acquire invaluable skills by interacting with people outside their peer bubble. Perspective is invaluable.
TRAVEL MEANINGFULLY
Putting students outside of their comfort zones provides them with, like work, the ability of appreciating the comfort of their own lives but the satisfaction of trying new and difficult things.
BECOME TRULY LITERATE
Reading done well is not a passive skill, it requires attention, engagement, and active questioning. Unfortunately, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the avg. American now reads only 19 minutes a day—and younger you are—you read less.
*Source: Sasse, B. (2017). The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis--and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance. New York, NY: St. Martin's Publishing.