TRANSITIONS TO COMPLETE EDUCATION

New Hope Charitable Foundation

Thought drives belief. Belief drives behavior.

What people believe about themselves they become.

AWARENESS

For many decaded there've been movements in education to teach values, in an effort to both stem the tide of negative behaviors and provide a framework for the many young people who have expressed that they feel “lost” as they seek to find themselves and their place within schools and our society.

New Hope calls the goal of this search AWARENESS. Promoting AWARENESS in young people assists them to find the “character” and “values” they already have within. More than educating them on particular values or character traits they “should” possess, AWARENESS allows young people to find and embrace the character traits and values they inherently possess - in other words, it allows them to BE.

BEING might sound like an over-simplification, but when adults consider how much of their lives they have spent attempting to BE something they are not, in contrast to what they knew they were and wanted to be, they will quickly understand that the greatest gift we can give to young people is acceptance of their right to BE. New Hope believes that kind of acceptance actually guides young people toward self-discovery of the very attributes that society values – honesty, responsibility, etc. We also believe that self-discovery of these traits is the only path to true self-esteem.

True self-esteem comes from within. It cannot be granted, it can only be earned. And it cannot be earned through external means, it must be earned internally in two ways:

1) by an internal belief in self-worth and the worth of others

2) by experiencing personal success

Go to the "Manifest Rights of Every Person"

"Beyond the river of knowledge,

there is an ocean of intuition."

"Teach young people to recognize both

what is happening, and why it is

happening. If you are unaware of the

why - you are entirely unaware."

Guiding Self-Awareness

If we as parents, educators and employers can appropriately utilize best practices to guide the young people in our midst, we can awaken their self-awareness. Young people are desperate for this kind of guidance.

AWARENESS PRINCIPLES

Principle #1

What People Believe About Themselves, They Become

At New Hope we think that BELIEF DRIVES BEHAVIOR. And in fact, research bears that out. Actions follow thought. For every young person working on their dreams with a sense of self-worth and confidence, there is someone who said to them, “You can do it.” That simple statement gave the young person permission to believe in themselves, to become self-aware, and to succeed. We must believe in every young person’s ability to succeed, and express that to them regularly, or we must be prepared to expect the opposite from them.

Principle #2

Honesty

Honesty is about saying, first to yourself, and then to others, what it is of which you are aware. Guiding young people requires we help them to understand what honesty really is, and that there is HONOR in being honest about what you feel, or what you stand for. Honesty is being responsibly visible, transparent. We must learn to make it safe for young people to be honest with us, and understand how to deal with that honesty, or we cannot hope to guide them.

Principle #3

Responsibility

Responsibility means a willingness to do whatever you can to make the outcomes you produce the best they can be, and to do what it takes to remedy whatever can be remedied, should others choose to experience the outcomes as damaging in any way. Responsibility does NOT mean doing something out of GUILT. We must learn to teach responsibility without guilt attached, or the young people we guide will not engage in responsible behavior INDEPENDENTLY.

Principle #4

One with Others

Guiding young people toward independence and maturity means helping them to understand they have the right to develop their own unique self, but that they can never be separate from others. None of us is superior to another, no exception. If they come to learn that others – for ANY reason - have less value, then there will always be the fear and suspicion that they may one day have less value too. Only by teaching acceptance of, and empathy toward, all others do we teach a young person that they truly are valuable for who they are.

Principal #5

Joyfulness

The greatest enjoyment in life comes from the pursuit of our dreams, even if our dreams bring us face to face with disappointments and obstacles. Even those, we find, deliver growth, lessons, satisfaction, and ultimately value. Therefore, we must never let anyone steal our dreams. We must teach young people to stand up for their dreams, and enjoy the pursuit, regardless of its outcome.

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Awareness * Responsibility * Honesty

NewHopeCharitableFoundation.org

for EVERY child a life of meaning and hope