20 October 2016 Ms. Sally Ann Della Casa Founder and Director The Growing Leaders Foundation 207 W Bayside Towers Cocorite Dear Ms. Della Casa, Recommendation letter This letter is in reference to your newly completed grant ‘Leadership Trees and Bottle Garden Project TRI/SGP/OP5/Y3/CORE/CH/14/04, funded by the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme at UNDP Trinidad and Tobago. We would like to commend the Growing Leaders Foundation on the implementation of their project during the period March 2014 to October 2016. The Foundation has shown tremendous commitment and passion to addressing land degradation and increasing ecological diversity, through the implementation of their project. Furthermore, the Foundation has sought to work with youth to develop both their environmental and entrepreneurial skills through mentoring and training of students in 10 primary schools. We are especially pleased with the production of the useful knowledge management video ‘Bottle Garden Project and Financial Literacy by Growing Leaders Foundation and Grande Agro Tourism’. This will surely serve as a good tool for future climate smart agriculture projects in the GEF SGP portfolio. We wish The Growing Leaders Foundation continued success with all of its future projects. Yours sincerely, Nesha Beharry‐Borg National Coordinator GEF‐ Small Grants Programme
GEF/SGP – United Nations Development Programme, Tel: (868) 623 7056, Fax : (868) 623 1658. 3A Chancery Lane, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Trinidad and Tobago
LEADERSHIP CALL
BECOME PART OF OUR GLF FAMILY
WHY YOU? BY MARTIN LUTHER KING (modified) I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?
Number one in your life's blueprint should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth, and your own somebody-ness. Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.
HOW WE HELP EDUCATORS We are all teachers. A degree is not needed to share civic, moral, character leadership, and other soft skills education. In fact, degrees are no longer a requirement at many of the world’s largest companies, such as Google and EY, for traditional jobs. Great educators understand that schools can no longer simply offer academic subjects. However, most schools do not have the budget to have non-traditional offerings. And many academic teachers are either not equipped to offer these life tools to students, may not be the right persons to deliver these types of skills to their students, or they simply do not have the time given their heavy workloads. This is where we step in and help, with welldesigned programming and amazing teachers, like you.
ONE HOUR EVERY 3 WEEKS OVER 3 MONTHS
YOUR COMMITMENT You sign up for on-line training, which can be done in a few days. You can choose to buddy with an experienced GLF instructor or select to take on a class on your own. Classes are usually no more than 25 students. We then hand-hold you as your back office through the entire experience. You can choose any school in your community or close to your place of work. Most companies allow our GLF teachers to teach the program (only one hour plus travel time) during work hours because of the tremendous goodwill it brings to the company. We provide you with all the materials to introduce the program to the school, but you are responsible for arranging the schedule and managing the relationship. We recommend the program to be taught to 8-12 year olds. Why? •
This is when children’s brains are fully developed and they are not yet influenced by what the world wants them to be.
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This is a great non-judgmental age group for you to practice and hone your own teaching and leadership skills.
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This is a forgotten age group. Middle school is where youths’ critical thinking abilities awaken, but they lose their way because of the strong single focus on taking tests.
Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must
have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a
sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail.
OUR MANIFESTO WE ARE ALL BORN AS A GIFT OF ALL THINGS POSSIBLE WE SET THE BAR FOR OUR LIVES WE ARE THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT UNTIL OUR LAST BREATH WE WILL… HONOR OUR FOREFATHERS HONOR OUR RELATIONSHIPS PROTECT AND DEFEND LIFE WE WILL… IGNORE OUR NAYSAYERS SHOW UP IN LIFE IMPERFECTLY PERFECT HEED THE WISDOM OF OUR MISTAKES WE WILL… HEAR OUR CALLING DREAM WIDE AND TALL AIM WHERE OTHERS CANNOT SEE WE WILL… SEEK OUT OUR TRIBE WE WILL TRUST AND BE TRUSTED ALONE WE CAN ONLY GO SO FAR WE WILL… BE METICULOUS IN EVERYTHING WE DO AND STAND TALL WITH DIGNITY WE WILL PROVIDE SHADE FOR GENERATIONS
YOU
YOUR HIGHEST NEED SELF-TRANSCENDENCE FORMATION The Hierarchy of Needs is a model in which Maslow attempted to explain human motivation. The original hierarchy-of-needs fivestage model includes:
1. Biological and physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.
WHY TEACH?
2. Safety needs - protection from the elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.
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The things we want passionately to teach other people (whether or not we think of ourselves as “teachers”) are the things we, ourselves, truly want to learn and embody.
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Through teaching, we become more self-aware.
3. Love and belongingness needs - friendship, intimacy, trust and acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love, affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work).
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As we grow, we can also enhance and deepen our relationships with others and our ability to impact them positively.
4. Esteem needs - achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from others.
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Through teaching, we let go of the “perfection myth.”
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We can create a deep sense of freedom in our lives that actually gives us the space and the power to be ourselves.
5. Self-actualization needs realizing personal potential, selffulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. Self-Transcendence - helping others to self-actualize - was later added.
WWW.GRO WINGLEADERSFOUNDATI ON.COM
WE ARE FLUENT IN YOUTH LEADERSHIP AND SOFT SKILLS
OUR FOUNDER AS AN EDUCATOR Our Founder, Sallyann Della Casa, has for the last 20 years OUTREACH been involved in developing workplace skillsets in youths, while at the same time practicing law. She started off as a volunteer teacher under the KAPOW (Kids and the Power of Work) Program in the US, overseen by the Child Labor Committee, mentoring a few schools. At the time, she had no idea that she had a natural gift for writing engaging curricula. During that time she won the Volunteer Teacher of the Year Award a few times. When it was discovered what and how she was teaching in her KAPOW classes, her lesson plans were adopted as part of the resources for teachers by the School Board of Florida.
In 2010, our Founder found the courage to leave law and jump into teaching full-time. She created her own Foundation and started piloting her programming across the Caribbean and Middle East. She spotted gaps, not only in what was not being taught but also in that there were students being ignored altogether in the school system, at the most critical time in their development. The Foundation directly focused on this 8‒12 year age group. As an avid reader and learner, our Founder is constantly tinkering and updating the Foundation programs to ensure they are at the cutting edge of innovation in the education sector.
She is currently attending Harvard Extension School, seeking certification in Organizational Behavior. Her other degrees and professional background are in Urban Planning, Blended Learning, Law, Educational publications, Employee Engagement, and Workplace Cultures. Our Founder refers to teaching as her form of meditation. She is often found in a classroom joyfully testing material and sparking the brains and hearts of youths in the program. She is very clear on her mission: to ensure every youth understands their power, passions, and potential sooner rather than later in life, so they can thrive and become great leaders. The work of the Foundation is deeply personal.
WWW.GROWINGLEADERSFOUNDATION.COM
THREE EASY STEPS: 1. TRAIN ONLINE TO BECOME A YOUTH LEADERSHIP TEACHER 2. ADOPT A CLASS AND TEACH WHAT YOU JUST LEARNED 3. EXPLORE THE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF YOUR LEADERSHIP
J O IN OU R G LOB A L N E TW OR K OF U N I V E R S IT Y S TU D EN T S , C O M PA N Y E M P LO Y E E S A N D I N D I V ID U A L S GR O W IN G L EA D ER S W I TH U S
BUSINESS BOOTCAMP FOR YOUTHS WHY IT MATTERS AT A YOUNG AGE That’s right, in emerging fields (which is about everything today) a college degree is worth NADA (Spanish word for nothing) on the streets. And a high school degree has even less value if the focus was on test taking and academia alone.
The lifespan of the knowledge with a college degree was maybe 10 years plus i.e. without requiring any further major education in a particular field. Today, youths are lucky if what they learned in the first year of college is relevant and true by the time they graduate.
right, in emerging fields (which is about everything today) a
AN ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET IS CRITICAL FOR YOUTHS TO THRIVE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Yes and no. The days of college as a glorified baby-sitting service for young adults to find their way is over. It is too late by then for most to start figuring out what they are good at and/or love! College is a great option to explore and hone in on one’s powers, curiosities and passions already recognized and being polished while younger. Children show us who they are very early and if they are lucky, somebody paid attention and found ways to allow them to explore their potential. This is what BYOB is all about…and why every child should be exposed to it.
IS COLLEGE STILL NECESSARY?
W W W . GR OW IN GL EA D ER SF OU N D A TI ON .C O M
AN IDEA
OBJECTIVE TO ENSURE 9-13 YEAR OLDS FULLY UNDERSTAND THEIR POWERS AND PASSIONS WIHTIN THE “ACTION” FRAMEWORK OF ENTREPRENERSHIP. YOUTH LEAVE HAVING ALL THE TOOLS AND CONFIDENCE THEY NEED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, MAKE A PROFIT AND/OR SOLVE A
WE TEACH HOW TO: • FAIL FAST • PIVOT OR ITERATE • KEEP MOVING FORWARD
PROBLEM.
SHORT AND INTENSE Our BYOB sessions are based on the same principles made famous by Tony Robbins in the OUTREACH immersion coaching industry. It consists of a synthesis of the very best entrepreneurship tools and strategies that we teach adults but made for youth. It can create change rapidly through an explosion of progress where youths experience success of their ideas early on.
SAMPLE ACTIVITYEDUCATOR
A physical prototype Design Thinking Challenge with supplies to fix a problem or create an innovation. A Mindmap exploring each others natural powers and passions may be the lead-up exercise.
Every activity has a benchmark Reaction, Youths going through BYOB also Learning, Behavior and Result. become part of our global closed platform with other past BYOB So as an example for this activity, youths youth alum from all over the have to think on the feet and physically jump world in our BYOB Club. in using all senses, figure out how to create Challenges are posted on this teams and explore diversity of ideas, squeeze platform monthly. BYOB alums out creativity with limited resources, fail fast, end up getting to know each pivot, iterate, practice presentation skills and other and they have the embrace each other’s strengths and opportunity to partner with each weaknesses all under time constraints. other regardless of their locations. W W W . GR OW IN GL EA D ER SF OU N D A TI ON .C O M Founder, Sallyann Della Casa,