2023 BrainWise Program Review

BrainWise is taught in grades K-12 and in their homes, and in youth, health, and social service agencies. The following 2023 review highlights programs that show the scope of projects and introduces new additions for 2024. If you are a BrainWise instructor and do not have access to our past newsletters through the online BrainWise Resource Library, contact info@www.brainwise-plc.org to gain access to them, electronic worksheets, and other teaching aids.

BrainWise Embraced by Homeless Veterans. 

Psychiatrist Jared Greenberg, M.D., pilot tested the BrainWise curriculum with inpatient Veterans at the Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Their reaction will

lead to additional use of the curriculum as he found that “every single participant’s reaction to the program was overwhelmingly positive to an extent I could not have expected. They really loved BrainWise and felt it should be offered to all Veterans.”   He said they found that the skills helped them understand their treatments and therapies. (click here for more)

Family Counselors Teach BrainWise to Families in Crisis. 

Since 2017, family counselors in New Castle, PA have used BrainWise to help parents regain custody of children removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect.  The article shared the praise they and the parents they helped gave BrainWise.

(to read more,click here)

BrainWise Keynote Program at the Rotary International (RI) Zone Institute in San Diego.

More than four hundred Rotary District Governors from the Western U.S. and Canada attended and heard BrainWise presentations on two RI initiatives, promoting mental health (Dr. Greenberg, Counselor Matt Sena, and Dr. Pat) and empowering girls (Latina high school students.) To show Rotarians how to use the thinking concepts BrainWise teaches, the teens applied them to Taylor Swift’s actions against a DJ who inappropriately touched her. Taylor won her sexual assault case and was a positive role model for encouraging girls and women to report sexual assaults.

RI BrainWise Presenters:

Debra Flick, Ariana, Bryanna, Xitlali, Gabby, Matt Sena, Dr. Greenberg 

(to read the newsletter, click here)

Four BrainWise Instructors Have Taught Thousands of Children.

Award-winning educators who helped pilot the BrainWise for Grades K-5 curriculum gathered to celebrate the twenty years each spent teaching the 10 Wise Ways. BrainWise was their “go to” program and they talked about how they used it with young children, including those who were developmentally challenged. They shared how it helped students understand, prevent, and manage problems, including Columbine and ensuing school violence incidents.

20-Year BrainWise Instructors

  Barb Lamana, Wendy Cameron, Dr. Pat,

       Tracy Dodd, and Judy Carden

(click to read)

2024 BrainWise Projects: ML, AI, Chatbots, and Hacks

Through a serendipitous event, Dr. Pat met Linc Kroeger, former Accenture business executive and founder of Knight Moves, an Iowa-based nonprofit organization that teaches fast-track computer programming and software coding skills to Native Americans and underserved rural youth. His innovative approach gives young people coding skills comparable to those offered in college degree programs and allows them to obtain well-paid jobs that do not require them to leave their rural communities. 

During his presentation, Linc mentioned that he was looking for an SEL program to complement and enhance his program and an audience member mentioned BrainWise. Talks are now in progress, and our two organizations hope to work together on a scalable pilot project that current and future BrainWise sites can use. It is timely, as the digital age has opened a new path to apply and use BrainWise. In this milieu, the 10 Wise Ways are “hacks” or “simple and effective techniques to prevent and manage problems.” Machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and the AI platform ChatGPT, are rapidly changing how information is delivered, processed, and used. 

It was a timely meeting, as the digital age has opened a new path to apply and use BrainWise. In this milieu, the 10 Wise Ways are “hacks” or “simple and effective techniques to prevent and manage problems.” Machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and the AI platform ChatGPT, are rapidly changing how information is delivered, processed, and used. 

BrainWise skills/hacks meet a growing need, and we will offer digital tools, including bots, to deliver the materials and lessons. Forthcoming animations and videos will explain each of the 10 Wise Ways.

We are excited to explore the digital world with you in 2024!

On a Technical Note

Universities are on top of the rapid technical changes, and MIT posted a review of 2024 technologies they identified as “breakthrough.” Ask older students to identify how the Wise Ways would help them and others assess and implement the technologies and discuss how could they use technology to help others.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/08/1085094/10-breakthrough-technologies-2024/