In today’s world, one does not have to look far to find examples of the social disparities and danger faced by our young people, both inside and outside of our classrooms, cafeterias, schoolyards, and playgrounds. The Nest Program for Healthy Childhoods was developed to reflect these realities, and build on the innate talents of young people, to promote safety and health among elementary school students across the United States. The program takes an evidence-informed, strengths-based approach to PREVENTION and INTERVENTION.
Evidence-based and age-appropriate, The Nest Program for Healthy Childhoods (1) promotes youth resilience, prioritizes the building blocks of social emotional learning and critical thinking, and (2) highlights skills and knowledge related to positive relationships.In today’s world, one does not have to look far to find examples of the
Rooted in research literature from psychology, education, and related disciplines, the Nest Program for Healthy Childhoods is informed by evidence-based best practices as well as feedback from teachers and students. By leveraging a university- community partnership with New York University, Nest is able to provide participating schools with data documenting outcomes including program fidelity, student social engagement, and classroom climate. Additionally, by providing feedback by completing assessments, students and teachers inform current and future iterations of the Program, and other programs like it.
Evaluations serve as a cornerstone of the program and equip Nest and partner schools with critical feedback on impact, implementation, and needs.
The Nest Texas Curriculum incorporates evidence-based approaches to facilitate student’s socio-emotional wellbeing, resilience, creativity, and safety across three key domains:
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
EXPRESSION
SAFETY
In the first lesson, students begin a mural that is posted in the classroom by noting their accomplishments, skills, and talents as a way to share with each other and visualize their capacity to contribute to the world. This will be the foundation of a collective Community Mural.
During each subsequent lesson, you will take the students through activities. We encourage you to be on the lookout for responses and ideas that sound like solutions and add these to the Community Mural throughout the unit. We've found that it can be helpful to ask students to include solutions that can be undertaken on an Individual level and on a Community/Social level.
For a number of student activities, handouts are provided. As appropriate, each lesson details the steps for the teacher to follow in explaining the student procedure.
This unit sample checkout exercises that we encourage you to go through and/or adapt for your students. These exercises are intended to help the students decompress and should be used to close the class session. Please ensure there is enough time to go through these exercises at the end of each class period.
Links to articles and other publications you might wish to read are also included throughout this site. You may also wish to share these resources with your students.
The Nest Program for Healthy Childhoods draws on evidence-based practice and literatures across education (e.g., Freire, 1968), clinical psychology (e.g., Dialectical Behavior Therapy; Linehan, 1993), counseling psychology (Ali & Sichel, 2014), and community psychology (e.g., Watts, Williams & Jagers, 2003; Watts, Griffith, & Abdul-Adil, 1999). In doing so, the Program provides opportunities for teachers and students to engage in didactic activities that:
• Build community
• Foster critical thinking
• Support students in cultivating healthy relationships
• Promote safety by helping students effectively recognize and respond to risky contexts
• Support social action and pro-social behavior
Researchers in psychology, sociology, and related disciplines have demonstrated the effectiveness of using sociopolitical awareness to promote social engagement and well-being in populations including urban adolescents and survivors of domestic abuse (Chronister & McWhirter, 2006; Watts, Griffith, & Abdul-Adil, 1999).
Evidence suggests that promoting students’ sociopolitical development can protect them from the negative mental health outcomes such as psychological symptoms (e.g., anxiety and depression) and low self-esteem (Zimmerman, Ramirez-Valles, & Maton, 1999).
Additionally, recent research has shown that engaging young people in discussions about oppression, privilege, and pop culture through a structured intervention increased students’ propensity for prosocial behavior and resilience (Sichel, Javdani, Ueberall, & Leggitt, 2017).