WHAT WE DO
“If… you want to raise engaged citizens, people that understand what democracy is and know what the processes are to make a change, they need experience of that. You can’t raise someone in an authoritarian regime for 18 years of their life and then say, ‘hey, now you have an empowered choice’ because they’re not used to being empowered. They’re used to being submissive.”
- Kezia Cantwell-Wright
OUR FOCUS
Our work empowers, inspires, and uplifts people of all ages across all walks of life, from school districts to healthcare workers, professional and student-athletes, business employees and leadership, service members, and beyond.
Whether you’re an educator looking to inspire students, a business leader looking to energize your team, or a community organization seeking to spread H.O.P.E., our presentations and practices speak to the heart of our collective humanity.
The Sweethearts & Heroes’ mission is to empower everyone to become someone’s Sweetheart or Hero. Let us motivate your group with tales of strength, H.O.P.E., and the power of the human spirit. We seek to infect all people with purpose, compassion, and empathy.
Inspire
Our school-wide services are designed to cultivate a positive school environment and address broader school-based issues. These services are available to all students and focus on building a supportive atmosphere that fosters networks of support, belonging, and a strong sense of school community. This includes our K-12 student assemblies and Circle work.
School-Wide Services
Connect
Group-Targeted Programs
Our group-targeted programs are designed to harness and amplify the strengths within the school community. Unlike traditional intervention-based programs, these targeted services emphasize a strength-based, preventative model that empowers all kinds of influencers across the school, from high-achieving role models to students whose influence may be disruptive.
Sustain
For the long-term sustainability of our programs for all incoming students and educators, we’re here to help your team understand our processes, practices, and programs to maintain them after we’ve gone. These services include multiple yearlong classes that build upon each other, affecting every grade level, and advanced training for educators.
Integrated Sustainability
THE HUMAN SKILLS
We aim to develop and improve the deteriorating 5 Core Human Skills. We take a traditional approach to these skills, which have been critical throughout all human history. In the 1960s at Yale Medical School, James Comer implemented these 5 Core Human Skills into mainstream education, reducing incarceration rates and greatly affecting students’ academic achievement, attendance, and disruptive behaviors.
These skills can be learned just as students learn how to multiply and divide. Circles are specifically engineered to acquire, maintain, and develop each of the Human Skills as we learn how to manage emotions, problem-solve, and create positive relationships with others. Circle consciously moves these competencies to the front of our collective awareness and puts their development into action so that our students can work on these critical skills. Time permitting, it is a good practice to ask participants to discuss how they have developed these skills in and through the Circle.
Spaced Repetitive Practices
To retain any information in our brain, we must refresh it periodically with specific time intervals.
Spaced repetition is an educational practice of reviewing information at gradually increasing intervals, statistically proven to increase retention. It is an ideal system that allows you to review the material before it is forgotten, helping you to retain it in your long-term memory. Rather than learning information quickly, which can lead to quick forgetting, spaced repetition focuses on long-term retention of new information. This process helps build competence, a basic psychological need (next to autonomy and relatedness) that humans need to develop to achieve engagement and fulfillment in their lives.