Stories for Growth: Making Meaning of Emotions ---------------------------------------------- ___________ **Overview** **Stories for Growth: Making Meaning of Emotions** is a collection of resources designed **by** parents **for** parents (biological, adoptive, or foster), grandparents, caregivers, educators, and all others who care for young children. When the adults in children's lives understand the value of emotions and learn strategies for recognizing and regulating emotions, not only are they on the road to developing a greater sense of well-being, but they are more equipped to support children in developing these strategies and skills for themselves. Between January 2020 and June 2022, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence team collaborated with seven local Parent Leaders, Tony Nelson (Parent Leader Coordinator), and Poulomi Mukherji (animation director) to develop seven story-based animated videos and supplementary resources. Out of this collaboration, **Stories for Growth: Making Meaning of Emotions** emerged. The program materials include: - (1) seven story-based videos - (2) eight video-based workshops centered around original stories from the lives of parents, grandparents, and other caregivers, - (3) the companion workbook for participants, and - (4) a facilitator's guide. These resources can be used by families, communities, school districts as well as center- and home-based providers to strengthen family emotional intelligence (and the practice of emotional intelligence in the home), family engagement and support educator professional development. The videos and supplementary workshop materials will be hosted publicly so that these resources are universally accessible to support diverse cultures (e.g., socioeconomic, racial/ethnic) and contexts (i.e., home, school, community) while meeting local needs that were identified through our community feedback efforts. ---------- (1) Seven Story-based Videos Stories were at the core of learning and growth within the parent leadership group. With each video narrated in his or her own voice, the Parent Leaders share unique stories where they reflect on their lived experiences and how this multi-year journey has transformed them and impacted their growth and the well-being of their children, families, and community. - **Video 1:** What Difference Would It Have Made? (Carmen’s Story) - **Video 2:** Growing Up, We Didn’t Talk About Emotions (Susan’s Story) - **Video 3:** Vividly Remembering That Episode Of My Childhood (Maria’s Story) - **Video 4:** When I Grow, My Child Grows (Ivoni’s Story) - **Video 5:** Everyday Challenges Present Opportunities (Bobie Jo’s and Vincent’s Stories) - **Video 6:** Second Chances (Tony’s Story) - **Video 7:** A Light In You (Lovey’s Story) For each video, original music has been composed by [Larry Groupé][1], Professor of Music at [Indiana University Jacobs School of Music][2]. **Access all seven videos at https://vimeo.com/showcase/9813535.** ---------- (2) Eight Video-based Workshops To deepen the learning for each video, we designed eight workshops. Both the videos and workshops leverage personal stories as a springboard to have conversations about emotions. Workshops are approximately two hours in length. The eight video-based workshops are located under **[OSF Storage/Stories for Growth: Making Meaning of Emotions/Workshops.][3]** ---------- (3) Participant Workbook To accompany the video-based workshop series, we’ve designed a companion Workbook for participants to spotlight key SEL concepts and practices embedded within each video. The workbook includes key concepts and extended learning group and individual reflection activities for adults to practice SEL skills between workshop sessions. The Workbook is located under **[OSF Storage/Stories for Growth: Making Meaning of Emotions/Participant Workbook.][4]** ---------- (4) Facilitator's Guide To prepare facilitators and strengthen their skills for delivering these video-based workshops, we have created a Facilitator's Guide. The Facilitator's Guide is located under **[OSF Storage/Stories for Growth: Making Meaning of Emotions/Facilitator's Guide.][5]** __________ Our hope is that these resources will support others to understand and unpack these stories in a way that supports well-being for families and healthy development for children. By creating resources that include the concerns, examples, and the voices of local parent leaders, we anticipate increasing access and opportunities for others in the community to feel seen, understood, and engaged in learning about emotions and to have a set of skills and practices they can use to support themselves, their children, and their communities. [1]: https://www.larrygroupe.com/ [2]: https://music.indiana.edu/faculty/current/groupe-larry.html [3]: https://osf.io/8jr7x/files/osfstorage [4]: https://osf.io/8jr7x/files/osfstorage [5]: https://osf.io/8jr7x/files/osfstorage