By the HOPE Team, 8/5/21, positiveexperience.org/blog This past week, the HOPE team had our first in-person staff retreat! We treasured the opportunity to come together, discuss our work, and even have the chance to meet some of our newest staff members face-to-face. Join us in welcoming these wonderful additions to HOPE! Isabella Pagnozzi, MSM - Isabella started with HOPE in June as an administrative assistant. She received her Master's degree in Business Management, focusing on project...

By the HOPE Team, 7/28/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Like so many people, we spent part of the weekend transfixed by the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Despite COVID, no crowds, and troubles with the Tokyo organizing committee, the athletes dazzled us with their speed, endurance and grace. In particular, Simone Biles seems superhuman – a woman who seems to defy gravity and performs gymnastic feats that had been thought to be impossible. She wears her past on her body and outfit: her collarbone bears...

By Bob Sege, 7/22/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Summertime offers a chance to pause and reflect. This past year our team has had the good fortune to meet with, teach, and learn from dozens of organizational leaders and well over 10,000 participants from around the country and beyond. HOPE resonates with the values and work of so many other programs, organizations, and frameworks. At the same time, HOPE coalesces many years of research, thinking, and practical experience. What does HOPE...

By Amanda Winn, 7/15/21, positiveexperience.org/blog "The HOPE National Resource Center is excited to announce expanded options for HOPE trainings! While we always work with organizations to tailor the training experience to specific local needs, below are basic descriptions of our most requested options including some new opportunities. All trainings can be delivered virtually or in-person. Training options: Introductory Keynote presentation Typically one hour in length, the keynote...

By Bob Sege, 7/14/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Many of you undoubtedly remember the spectacular keynote address that Rev. Darrell Armstrong gave at our First Annual HOPE Summit . He and Shiloh Baptist Church are being considered for an award from the American Heart Association “Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator” Program for non-profits. There will be three winners – each of which will share a percentage of the $105,000 Grand Prize that would go a long way towards seeding his...

This summer, the HOPE team welcomes several talented students to assist us with our many projects and presentations. Each one of them adds their unique perspective and expertise to our team, and brings a hardworking, equity-focused mindset that directly represents HOPE in action. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with each and every one of them! We asked each of them to introduce themselves to our readers. Sydney Grob I was born and raised in a small town outside of Denver,...

By Guest Author, 7/1/2021, positiveexperience.org/blog Please introduce yourself and your work to our blog readers. I am a health policy researcher whose work examines health disparities among rural and other vulnerable populations, with a primary focus on children. I am an assistant professor in the Arnold School of Public Health’s Department of Health Services Policy and Management at the University of South Carolina and deputy director of the Rural and Minority Health Research Center . My...

By Guest Author, 6/22/21, positiveexperience.org/blog This June, the HOPE team had the honor of meeting with Scarlett Lewis, Founder and CEO of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement. Through a mission to live by her son Jesse’s message “ Nurturing, Healing, Love ,” the Choose Love Movement produced a comprehensive program on social and emotional learning for all ages! This program is now being implemented in schools and community organizations nationwide. Check out chooselovemovement.org for...

By the HOPE Team, 6/18/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Tomorrow, June 19 th , marks the anniversary of the day in 1865 when word finally reached Texas that President Lincoln had outlawed slavery in the United States nearly two and a half years prior. Today, 156 years later, we celebrate Juneteenth for the first time as a nation. See the end of this post for more information about the new federal holiday and its long history. While we have celebrated July 4 as our day of independence since...

By Chloe Yang, 6/17/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Chloe Yang, the HOPE team’s much-loved Senior Research Assistant, has moved on from the team to pursue a Master’s in Public Health degree at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill! From managing the website and blog posts, to assisting with data analysis and report writing, Chloe was the backbone of the HOPE team from her start with us in November of 2019. In her farewell interview, the HOPE team asked her about her most treasured...

By Amanda Winn, 6/10/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Hello out there, HOPE family. I joined HOPE at the start of this year to help the team bring HOPE to the West Coast. I’m a Bay Area girl living in Portland. Well, to be more precise, I’m a New Jersey girl who made the Bay Area her home for over a decade before moving to Portland. I’m a social worker with my MSW from Cal, and I’ve always worked at the intersection of parenting and poverty, typically at a more macro-level. Oh, and I’m a...

By Amanda Winn, 5/24/2021, positiveexperience.org/blog The HOPE team is growing. We are grateful to report that the past year has been an incredibly busy time for us at the HOPE National Resource Center. We’ve conducted over 50 trainings and the requests keep rolling in! Providers across sectors, from the medical community to home visiting, early childhood, juvenile justice, substance use prevention, and K-12 education, want to learn more about HOPE. We have some exciting new technical...

By Loren McCullough, 5/19/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Last month, Jane Stevens, founder and publisher of PACES Connection introduced us to the Hope Research Center at The University of Oklahoma. We had a fascinating hour-long call with director Chan Hellman and his team. It turns out that hope itself promotes resilience and well-being, and that their work on the cognitive process of hope aligns so well with our work on HOPE – Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences. In order to share...