By Amber Cortes and CFC International
Students in Boa Vista, Brazil, enjoy learning social-emotional skills with the adaptation of Second Step. Photo: Committee for Children
How does an organization specializing in social emotional wellbeing expand its reach to a global level?
You’d think it would take a ton of funding, resources, and people power. But sometimes all it takes to scale up is a compelling idea, the right partnerships, and a clear vision for impact.
Committee for Children (CFC) is a leading provider of curricula focused on strengthening children’s social and emotional skills. Subjects for kids from preschool through high school range from bullying prevention and personal safety to growth mindset, emotion management and empathy.
SEL is the process of developing self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success. From effective problem-solving to self-discipline, from impulse control to emotion management and more, SEL provides a foundation for positive, long-term effects on kids, adults, and communities.
Once a local volunteer-run start-up, CFC is now a large social enterprise nonprofit, self-funding their initiatives through sales of their social emotional learning (SEL) programs across the United States while also setting their sights on promoting the social-emotional wellbeing of children the world over.
CFC Social Emotional Learning program in China. Photo: Committee for Children
CFC began in 1979, the result of research conducted by Drs. Jennifer James and Debra Boyer that showed that most youth involved in prostitution had been victims of at-home sexual abuse. With the goal to curb this trend and give children the necessary skills to prevent sexual abuse, the pair garnered some funding, borrowed some office space, and developed the Talking About Touching program educators could use in the classroom to teach children about personal safety and self-assertion. Before they could even start marketing their product at scale, organizations and schools were calling and asking for more program resources. A second part of James’ and Boyer’s research was to determine what skills help children from engaging in violent behavior. This next program, Second Step, which has gone through various revisions to keep in line with social emotional learning research, is CFC’s main revenue generator and reputation builder.
“[Second Step] remains the number one social-emotional learning program by a significant margin,” says Mia Doces, Vice President of CFC International, who has been with CFC for almost twenty years. “And when you consider our international reach, we are globally the most widely used program.”
As Second Step grew in recognition across the United States, organizations in other countries seeking violence prevention programs took notice. At first, CFC simply licensed the use of the programs to interested parties, a light touch that didn’t demand too much from the quickly growing non-profit. And while translating certain social and emotional terms got tricky at times, the main social-emotional lesson objectives were relevant across multiple cultures. CFC soon counted partnering organizations in 14 countries providing adapted versions of the Second Step program.
For example, in Brazil, the adaptation launched by their partner reaches some two million students, including distribution throughout the state of São Paulo.
In Chile under-privileged preschoolers learn about making friends, while in Slovakia, first year middle school students learn about bullying prevention, and youngsters in Lithuania practice belly breathing to calm down.
As Committee for Children revises the programs with more digital assets to meet domestic demand, the programs can become too complicated and costly to adapt. To continue expanding their global reach, CFC International was launched to focus on new strategic directions.
“Let’s take the strength that Committee for Children has: the research, the understanding of SEL and content development, and find ways we can utilize that to the benefit of others” explains Carolyn Hubbard, International Partnerships Director.
CFC SEL program in Denmark. Photo: Committee for Children
CFC International now works with organizations that integrate some parts of CFC’s resources to enhance their own programs, such as the case with partner in Mexico which is developing an SEL curriculum specifically for Maya communities in Yucatán Peninsula.
And there are plans to begin a second strategic arm to provide funding and strategic support to organizations that develop their own culturally relevant SEL programs or training services.
The third strategic direction is future focused, with an emphasis on how much education and SEL may change. Organized by Doces, a research consortium of post-doctoral fellows at Linacre College at University of Oxford research the intersection of artificial intelligence and social, emotional, and mental well-being. This consortium benefits existing partners interested in exploring these themes as well as helps advance the field.
For education nonprofits looking to expand their international reach, Doces says the trick is not to make complicated adaptations, but to stay lean, allowing the material to be flexible enough to be adapted and implemented by educators in their own cultural contexts.
Hubbard adds the importance of patience and “to be willing to start small, find proof of concept, and then move forward.” She also suggests focusing on teacher training because success lies not just in the quality of the product, but in the quality of implementation.
Primary school children in Boa Vista, Roraima state, Brazil, learn to their focus attention with Programa Compasso socioemocional. Photo: Committee for Children
Meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,’ starts with social emotional learning, both Doces and Hubbard emphasized.
Children need the foundational skills that an SEL program can provide to facilitate learning. Another key element is ensuring teachers are well trained and supported. “A key part of ‘social emotional learning’ is that word ‘learning’,” adds Hubbard. “In order for there to be learning, you need to focus on the teachers and make sure they can provide a quality experience.”
The goal to empower more children and adults with SEL at a global level can seem daunting, but CFC International has a clear vision of how SEL can take root across cultures, helping to provide a foundation for lifelong learning.