'Blueprints' for success

Kids keep their dreams alive with unusual online posts

SANTA FE, NM-Lots of kids dream about their future, but a group of New Mexico kids is taking their dreams one step further by posting them on a special Internet site. These Internet postings are part of a project underway through Envision Your Future (EYF), an organization dedicated to positive youth development. The act of posting their goals enables the kids to externalize them because they have a close relationship with technology. "Kids today want to find their own answers and be acknowledged for their own brand of genius," said Patty O'Sullivan, Ph.D., the developer of Envision Your Future. "They want to have their own winnable game for school and life."

EYF guides youth to commit to their education and make life-giving choices by having them get in touch with their dreams, their internal assets, and the positive choices they need to make to live their dreams. And the program works. Applications of the program resulted in a marked decline in risky and negative behavior and a corresponding improvement academically. Because of this success the program is being expanded within the Santa Fe and Espa?ola Public School Districts, juvenile justice systems, prevention programs aimed at youth and with teens that are parents.

"Having a dream by itself isn't enough," explains O'Sullivan, "it is necessary for kids to have their dreams nurtured by the adults in their lives. Externalizing and sharing dreams help kids stay connected to their future and gives them a voice. The program is designed to re-connect them with the importance of completing their education. Charting a course and designing the practical steps for having their dreams become a reality have a sustaining effect in preempting negative behaviors as they move into and through high school, where national statistics now indicate nearly one in three will never graduate. The kid's dreams are published on the organization's web site at http://www.envisionyourfuture.org/ under LiveYourDreams.

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