Early Childhood
Lower Elementary
Upper Elementary
Middle School
Grades: 6-8
High School
Grades: 9-12
Students who completed our program demonstrated:
The overwhelming majority of students who took the post assessment demonstrated mastery of each of the assessment focus areas. In particular, students excelled at awareness of personal strengths, ability to articulate a personal belief system and core values, goal-setting, development of self-confidence, social skills, and identification of life passions.
Assessment results are from the Regional High School (pilot school) in Holden, MA.
Assessment Results
“Social emotional learning (SEL) should be at the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students miss being able to see their friends and their teachers/staff. They miss the feeling of being connected to the community. Our goal this year as a counseling department was to implement a 9-week SEL program for our freshmen in hopes of connecting with them during their time of transition to the high school. We started piloting Empowering Confident Youth (ECY) in the fall of 2020 in a remote setting. Though the counseling department had to adjust the programming to better fit our needs, the bones of the program were developed by ECY. Based on the 128 freshmen who filled out the post-survey, 90.6% stated that they attended 6 or more SEL sessions. During the sessions, students became aware of their personal strengths, were able to articulate their core values, and developed self-confidence and social skills and were able to identify life passions. This was a time for freshmen to develop a relationship with their peers and with their counselors, in a time when human connection was even more important. Thank you to Jean Paul and the ECY team for allowing us to pilot this program!”
Lauren Clark, Director of School Counseling
Key Pillars
An Empowering Program To Develop Courageous & Successful Youth
Understand the Unique Self
Students need to develop an understanding of the unique identity that makes each of them inherently special.
Articulate Core Values
Our core values are unique and the heart of our motivations, and they will guide students in the next steps of their journeys.
Explore Personal Interests and Curiosities
Students need to explore their interests and curiosities in order to discover their passion and path for the future.
Set Goals Evaluate Decisions
Students use their own personal interests and values to start to envision their brightest future, encouraging them to set goals and make purpose-driven choices to achieve those goals.
Confront Doubts and Fears
Developing an awareness of negative beliefs that can hold students back in life helps them make informed decisions about issues they may need to work through to achieve success.
Build Self-Confidence
Students can cultivate belief in themselves as capable individuals with valuable strengths that are deserving of success.
Develop Social Skills and Community Awareness
Students develop the understanding that their actions impact others and they have important contributions to make to society.
Manage Emotions
Recognizing different emotions and use self-care strategies to manage them.
Cultivate An Entrepreneurial Spirit
Promising Outcomes
Pilot Outcome results
Regional High School
Ninth-graders from the Regional High School excelled at awareness of personal strengths, ability to articulate a personal belief system and core values, goal-setting, development of self-confidence, social skills, and identification of life passions.
YMCA of Central Massachusetts
ECY’s curriculum allows for leadership training during a time that this is difficult and more needed than ever. The curriculum also took them from an isolated world and allowed them to build social connection and have real talk about challenges.