July 27, 2015

Last week youth and young adults from across the country joined forces with Born This Way Foundation, Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, educators, psychologists, and policy makers for a two-day meeting at Facebook’s headquarters. Our purpose was to plan for the launch of Emotion Revolution on October 24, 2015.

Emotion Revolution is a youth-inspired national initiative to create emotionally-healthy schools—places where adults and students want to be—places where everyone is valued, learning is inspiring, and opportunities are created.

Facebook’s campus was a perfect location for this meeting. The campus was filled with people learning, working, and actively engaging with one another, which is what we did as well.

Several members of BTWF’s youth advisory board (YAB) joined us in brainstorming ideas and developing plans for the Emotion Revolution that we hope will ensure that our nation’s schools are welcoming, inspiring places. One youth, Adejire, said “When technology and social good unite, the possibilities for scale and impact are immense, yet measurable. This is just the beginning.” Another YAB member, Daniella, stated, “This event challenged everything I thought about emotions. We all have the power to positively impact the emotions of those around us and in doing so, create a culture where emotions are respected and positively supported. I am so grateful to everyone here for believing in youth and allowing us to be the drivers of change.  I cannot wait to see what we will accomplish!”

Look for more tweets and posts using the hashtag, #EmotionRevolution as we engage in this youth-led, youth-inspired revolution!

With Gratitude,
Dr. Sue