Soul Shoppe's work is made possible by donors and partners who care deeply about the young people in their communities! We can't do this work without you. Support our work in classrooms and on playgrounds across the nation by donating here.
We want to send you gratitude for being part of our community.
At our celebration, we heard the voices of our AMAZING student peacemakers. We listened as our educators spoke to the deep transformation that happens in a school’s community over years of working with Soul Shoppe. And… we had a ton of fun dancing and winning fantastic prizes!
Just this week, a parent sent a donation with a note about Soul Shoppe’s positive impact on their family and home:
“Our 7yr-old matured in just a few sessions more than he did through most of virtual learning and has taught the methods in our household. Inspiring!”
Yes, we are INSPIRED!
We crunched some numbers… over these 20 years, we’ve supported 7,500 parents and 18,000 teachers to be empathetic adult role models for our next generation.
We have delivered over 48,000 workshops to schools… which for those of you who have seen our work means we have hit the play button on Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” 48,000 times 🙂
We have worked directly with over 560,000 individual kids, some of whom are now grown up… paying taxes, voting, and beginning their careers.
Of course it is our community (you!) who enables us to continue our work. You. Are. Amazing!
We’ve listed a few incredible ways you can take action to help Soul Shoppe launch into the NEXT 20 YEARS of big-hearted school programs.
Donate! We’ve raised $14,750 towards our June 30 goal of $20,000! We are SO close to our goal. If you’d like to help us close the gap with a donation, please click here to support.
Record a short video! Please let us know why you love Soul Shoppe! Record a 30-60 second video about our impact on your life! Click here to record your video!
Connect us to more schools! Maybe your friends’ kid is starting at a new elementary school and you suggest they look into Soul Shoppe. Or… maybe you are at a barbecue and someone mentions they work in the local school district? This is a GREAT opportunity to tell them about Soul Shoppe, and maybe connect us all over email.
Share our content online. We put a lot of work into our newsletter and social media efforts. Please spread the Soul Shoppe love by sending to friends and family! Good goes around when we all pitch in and engage when we are able.
Thank you again for what YOU have done to make our 20 years a success, and the next 20 years a reality!
In order to become a change-maker, you must first learn to adapt to change in a healthy way.
Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment — although change is necessary, it can also be extremely difficult.
It can cause our emotional balloons to fill up and be on the verge of leaking.
It can cause us to seek comfort in ways that are harmful to ourselves.
It can even cause us to have a negative outlook every time we are approached with something new.
But here is a reminder that how you adapt to change depends on how you react to change.
Read that again.
If we dig deep, lean into our resiliency and approach change with a curious mind, we can face big changes with more confidence, we can build better habits to manage uncertainty and most importantly, we can manage difficult emotions and empty our emotional balloons.
Then change not only becomes possible, it becomes fun!
And who doesn’t love fun?
In this month’s community event, we explored many healthy ways to cope with change that leave us feeling comforted, energized, and excited to move forward with the unexpected.
Get Your Change On! was a truly transformational experience where we played fun games, shared insightful stories, and even shook a tail feather!
Don’t just take our word for it! Check out this exciting recap video from Dr. Pooch:
Get Your Change On! centered on creating an open and safe space to hold important conversations around change and learn different ways to adapt, express emotions, and approach change differently in the future.
… and as you know, change is something we will have to constantly deal with it.
Something that has definitely shifted in the lives of our kiddos and even adults, is that there are now many conversations being had or shared in the media around the differences in the world — differences in cultures, race, and status. These conversations are far from easy but they are so necessary to have so that we can strive and hope for a future filled with community and compassion…
… a future where we can recognize and appreciate all differences.
The harsh reality is that when we recognize differences, we are forced to change how we look at the world.
And frankly, if you don’t know where to start with that shift, change can feel really scary and that’s okay.
Here at Soul Shoppe, we take pride in honoring, recognizing, and appreciating all the things that make each of us unique. Now, we want to share that same outlook with you and your kiddos.
We invite you to join Respect Differences, an on-demand course where kids are guided through lessons that will help them build up their self-esteem so that they can show more empathy toward people with ideas, appearances, likes, and dislikes different from their own.
This can ignite a beautiful change in our hearts, our lives, and our communities.
And that’s a change we’d love to see!
Interested in learning more about Respect Differences? Click the button below for more information!
Now, we want to know what you thought of our virtual event. Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or a school administrator, we’d love to hear from you so we can continue to improve our programs to best serve your kids and students.
Simply click here to take a very brief survey (only 3 questions!) and give us your feedback!
Keep up with the latest at Soul Shoppe by signing up for our newsletter!
In this monthly email, we provide you with the tools and resources to help your kids learn how they can embody and express their truths. We’ll also share upcoming events and other opportunities to engage with Soul Shoppe’s rich community of educators on a deeper level. Simply sign up below.
“The things that make me different are the things that make me.” – Winnie The Pooh
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We’re all different in our own unique ways. We have different appearances, talents, and abilities. We all think, feel, behave, and believe differently. That’s what makes life so interesting!
Sometimes we celebrate these differences. We heap praise on people like Steve Jobs, Serena Williams, and Greta Thunberg who break the mold and challenge the status quo. But sometimes we exclude, judge, or disparage people because we think they aren’t like us.
At Soul Shoppe, we show kids that if we just take the time to look beneath the surface, we’ll find that we have a lot more in common than we think. But how do we learn to really see beyond our outer appearances and get to know someone for what’s inside?
We can play the Same Same Different Game.
Last week, over 350 students joined us to play what we call the Same Same Different Game! How does it work? Well, we asked kids to look at two different people –me and our big-hearted facilitator Arek – and describe the differences and similarities they saw.
They pointed out that I’m a girl and Arek is a boy. They noted that we both have dark hair, though mine’s long and his is short. But our gender and our hair don’t make us who we are! There’s so much more that makes us unique, and these young people know it. They understand how to find the things we all have in common, whether it’s a love of dancing or a distaste for brussel sprouts.
But learning to appreciate and honor our differences takes practice. That’s why we created Respect Differences.
Respect Differences is an online course designed to teach K-6th grade kids how to recognize and appreciate all the things that make us unique. In this on-demand course, kids are guided through lessons that will help them build up their self-esteem so that they can show more empathy toward people with ideas, appearances, likes, and dislikes different from their own.
We show kids how they can play the Same Same Different Game to celebrate differences all the time. Visit our website and learn more. Or, you can click the button below.
Thank you for attending Soul Shoppe’s virtual game show, Kids Say the Smartest Things!
We had a blast sharing superhero trivia and imitating animal sounds, talking about polar bears and playground problems, but more importantly: your kids had a lot of wise insights to share.
They showed us how to navigate tough conversations, how to face overwhelming emotions, how to stand up to peer pressure, and much, much more. All this just goes to show that kids have innate peacemaking and problem solving skills. We adults could probably learn a thing or two!
Thanks to your little ones and their profound kid wisdom, we feel that we have a much brighter future ahead of us.
Now we want to know what you thought of our virtual events this year. Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or a school administrator, we’d love to hear from you so we can continue to improve our programs to best serve your kids and students.
Simply click the button below to take a very brief survey (only 3 questions!) and give us your feedback.
Host Timothy Regan welcomes you to learn peacebuilding skills along with the people and stories ofSoul Shoppe –our own Bay Area peacebuilding children’s educational fun-team! This nonprofit teaches healthy relationship and conflict management skills to thousands of children K-8th grade every year, with colorful, fun events.
Soul Shoppe team members Anthony Jackson and Paul Himmelstein share stories and demonstrate what we all needed to learn in grammar school – simple, powerful, reliable skills to understand ourselves and eachother, and to handle conflict so we can thrive together.
Soul Shoppeis a Bay Area nonprofit with a beautiful VISION: “A world where respect and empathy are the norm, and every child canthriveandshine!” Their MISSION is: “to create safe learning environments that bring forth a culture of compassion, connection and curiosity—eliminating bullying at the roots.”
