Cricket celebrates Mentoring Month adding social and emotional learning components to its CricketTogether virtual mentoring program
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, January 25, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — Cricket Media has announced its participation in the 13th Annual National Mentoring Summit as a supporting partner, exhibitor, and presenter. In alignment with National Mentoring Month, MENTOR convenes the Summit each January in the nation’s capital. At the summit, Cricket will share with the national mentoring community best practices developed since its CricketTogether program began as In2Books in 1998 in the DC Public Schools. Laura Woodside, Senior Vice President of Education Products at Cricket Media, will lead the presentation drawing on her 15 years of eMentoring leadership. The interactive workshop shares strategies for developing social and emotional learning through mentoring, helping organizations strengthen SEL within existing program design.
Cricket’s eMentoring programs, which impact both literacy and STEM for children in underserved communities, are currently serving over 1,200 matches across the US, with over 10,000 letters exchanged this academic year. CricketTogether has recently launched 8 new social and emotional learning units available now to all program participants.
These units allow children to explore and develop these competencies through reading and corresponding with their personal eMentors. Carefully selected readings provide a window into the lives of diverse child protagonists solving their own relatable problems, and eMentors provide the safe framework of supportive adults with whom students share their own struggles and questions.
Each new unit promotes one of the five CASEL competencies in Social-Emotional Learning: Self-Management (Managing My Fears), Self-Awareness (Building on My Strengths, Standing Up for Myself and Others), Social Awareness (Understanding Others), Relationship Skills (Getting Along, Family Matters), and Responsible Decision Making (Solving Problems, Making Good Decisions). The CASEL competencies articulate the crucial skills students will need to succeed academically, personally, and professionally.
Marta Heinrich, Advisory Board Chair of the Learning Together Project Fund, noted that “Cricket’s ongoing partnership with MENTOR and participation at the annual Summit reinforces a shared commitment to serving children virtually who need mentorship in underserved communities. The structured social emotional learning components of the online Cricket programs increase ability for volunteer eMentors to make personal connections and showcase significant impacts which go beyond STEM and literacy development.” The Learning Together Project Fund is a project of the Hopewell Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity.
National Mentoring Month provides an opportunity for organizations, institutions, and individuals to commit to championing the next generation of great minds. Through ongoing eMentoring programs and involvement with the National Mentoring Summit, Cricket continues a quarter-century mission to help each child achieve their full potential.
About CricketTogether
CricketTogether provides a convenient, rewarding, and impactful approach to eMentoring: connecting mentors and students virtually across the U.S. to overcome geographic and socio-economic barriers. Matched pairs engage within a safe, structured and rich curriculum-based correspondence model that provides Grade 3-8 students in underserved communities with one-to-one ongoing academic and social-emotional support, giving each child the benefit of their own personal champion to help each child to discover and achieve their full potential. Interested schools, mentoring programs, and volunteers can learn more at CricketTogether.com
About Cricket Media
Cricket Media, Inc. is a global education company providing award-winning content and safe and secure collaborative learning experiences. Cricket Media serves millions of teachers, students and parents in over 200 countries and territories to fulfill its mission to engage, enlighten and educate children and adults everywhere. Learn more at CricketMedia.com
