OUR MISSION
Any donations made are greatly appreciated! All donations are tax-deductible and may be made via the donation button on this web site. All donors will be listed on the donor’s page.We’re always looking for volunteers and partners for our programs, so if you feel you, your family, or your company, has something to contribute to our efforts, please get in touch with us. You can call Assertive Kids at (877) 235-3319, e-mail us at BeAssertive@assertiveKids.org, or use the form at the bottom of every page.
Assertive Kids Programs
Presently, the programs that are denoted with an asterisk are up and running, however, the others are quickly moving from the planning to active phase. (Click for New 2022 Programs)
*Clothing Drive for Kids – The Assertive Kids Foundation donates kids clothing directly to families with children. The economically disadvantaged, mothers fleeing domestic abuse, and political refugees have all received help. So far over $61,000 of kids clothing donated to families in the last year! (Click for Our Clothing Donations Activity Report)
*Flower Planting, Murals, and Neighborhood & Park Clean-ups – Helping keep “depressed” areas happy! Our surroundings affect us all. Do your part and join our team!
*Therapy and Research Studies – For postnatal women, kids with autism and ADHD, U.S. Armed Forces Veterans, people with opiate addictions. Epigenetics studies exploring how complementary therapies affect DNA.
*Local Wildlife Assistance – Providing nutritious seeds and nuts for local birds displaced by development is serious; without a habitat, local wildlife cannot survive unless we do our part.
Homeless People’s Care Packages – It’s not fun being a person without a home. Even so, we can do our part to make life a little easier for others. Our Care packages are meant to do just that. While these do not solve the underlying issues that create homelessness, Care Packages can make life a tiny bit easier for at least a little while.
Assertiveness Workshops for Students – Teaching kids about assertiveness, aggressiveness, passivity, narcissism, toxic people, manipulation, tween/teen suicide & self-harm, respecting and caring others and oneself, balancing intuition and rational thought, and maintaining strong boundaries. And, of course, don’t forget bullying.
This is done through role play, self-expression, open discussion, and student creativity. Participants also learn about self-control and keeping calm though breathing, relaxation techniques, ways to cope with stress like journaling, self-growth, martial arts psychological defense tactics, and developing emotional self-awareness.
Anti-ageism Workshops for Students – So you’re an elder? Who cares? We do! Of course, only in a good way. You should have all the rights afforded to anyone else. No one should look at you and think “boomer” or “old-timer.”
Is Assertiveness Aggressiveness? No way!
We formed the Assertive Kids Foundation to help teach people of all ages how to be assertive. Assertiveness is nothing like aggressiveness, or passivity, for that matter; rather it’s all about kindly, but respectfully preserving our own boundaries, as well as the boundaries of those we interact with. Why? It’s essential learning, and can help many people to avoid suffering.
We don’t subscribe to “ageist” ideas, and so one of our aims is to fight
Vancouver USA Marathon – June 17, 2012 – Pre-race
This elderly gentleman evidently has finished marathons in all fifty states – eight times! And he is still at it.
ageism. If you want to jog at ninety, more power to you! Get a college degree at eighty-eight? Great! Some of our programs will aim to fight ageism through education and raising awareness.
As lifelong learners, we should never ossify. And so, this foundation is meant to serve populations of all ages to be more assertive in dealing with their life circumstances, not just kids and adolescents, both groups that will be among our target audience, but not exclusively the focus of our campaign.
We are not a political or religiously-affiliated organization. Our personal politics and faith are personal; that’s not what helping our fellow Americans is about, anyway!
We do stand by every American’s right to have an opinion and viewpoint, as well as choice of worshiping the Creator in what ways they choose, or to not do so at all. Being assertive means keeping these ideals as the highest priorities for oneself as well as others.
Our ethnicity, race, culture, gender, and the ways in which we choose to express ourselves, make us each unique Americans with a cool story to share; we can all learn from one another, Black, White, or Brown, young or old. Our diversity can be a source of strife, or a source of power. It’s up to us to choose consciously.
Our Plans For 2021
image credit: wonderferret
So what, precisely, will we be doing in 2021? For starters, we will be serving homeless people with lifesaving basics. These include bottled water, clean socks, bar soap and wash cloths, space blankets for warmth, protein energy bars, and hand-warming instant Heat Packs. We’re not going to change reality, but we can help ease suffering one person at a time, at least for today.
Did you know that many of our Nation’s homeless are actually Veterans of the Armed Forces who served dutifully and were honorably discharged? And that many more are children who’ve outgrown the social services programs, group homes, and foster care that served them when they were younger?
It’s true. The vulnerable homeless population are not “bums” but rather real people with unique stories, often involving hardship, sometimes even sacrifices for Our Country.
Everything we do shall be carefully documented and photographed, so donors can see the results of their contributions at work. This lets donors know what their donation are being used wisely, and to ensure that we’re really doing the work we say we are going to do.
This differs in practice from many other such nonprofits; we seek 100% transparency. We aim to make a lot with a little.™ We don’t believe in waste, and so we’re used to conserving our resources.
We will also offer programs for kids and adults to help clean up and beautify their shared surroundings, helping neighborhoods to form “Assertiveness Teams” to move through an area cleaning up rubbish and planting colorful flowers. Flower and vegetable seeds and plants will be provided for area residents, so that block by block, urban areas, and really any type of community, can get a fresh start next Spring. Flowers bring life to an area, making everyone feel better as they pass by.
For children, adolescents, and young adults in college, we plan to offer Assertiveness Workshops at schools and universities, drawing on our five years of personal training as a peer tutor at CUNY. Role playing, discussions, live Internet, and more, will help kids of all ages learn that assertiveness begins with knowing that standing up for what is right is always the only choice.
Whether it means seeking help from a teacher or standing up to bullies harassing a peer, or even standing up to their own bullies, kids learn that no one has to be a victim. Assertive kids know their rights as Americans and human beings, and aim to enforce those rights for all.
We seek to empower kids through teaching that constructive activity, goals, and an unceasing eye for respecting everyone’s boundaries is the only way to keep America vital and safe for all people, and keep kids feeling strong, out of the path of bullies, narcissists, predators, and sociopaths of all kinds.
We also feel that America should never stop being a melting pot, and that each of our cultural backgrounds is a source of vital strength. So, preserving our cultural heritage is essential. Part of that heritage is our values, perhaps faith, ways of eating, and language.
We would like to help aid communities in setting up programs to teach kids about culture and heritage, as well as teach the tongue of their ancestors. Black kids could learn Swahili, free of charge. Secular Jewish kids can learn Hebrew, also without cost. Spanish kids could learn…you guessed wrong, I bet! They can learn French. lol If you’re already preserving your culture; great! We can all learn about one another’s culture, too, if we already speak the language of our roots.
This may also include data analysis of epi-genetic changes that come about during and after treatment. Studies concerning learning, attention, and complementary health modalities are also in the works. We won’t stop there. We’re also dedicated to helping fund programs for pregnant women, and ways to help them deal with pregnancy better, as well as recovering addicts making the difficult choice of staying away from opiates, that will support research into simple, cost-effective non-drug alternative health modalities that have been proven in clinical studies to have potential for benefit.
We are also interested in helping to popularize studies by researchers and doctors at well-known US universities presenting alternative conclusions regarding popular health topics, like for instance, how the FDA has approved health claims regarding selenium and breast cancer. This was studied and proven. Did the nightly news tell you, though?
Spreading awareness about vital research conducted on complementary medical modalities, as well as scientific, quantified analysis of popular allopathic medicine, helps every American to have access to important facts, not fluff.
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