Love In A Big World, a non-profit organization that specializes in social and emotional learning among youth, received a federal grant this month from the Institute for Youth Development (IYD). Love In A Big World received one of 14 sub-awards that IYD issued as part of the historic Faith-Based and Community Initiative created by President Bush.
IYD, the largest grantee under the President’s Compassion Capital Fund Program (CCF) to date, issued the sub-grants under a larger grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designed to help faith-based and community organizations build capacity and effectively apply for federal funding.
“The President has designed a program that allows for the full participation of faith-based and community groups while also allowing these groups to remain true to their beliefs, whether faith-based or not,” said Shepherd Smith, IYD president. “These organizations are helping those with the greatest needs across the country by focusing on their local communities. The Compassion Capital Fund Program will help these organizations enhance their capacity by competing for federal grants, contracts and cooperative agreements so they can become more effective at meeting community needs.”
Formed in 1995 by youth development specialists Peter and Tamara Batarseh, Love In A Big World is a respected leader in providing character education resources for children in K-8th grades. The organization is devoted to demonstrating and teaching love in the midst of poverty, divorce, abuse, addictions and other risk factors, by focusing on character virtues such as courage, honesty, kindness and caring. Love In A Big World has trained over 220,000 kids in 200 schools across the nation, including Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark., Buell Elementary School in Flint, Mich., Lake Worth Middle School in Lake Worth, Fla., and Red Lion Junior High in Red Lion, Penn., as part of the healing process after school shootings occurred on each of these schools’ campuses. Love In A Big World’s Complete Character Education Plan is currently being studied by an award-winning research team from Vanderbilt University as part of a national study on character education programs.
Love In A Big World uses various proven techniques and resources, to help parents/guardians, teachers, counselors and community leaders establish character-building relationships with the students. The Love In A Big World concept is aligned with the National Character Education Partnership: 11 Principles in Effectiveness, and the Federal Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities: Strategies of Effectiveness.
IYD is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that promotes a consistent, comprehensive risk-avoidance message to youth for five harmful risk-behaviors that are inextricably linked: alcohol, drugs, sex, tobacco and violence. To learn more about IYD and the Compassion Capital Fund program, visit www.youthdevelopment.org or e-mail your questions to info@youthdevelopment.org.
For more information about Love In A Big World, please visit: www.loveinabigworld.org.
