The Allstate Foundation has announced a five-year, $45 million commitment to empower millions of youth to build social and emotional learning skills like resilience, self-awareness and conflict resolution. “Empowering young people by harnessing their talents and passions will build a better world,” said Allstate Chairman, President and CEO Tom Wilson. “We believe these skills will inspire youth to be leaders and history-makers and achieve their full potential.” The Allstate Foundation is committed to leading efforts to reach 25 percent of the nation’s youth with social and emotional learning programs by 2022, at which time it will have invested nearly $70 million.
Research shows social and emotional learning skills result in immediate and long-term improvements in educational achievements and are a better predictor of success and well-being than academic aptitude alone. To bring awareness to the importance of social and emotional learning and drive increased demand for programs that enable youth to build those skills, The Allstate Foundation is lining the National Mall in Washington D.C. with monument-like pedestals with aspirational inscriptions such as “Farmer to End World Hunger,” “Teacher to Solve Global Illiteracy,” and “Architect to Eliminate Homelessness.” The campaign illustrates how developing critical social and emotional skills today, can lead to a brighter future tomorrow.
As part of The Allstate Foundation’s Good Starts Young national campaign, youth across the country can access custom Snapchat and Facebook lenses that turn them into a statue-like bust, featuring a title that captures their ultimate leadership goal at GoodStartsYoung.org. Youth can share their customized photo with friends, family members and others to empower each other to be history-makers and start talking about and building social and emotional learning skills today.