Thank you Boys & Girls Club of Missoula!

As we wrap up our six week summer residency at the Boys & Girls Club in Missoula, we want to take a moment to appreciate this community partnership. We began with a week-long staff training, sharing various tools with the Boys & Girls staff members on how to ground and care for themselves. In caring for themselves, they may then show up more fully for the kids they serve, providing a model for how adults can lead and thrive in everyday life.

In the residency, we shared a wealth of games, movement activities, mini improvisational performances and art projects, all designed to inspire social emotional learning through utilizing the creative body brain. As we always teach, by moving and utilizing our creativity, we actually become smarter! Studies show that movement brings oxygen to the brain, producing new brain cells and synapses. And improvisational activities light up the side of the brain that controls language and creativity (medial prefrontal cortex), while simultaneously quieting the side of our brain that acts like the voice of doubt (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Our minds expand and our self-doubt fades away, leaving us to learn and grow without shame or guilt. By giving each of these kids even a moment of creative freedom, we changed their minds for the better.

We thank you again for the opportunity this summer, Boys & Girls Club, and we will see you again this coming fall!