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With the holidays around the corner, there is much to plan, but also plenty to be grateful for. Practicing gratitude every day benefits our minds, bodies, hearts and relationships. Gratitude is a relationship-strengthening emotion because it helps us realize how we’ve been supported and affirmed by other people. What would it feel like to focus more of your thoughts on what is good in life?
Research illustrates how gratitude can help students achieve higher goals and more satisfaction with relationships, life, and school. For adults, gratitude enables people to be more optimistic, experience more social satisfaction, and sleep better with fewer worries.
At Acknowledge Alliance, we end each of our Social Emotional Learning lessons with an activity relating to gratitude and reflection. For example, after a lesson on character strengths, we ask students to think about someone who has taken a role in helping them grow their strength – perhaps a parent, friend, teacher, or coach. We then ask them to write in their journal: “Thank you ____ for helping me be ____.” Can you think of someone you can thank too?
There are many different ways to practice gratitude – keeping a journal, performing a random act of kindness, seeing the growth opportunity in mistakes, committing to one day a week where you won’t complain about anything. The ideas go on! Making gratitude as part of a daily ritual can even be as simple as smiling more often or telling someone you love them and how much you appreciate them.
On that note, we’d like to express our warmest and deepest gratitude to our donors, partners, supporters and our Acknowledge family. Thank you for believing in our mission and helping us grow every step of the way. Your support, kindness, and encouragement transcends into the lives of all the students and teachers we serve. We are grateful and we appreciate you.
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At our recent staff retreat, we said farewell to Tracy White, our Development Director for over 7 years. We are sad to see her go, yet happy to see her extending her career growth. Tracy has given so much to this organization. Her efforts are well recognized and we shall always remember how important she was for us. We wish her nothing but the best!
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We're ready to launch our annual campaign in the coming weeks! Please help Acknowledge reach our $40,000 fundraising goal by making a gift and/or sharing our work. Thanks to everyone who already made a contribution and gave us a head start!
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