Envision Your Future

         Connecting with today’s kids because their future matters

Our Mission: To guide youth in creating their own positive future stories and support them as they take responsibility for clarifying their dreams, developing their blueprints and identifying the people and resources that will help them accomplish their goals.

Cultivating the best in our kids by starting with what is right (with them)

EYF, Inc. is an IRS approved 501 (c) (3) non-profit.  Envision Your Future is a methodology that is based on an understanding of today's youth, iGeneration, and how to help them develop the social/emotional competency to successfully navigate life and their education.  Envision Your Future consists of three programs and includes a 12 hour program for youths in guiding them in developing  the intrinsic motivation to make healthy choices in friends, behavior and their education. To assists adults in supporting the youth in their lives programs have been developed for teachers and parents. 

A future story helps hold emotional stability. Ruby Payne, Ph.D. 

Envision Your Future was developed by Patty O'Sullivan, Ph.D., based on a study she did with kids from 6th-12th grades. She discovered that tweens, kids 10-12 years old, had big dreams for a success, bright future and that the teens who did not get their dreams nurtured, lost hope for architecting a fulfilling and exciting life. Their apathy for pursuing their dreams was demonstrated by the increasing numbers of dropouts and those engaging in dangerous behavior. Another gem that came to light was the huge paradigm shift since 1982 with a generation raised on/with technology. 

We have 19th century classrooms, 20th century teachers and 21st century kids. 

Dr. O'Sullivan’s study showed that much of the “disconnect” with today’s tweens and teens is the general lack of understanding, connecting and communicating for our 21st century kids. They are amazing! They have the ability to go beyond linear thinking. They are the true multi-taskers who can operate on valid short-cuts with the ability to assimilate information laterally. They want a voice, to work in teams and have time for self-reflection. 

When kids are “wired”, their world changes every 2 to 7 seconds, yet they are expected to be compliant and sit at their desks for 40 minutes or more without participating. 

For this generation, education needs to be emotional, relational and experiential. These are the keys for preparing the inner terrain, for mining the gold of who they are and for creating a healthy, safe atmosphere for learning.   Envision Your Future is child-centered and uses the Socratic Approach to guide our youth in finding their own answers and activating their goals. It is a strength-based, non-clinical, positive youth development program that gets youth engaged in their lives by guiding them to find a positive direction, short-term, medium-term and long-term. Kids discover what it will take and the choices they must make to accomplish their dreams. They realize that education is a key to successfully achieving their goals. Kids are intrinsically motivated to take responsibility and ownership for what they want and how they behave.  

Children are not the interruption in our day. They are our reason for being (teachers). Children are not here to prop up the schools; the schools are here to support our children in their readiness for life and in their pursuit of a meaningful future.                                                                                                                                                     Envision Your Future, requiring only 12 hours, is successfully being implemented in classrooms, youth and adjudicated youth programs and with foster children with a marked improvement in self- efficacy, respect for others, academic achievement and a decrease in negative behavior. You are invited to hear What The Kids Say and to learn more about the Program.  

     Our children are the living messages we send to a time and place we will never see.

Workshops for Parents and Teachers

"Teaching 21st Century Kids" is an interactive, full-day workshop that was developed to re-ignite teachers’ passions for working with the iGeneration and to support their need for new approaches for classroom  discipline, intrinsic motivation and for understanding, connecting and communicating with their students.   

"Communicating with Your Teens -RU Ready?”  is a half-day workshop that opens up intimate communication for parents and their teens.   

An opportunity for you to bring the best of who you are and invest it in the future - EYF, Inc. relies on donations, support and volunteers from organizations, foundations, corporations, and individuals. Please go to Participation for more information on how you can make a difference in helping our youth create their own positive future story.