The Flourishing Child Program

What is the purpose of education as we move into the future?

The current US educational system focuses on markers for scholastic success which generate successful employees. Education researcher Carl Grant envisioned a more robust goal than preparing our future generations for the workforce; he saw the goal of education as a way to empower students to cultivate a flourishing life.

UEF’s approach to human flourishing is rooted in our three deepest human longings- Loving, Learning, and Playing (LLP). By engaging in these basic human needs, we can Flourish. Drawing concepts from philosophy, religion, and educational research, UEF has developed a universal LLP curriculum which will enable students to not only succeed, but also Flourish.

The Flourishing Child curriculum engages the loving and playful qualities in children, to nurture a curious mindset to enhance learning.  The curriculum consists of approximately of thirty activities per grade set, designed to allow students to explore the concepts of LLP as a framework for lifelong flourishing. The activities may be used in order or teachers may use them as stand-alone activities. The curriculum is designed in age bands, with Love, Learn, and Play activities appropriate to grades 4-6, grades 7-8, and grades 9-10. All activities are designed to be flexible and easily modifiable for schools serving diverse communities worldwide.

The Flourishing Child curriculum is aligned with four of the five CASEL competencies: Self-awareness, Self-management, Social awareness, and Relationship skills.

The Flourishing Child Curriculum

Click a grade set to download our free curriculum.

The Flourishing Girls Club Guides

Click on the icon or title to download it.

Partner-Facing Materials

Partnership Presentation

Monitoring & Evaluation

Facilitator Training Guide

Club Curriculum Guide

Partners

The Flourishing Child curriculum is designed to serve school age children of all demographics and socioeconomic backgrounds. Our partners value the importance of teaching children the tools to Flourish, and have utilized the Flourishing Child curriculum in schools, extra curricular groups, and programs for marginalized youths. Through the valuable feedback of our partners, UEF is able to continually expand and improve our free of cost offerings.

To learn more about our partners and the curriculum they use, click on the partner below.
Watsonville, California USA
Sierra Leone, West Africa
San Juan, Puerto Rico

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Mount Madonna School

Watsonville, California USA

Founded in 1979, Mount Madonna School (MMS) is a diverse learning community serving students preschool through high school and dedicated to creative, intellectual, and ethical growth. MMS supports its students in becoming caring, self-aware, discerning and articulate individuals; and believes a fulfilling life includes personal accomplishments, meaningful relationships and service to society. The program, accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development.

Mount Madonna School is hosted by Mount Madonna Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, a residential community and conference center founded on the principles of yoga, and dedicated to non-harming, self-development and service to society. The values and the beauty of the Center’s 380-acre redwood forest provide a supportive and inspirational context in which the school learning community thrives.

Paul Hodges Trust

Sierra Leone

UEF’s mission is to enhance human flourishing by helping to usher humanity into an era of universal enlightenment, where all people are able to realize their innate longings to Love, Learn and Play. The Paul Hodges Trust’s mission is to enable women and girls living in the world’s poorest communities to access the resources they need to flourish against all the odds.

Powered by our shared values, in early 2021, UEF partnered with the Paul Hodges Trust and We Yone Child Foundation to design, deliver and test a ground-breaking pilot project: The UEF Love, Learn and Play Girls’ Club, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Our focus was to provide opportunities for flourishing to vulnerable girls in South Africa’s poorest communities where restricted by the negative gender norms, girls were at high risk of violence, abuse, early pregnancy and school drop out.

Utilizing existing social worker networks to identify those most likely to benefit from the UEF funded initiative, we started with  identifying and addressing key needs of underprivileged female adolescents in Sierra Leone, including: mentoring and leadership, harnessing creativity, building self esteem and expression, strengthening peer networks, community advocacy, and awareness of body positivity and rights. We set about accomplishing this through the UEF framework for flourishing by engaging in Love, Learn & Play.

The pilot program implemented UEF’s innovative framework into action. Thirty girls met weekly for 16 sessions, engaging in dynamic discourse and activities surrounding Love, Learn, and Play. Measured through a range of qualitative and quantitative data, participation in the club led to significant positive changes and increased self-confidence. 

The results from our first initiative, sharing LLP in action as a tool for improving mental health, breaking cycles of poverty, and a framework by which we truly flourish has proved to be a huge success.

Building from the success of the pilot program, the Paul Hodges Trust and UEF scaled up the program in 2022 to extend the curriculum from 12 weeks to 6 months, and launched the LLP Girl’s Club in two different locations, George Brook and Freetown. The first group of 50 girls attended these clubs and graduated in October. The second batch of fifty girls graduated in May of 2023.

San Juan Community library

San Juan, Puerto Rico

In Summer of 2022, UEF in partnership with the San Juan Community Library in Puerto Rico Launched a summer program. Girls and boys ranging in age from 7-14, enthusiastically participated in the LLP Youth Club to experience self-expression and growth in a safe environment following all COVID precautions. According to the Library Director Ms Connie Estades, there was a special synergy between the LLP Youth Club and the Library’s summer reading contest where the members of the LLP Club joined the Library and the summer reading contest and vice versa. Parents as well as the participants expressed their appreciation for this unique program that easily adapted to the social and cultural realities of Puerto Rico due to the universal appeal of love, learning, and play.