In October 2017 POPS the Club launched a new and expanded curriculum for all schools. It focuses on three aspects of the program that makes POPS the Club unique and powerful. The expanded curriculum covers three main areas: self-expression, self-empowerment and community engagement.
Through writing prompts, visual art and performance exercises we find tools to discover our truths. Every year we produce a powerful anthology of some of the year’s most resonant, and our students’ work is also published weekly on Good Men Project as well as other magazines and websites.
Utilizing a grant POPS received from Women Helping Youth (WHY) for film making equipment, we are creating videos of many of our guest speakers– teaching artists, poets, former prisoners, politicians, lawyers, social workers, and more– as well as links to other films and stories of interest to our national community.
The self-empowerment curriculum introduces techniques from trained educators to help teens cope with stress, increase attention, recognize emotions, self-regulate, build resilience and make healthy choices, with a special focus on mindfulness. Many of the lessons have been developed using material from Mindful Schools.