Every year on the 10th of December, the world observes Human Rights Day. In 2021, the theme for Human Rights Day is "Reducing inequalities, advancing human rights," focusing on equality and non-discrimination. A human rights-based approach can help the most vulnerable persons break out of poverty, find a safe, sustainable social environment, access health, and education services, and build resilience at all levels. It is critical to ensure that children benefit from a human rights-based approach. UNODC's 'Listen First' materials were developed in 2016 to advocate for adults to do just that – "Listen First" to the needs of children and youth. The first program, 'The Science of Care' put the needs of families first during the initial crisis related to the COVID situation. And now, 'Super Skills: The Science of Skills' is helping stakeholders around the world – parents, policymakers, healthcare workers, educators, and substance use prevention specialists – make the development of social and emotional learning and skills a priority for young people.
Team Humanity Inc and its subsidiary Touchdown for Humanity partner locally and globally to address human rights, strengthen human relations, promote equity, bolster inclusivity, and foster a sense of belonging across and within cultures and generations. Through its collaborations with UNODC's ‘Listen First’ Initiative, Team Humanity is focused on youth and holistic wellness. The team provides consulting resources and avenues to build supportive networks and culturally sensitive, collaborative programs for resilient, sustainable life skills to optimize each person's unique, innate talents. This is particularly via social-emotional learning and strengthening a sense of purpose, connectedness, and empowerment to thrive. Through the combined expertise of highly diverse professionals, including a Superbowl Champion, Cognitive Scientists, an International Professional Sports Coach, Educators, and Disparities experts, Team Humanity aims to bring us back to the basics of our humanity; that is, kindness, decency, dignity, and inclusivity. These attributes are essential to foster emotional intelligence and the life competencies of respect, dignity, integrity, honesty, gratitude, compassion, and empathy for each other and for ourselves. Not building these competencies makes youth particularly vulnerable to maladaptive coping such as substance abuse. Developing, cultivating, and practicing self-regulation and other life skills and other fostering emotional intelligence in youth, a foundation is solidified upon which individuals exhibit healthy resiliency and thrive well into adulthood. They are also less apt to resort to harmful coping strategies such as substance use or other self-destructive tendencies when faced with adversity. As such, Team Humanity asserts that it is in the interest of human rights for youth to equip and empower them with critical life skills.
"There has never been a greater need. There has never been a better time than now to equip youth in social and emotional skill development, particularly due to the unprecedented challenges faced in the wake of the global pandemic. While youth are most vulnerable in times of crisis, they are poised and capable of developing positive skills to offset potentially self-destructive behaviors such as drug use. As such, we are thrilled to continue our work with UNODC and the 'Listen First' materials. The focus on science and the development of social skills aligns with our vision to cultivate each person's unique and innate character while nurturing abilities that empower and build resiliency to adversity, ultimately to best equip them for optimal quality of life," says Dr. Barbara Hastie, Co-Founder of Team Humanity Inc & Touchdown for Humanity.
Dr. Hastie concludes: "Just as the professional athletes would never achieve the heights of success without learning, practicing, reinforcing, and strengthening essential skills, 'Super Skills' and 'Listen First,' and corresponding confirm that neural networks are created upon learning and further embedded with each repeated message and reinforced behaviors" And the time in life that is most dynamic, receptive, imperative and foundational is in youth. The creativity of Skilltown allows youth to align with the characters in a non-threatening way while subtly using this enjoyable platform to bolster the scientific efficacy of learning essential social and emotional skills to navigate through life. The 'Super Skills' characters and the stories within each video are captivating, relatable, foster a sense of belonging, and create a supportive team where each person is valued, respected, dignified, and embraced for their individuality.
"Team Humanity is delighted to partner to promote this highly relevant and vitally important UNODC 'Listen First' initiative and to collaborate across the globe and within communities to optimize its impact so that in the spirit of human rights, every youth may be equitably equipped and may maximize their potential, effectively manage adversity, and flourish in all domains of life," asserted Dr. Hastie on behalf of Team Humanity.
The second 'Super Skills' video, "Take Care," is released for International Human Rights Day. It features "Helpful Handy," one of the key characters who stop taking care of herself, but her Super Team friends in Skilltown fly into action to help her. The core message is about the importance of taking care of oneself and following routines - staying clean, eating healthy, sleeping, exercising, and change can happen. Follow the characters in Skilltown to see how they ensure equality and practice non-discrimination while building their skills!
Read the Press Release for International Human Rights Day here.
Made possible with the generous support of France.