Last month we shared that we have partnered with three non-profits who possess our same ethos of empowering women. First, we spotlighted the Forté Foundation, a community of inspiring women committed to changing the balance of power in the workplace. Our aim with these partnerships is to help raise awareness by sharing these organizations’ stories, with the hope to garner and grow support in the process.
For our next foundation spotlight, we are proud to feature Self-Esteem Rising, a program developed by the Hance Family Foundation. Born out of a family tragedy, Self-Esteem Rising was created in honor of founders Jackie and Warren Hances’ three daughters: Emma, Alyson and Katie. Read on to discover more about this powerful foundation.
1. What was the catalyst for founding Self-Esteem Rising?
The Hance Family Foundation was created by Jackie and Warren Hance, parents of Emma, Alyson and Katie Hance, who died tragically in a car accident in New York State on July 26, 2009, at the ages of 8, 7 and 5. Immediately following the accident, Warren and Jackie felt they had a decision to make: to give in to their grief or to create a lasting legacy in honor of their daughters. They chose the latter.
The Hance Family Foundation was created in 2009 and shortly after, our innovative self-esteem curricula were designed with the larger mission of empowering girls and women beyond traditional academic education. Emma, Alyson and Katie lived with enthusiastic confidence and our programs honor them by providing other girls and women with skills that allow them access to their own version of confidence. The first program, Beautiful Me, was designed to foster self-esteem, increase positive body awareness, develop problem-solving skills and encourage healthy relationship building skills for women and girls of all ages. Beautiful Me, now our flagship program, continues to be taught free of charge to all participants.
The Hance Family Foundation is striving to create a world where girls and women can feel truly confident about who they are; because we believe that when you feel strong and confident, society as a whole benefits. To date, 200,000+ people around the world have benefited from our Self-Esteem Rising programs, and Emma, Alyson, and Katie continue to have a positive impact in the world.
2. Tell us about your mission.
At the Hance Family Foundation, we understand that self-esteem is essential to building resilience and confidence. Inspired by Emma, Alyson and Katie Hance, we strive every day to empower girls and women to develop and nurture this critical life skill. We believe that everyone deserves to feel valued and respected, and we strive to provide the tools and resources necessary to achieve this goal.
3. In addition to empowering young girls from a young age you also offer tools that help women of all ages thrive and build confidence. Please explain a bit more about your programs.
The Hance Family Foundation's expanded suite of lessons, Self-Esteem Rising, was created in 2017 to bring the Foundation’s vision to a national level, encompassing the below five programs. To provide our programs around the world, we train educators and mental health professionals to teach them in their schools, hospitals, senior centers, juvenile detention facilities, child welfare organizations or wherever a desire for more self-esteem is present.
Our flagship program, Beautiful Me, first extended Emma, Alyson and Katie’s lessons to tens of thousands of people. Now, participants as young as 5 and as old as 105 learn vital skills to increase social-emotional competencies. Our turnkey, rigorous Beautiful Me training has also been developed and evaluated by the Judge Baker Children’s Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
Raising a Beautiful Child is a seminar designed for any adults who are entrusted with the care of a child (both boys and girls). Through these carefully curated discussions, adults learn how to connect with their children in unique ways, help encourage individualized independence, and how to engage active learning in children.
Confidence Club is a gender-neutral program that provides year-round dynamic Social-Emotional Learning activities for all school-aged children. It grew out of feedback from Beautiful Me graduates who wanted more, and extends the lessons learned in Beautiful Me with a focus on self-awareness, enhanced relationships with others, and the power of helping others and volunteering.
Self-Esteem Rising Ambassadors is a competitive program for natural leaders seeking to develop critical pre-professional skills, while learning to inspire their communities with our mission. Ambassadors learn about leadership, equity and goal setting to become influential voices in their schools, on their teams and in their communities.
Finally, Empower Me is a program designed for women in corporate settings and college campuses that is focused on providing tools to eliminate the confidence gap. Participants take an active role in learning to create success personally and professionally.
4. You offer online lesson plans for everything from managing emotions and making tough decisions to building a support system. Please tell us a bit more about those and how people can access them.
These Social-Emotional Learning lesson plans were created for boys and girls during the pandemic when so many parents and guardians around the world had to become teachers! We wanted to support students engaging in virtual learning with activities that could act as self-care. Now, these lessons make up the Confidence Club.
To access our resources, visit selfesteemrising.org/lessonplans and enter your name, email and zip code. This will unlock the lessons, activities and self-care tips.
5. Your community boasts an impressive 175,000+ participants. Can you share a bit more about that breakdown?
As of June 2024, Self-Esteem Rising has been to 42 states and 18 countries, reaching over 215,000 participants! Over 92,000 girls and women have graduated from Beautiful Me and more than 10,000 women are trained Beautiful Me teachers. We have over 100 Self-Esteem Rising Ambassadors, 4,300 parents and guardians have heard the Raising a Beautiful Child seminar, and 107,000 people have downloaded the Confidence Club lessons. It is so rewarding that Emma, Alyson, and Katie continue to have such a positive impact.
6. How does someone become a member?
You can request programming at selfesteemrising.org/programs or email our Program Director, Shanthy Hughes, at shughes@hancefamilyfoundation.org. We would love to hear from you!
7. How can people get involved and help support your mission?
We always appreciate people wanting to get involved with our organization! You could become a Beautiful Me teacher (open to educators and mental health/medical professionals) and share Emma, Alyson and Katie’s lessons with others.
Alternatively, if you live near Floral Park, NY, we would love to meet you at our office if you’re interested in volunteering. If you aren’t local, you can help us spread the word by starting a fundraiser for the HFF or share the organization with your friends and family on social media. You can follow us at @selfesteemrising and @hancefamilyfoundation.
Finally, a donation of any amount makes a difference. Donate once or consider joining our monthly donor program - visit hancefamilyfoundation.org/donate to get started.
