The Bright Futures Framework, helps you develop relationships throughout your community, which allows you to channel resources to improve your schools, which in turn benefits your community. Bright Futures USA operates under the belief that when communities invest their time, talent, and treasure in their schools, students are more likely to stay in school through graduation, have a higher degree of self-worth and confidence, and set and achieve goals for the future.
In turn, these students grow up to be better neighbors, quality employees, and impactful leaders in their communities.
Community
When community organizations, businesses, and faith-based organizations step up to give to a child, that child learns by example what it really means to give. Children who grow up in an environment where the community takes responsibility for them are more likely to feel a sense of connection and responsibility to the community that supported them.
School
Our schools are responsible for providing a safe place to educate our children, and they work hard to do this every day, but when students need school supplies, when students are hungry, when students are experiencing abuse at home, or a multitude of other issues that countless students live with on a daily basis, focusing on learning is nearly impossible. It also makes the educator’s job incredibly difficult, because their focus is split between worrying about trying to fill those needs and educating kids who are unable to concentrate.
Synergy
Synergy is what happens when the combined effort of two or more individuals and/or groups is greater than the sum of their separate efforts. Parent groups can accomplish a lot. Schools do amazing work every day. Community businesses and organizations provide a tremendous benefit to our well-being. When we can bring all of these resources together for the purpose of supporting our children, the benefits are exponential.
When children’s basic needs are met they are more open to creativity and learning, and when teachers don’t have to worry about trying to meet students’ basic needs, they are able to focus on their real job: educating our children.
Neighbors, Employees, Leaders
We all recognize that our children represent the future of our communities. Consequently, we have a collective responsibility to do our part to secure that future. Bright Futures communities do this by ensuring the health, safety, and wellness of our children and youth so they can grow up to be contributing members of our community.
Service-Learning
Children naturally have giving hearts. We want to ensure that our children retain this giving mindset by providing opportunities for youth in our communities to contribute their gifts. This is the very core of the Bright Futures Framework. As we look to the future, we have a responsibility today to grow servant-minded citizens who understand and model the idea of service above self. Service-learning provides that opportunity by allowing our young people to problem solve relevant issues and contribute to the betterment of our communities.
Time, Talent, Treasure
A core belief of Bright Futures USA is that every community has the resources necessary to meet the needs of our children. Those resources simply need to be identified, aligned and connected to quickly stabilize their situation. Whether we are mentoring a child (Time), building a bookshelf (Talent), or donating a gently used pair of shoes (Treasure), these gifts have the potential to change the trajectory of students’ paths in life as they pursue their dreams.
Capacity Building
Leadership matters. We understand that the primary challenge of any community-based initiative is the ability of the community to provide the leadership needed to sustain an effort over time. That’s why Bright Futures provides communities with the structure, training, and support to assist in building a diverse leadership team representative of the community they serve. And with this diversity comes strength through their ability to leverage the team’s collective knowledge, skills, and influence to problem solve the greater challenges faced by today’s youth.