How Do You Combat That Never-Enough Feeling?
Why We Started the Mattering Movement
The Mattering Movement answers the question: What can we do to combat the pandemic of loneliness and despair that are harming our youth? How can we combat today’s widespread mattering deficit?
It was a cold, winter day in New York City when a group of parents gathered to discuss growing concerns about the mental health epidemic sweeping their community. The group included experienced leaders across sectors - educators, business leaders, historians, medical professionals, journalists, media executives, and philanthropists.The conversation revealed concerns about achievement culture, the loneliness epidemic, the fragmentation of community connectedness, and a vision for a world where service to others could take center stage in people’s lives, rather than the anxiety-ridden race for personal achievement. Driven by an urgency for change, the Mattering Movement was born.
At The Mattering Movement, we teach what it means to matter by providing tools to identify needs in your community and the skills to make a positive impact on the world.
Bringing together their deep expertise, founders Jennie B. Wallace, Dr. Sarah Bennison, Kimberly Kravis and Kim Towner, along with a team of top academic advisors and advisory council members, are committed to providing adults and youth with the tools and skills they need to build meaningful community, to buffer against stress and anxiety, and make a positive impact on the world.
What kids need from the adults in their lives is not more pressure, but to feel like they matter. As a journalist and author of Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic - and What We Can Do About It, Jennie Wallace has published robust research on the importance of mattering in adolescence. As an educational leader and activist, Dr. Sarah Bennison has developed thought-leading programs and curriculum to engage individuals in meaningful, sustainable service and social impact work and has seen its transformative power. Rooted in our research and action-based approach, the Mattering Movement allows individuals of all ages to put mattering into action.
Join us.
The Mattering Movement answers the question: What can we do to combat the pandemic of loneliness and despair that are harming our youth? How can we combat today’s widespread mattering deficit?
Mattering Is A Concept As Simple As It Is Profound.
A deep sense of mattering offers a protective shield of psychological resources, like self-worth and a sense of belonging, that act as a critical buffer from life’s adversities.
Since the 1980s, a growing body of research has found that people with high levels of mattering—those who feel valued and that they are adding value to others—are more likely to thrive in adolescence and adulthood.
Research shows that how well a person balances feeling valued with adding value to those around them separates healthy high achievers from less healthy ones.
The concept of mattering might seem obvious, but we are facing a mattering deficit within individual households, schools, workplaces, even entire communities. With rising rates of anxiety, depression and suicide, understanding how mattering can protect people is more critical than ever. The good news is that mattering is easy to understand and simple to put into practice.
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