Small & Gutsy features the Isabella Santos Foundation
Small & Gutsy
Being the mother of 5 children, my 5th one, adopted later in his life and mine, the thought of losing any one of them, is unimaginable. This episode is about the unimaginable - a mother, a family, who lost a beautiful, funny, feisty, smart, caring, courageous 7-year-old to cancer. As many of you know, I have had my personal battle with cancer and currently, my younger brother is facing his - unless you have been through your own, it is hard to imagine the havoc that chemotherapy, radiation, and medications wreak on your body, not to mention your spirit when you are feeling sick and definitely...
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Small & Gutsy Features Onward Industries
Small & Gutsy
Armed with a 225,000 lb WWII- era wooden sailing craft, Greg Nichols, his wife, Nina and two kids, who actually live on this very unique and special vessel, serve as the catalyst in creating a learning environment that alters individuals’ mindsets forever by exposing them to the beauty and magic of learning through nature & community. This creates a lasting impression that being part of something bigger than oneself only aids in contributing to our shared legacy of caring for our world and our community. I cannot think of a more important lesson and one where our future, literally,...
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Small & Gutsy Features SAILS
Small & Gutsy
If you’ve ever been pregnant or been in the process of adopting or engaging in a surrogacy, you know the milestones set for each month of that journey and the belief of trusting the process, medical and emotional, that everything will work out as it should, meaning you will have a beautiful little life to whom you will love, cherish, and tend forever; that amazing feeling of anticipation just before the arrival, making sure the nursery is set, all the loose ends are tied up…and that moment comes, and then, there is silence..utter silence. That is the experience of so many who have lost a...
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Small & Gutsy Features Legendary Legacies
Small & Gutsy
Did you know that Black Youth are Almost Five Times As Likely To Be Incarcerated As their White Peers? The following are some data points from the Sentencing Project, captured by Josh Rovner and Ashley Nellis For a decade, incarceration disparities between Black and white youth have remained stubbornly high. As of 2021, Black youth were 4.7 times as likely to be placed, meaning detained or committed to juvenile facilities as their white peers. Forty-two percent of youths in placement are Black, even though Black Americans comprise only 15% of all youth across the United States. Since, Black...
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Small & Gutsy Celebrates 10 Years of Jazz Hands For Autism
Small & Gutsy
About a year ago, we had a fabulous Small & Gutsy episode that featured Jazz Hands For Autism, a nonprofit organization that provides wrap-around artist education, development, promotion, and placement for learners and aspiring artists on the autism spectrum enabling them to explore and express their talent. Services offered include The Jazz Hands Concert Series: a semi-annual concert series and performance platform for neurodivergent artists, The Jazz Hands Musicians Academy: an individualized post-secondary music education and vocational program that prepares aspiring musicians on the...
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Small & Gutsy features J3 Foundation
Small & Gutsy
Reading skills unlock the world for us and unleash not just our curiosity, but grant us and gift us the power to often choose our paths. My two guests today know this all too well as their passion for helping kids learn to read began as a young married couple when they joined a USC alumni program reading with students every week at the USC “School of Five” inner-city elementary schools. They quickly became aware of the alarming number of students who were reading below grade level. It was then that the seeds of the positive impact on literacy were planted. Initially focusing on child...
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Small & Gutsy features MLK50
Small & Gutsy
Journalists and those who represent news platforms are generally trained to report on factual information; in a recent visit to the Shorenstein Institute, I was exposed to the incredible work they do to ensure that journalists have tools to accurately interpret the information that is coming at them so quickly - most journalists, I believe, care deeply about interpreting the facts correctly, however, some platforms purposely misconstrue or actually reconfigure facts to support their financial backer’s agenda - thus, creating a conflict of personal and professsional values. There is hope,...
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Small & Gutsy features Mountain Hazelnuts, Part 2
Small & Gutsy
Check out Part 1 of this amazing Social Enterprise and learn more about them at
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Small & Gutsy Features Mountain Hazelnuts
Small & Gutsy
Episode #80, Parts I & I When you think of sustainability what comes to mind? Is it protecting the environment, proactively and effectively managing the climate for future generations to enjoy vs. using up what we have and finding other planets in which to inhabit? - The old throw away concept and let someone else deal with it - those someone elses are our children and grandchildren. Maybe it’s sustainability through community health efforts or education so we leave the world a better place as more people have greater needs. Have you ever had the experience of seeing, observing...
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Small & Gutsy Features Runway4Recovery
Small & Gutsy
Getting the news I have breast cancer was one of the most devastating messages I have ever received, not only for me but for my family - we are all affected by this disease in ways that many people don’t realize. I remember thinking, I am almost the same age as my grandmother when she died of breast cancer and I desperately wanted to have a different outcome - with all the progress made over the last 50 + years, will I have a different outcome? How long will I survive? What will my life be like forever after? Life will surely be different, a new normal. There certainly was also the...
info_outlineWhat matters to you? It’s a different question than what makes you happy, according to our guest today whom I will introduce in a moment. Happiness stems from what really matters to the individual and many of us have lost our collective understanding of what matters means. But, it’s not too late - there’s hope for our youth and there’s hope for the rest of us!
Finding out what matters to each of us is a very personal journey. To be seen, heard and valued so that each of us becomes a valued member of society and can give back is the essence of understanding what matters and in turn, guides us in seeing others and encouraging the concept of mattering for them.
Each of us has a uniqueness that once we intrinsically honor that, we are able to then actualize that and share our uniqueness in a positive way to others. However, when that is never offered or taken away through making us feel invisible, that we don’t matter, we make choices that can hurt us and society.
The Mattering Movement created and spearheaded by an incredible dynamic foursome, one of whom we will meet shortly is my guest today Jennifer B. Wallace, Chief Mattering Officer - love the title, is an award-winning journalist and author of the new book Never Enough: When Achievement Pressure Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It. She is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and appears on national television to discuss her articles and relevant topics in the news. She is a graduate from Harvard College, and began her journalism career at CBS “60 Minutes,” where she was part of a team that won The Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism. She is a Journalism Fellow at the The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Jennifer serves on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where she she currently resides.
To learn more: check out their website: www.thematteringmovement.com