Thiebaut Method

I believe poverty can be ended from the inside out.If low-income children are shown what in the world they can improve and become, they will develop the intrinsic motivation and compassion needed to learn, work hard and strive for big goals. As a person who has lived in an impoverished community for more than 20 years, I understand the challenges of poverty. 

I'm applying for The Elevate Prize to demonstrate that the methodology and nonprofit I created is putting low-income students on a trajectory to end poverty by empowering them to address poverty in their own communities. Treating students as the people with solutions instead of people who need to be helped teaches students they have the agency, creative intelligence and compassion needed to help themselves and others.

If selected as a winner, the prize will persuade a larger group of people, institutions, and holders of resources that the solution to poverty already exists in the minds and hearts of those living in it. One of 10 year old students, Citlaly, who works with the homeless, attracted the support of elected officials to provide substantial financial support to our nonprofit. The prize will unlock even more support.

My story boils down to taking control of myself and my future by committing myself to pursuing my passions. In 2003 at age 23 I read my first book and ironically discovered I was passionate about passionate people. Since then I have studied passionate people across all walks of life and found one truth among them: those who stay committed to what intrinsically motivates them achieve their potential.

Pursuing my passions led me out of poverty and into creating first a tutoring company and then a nonprofit dedicated to teaching children how to help others in ways they intrinsically care about

My purpose is to end poverty by empowering children in low-income communities to help others in ways they genuinely care about by instilling them with the agency and autonomy needed to create and work on social good projects.

Currently the nonprofit I founded and run implements my purpose in one of the poorest cities in the SF Bay Area. With the support of political and community leaders, businesses, philanthropic institutions, and children and parents living in poverty, we will open our second location in early 2022 and solidify a nationally scalable model by 2023.

The problem we are solving is an entrenched institutional mindset that poor children need to be helped. They don't. They need to be empowered to help others. Counterintuitively, by teaching children to help others teaches them to help themselves.

One third grader just told our program staff that Thiebaut method is going to help him do good when he grows up. He has just begun the first of five social good projects he will do before graduating our program. His current project is to coach younger children in playing soccer whose parents can't afford lessons or soccer leagues.

His social good project was created based on his genuine concern for families who cannot afford soccer lessons and his passion for playing soccer. The project is unique to him and builds his agency, capabilities and compassion.

Contrast this with the ubiquity of programs that predetermine what children need help with and will learn and do. Homework programs, reading and math programs, social-emotional learning programs, behavior management programs, etc. These are only a few examples of interventions that assume to know what children need at the cost of ignoring a child's personality, strengths, and unique world views. This problem is species level.

What we are doing that is new is giving students control over the social good they do and providing guidance in how to explore and determine what social good to do through a social good project. Furthermore, students will do five social good projects before graduating the program and we do not determine any of them. We allow each project to emerge from the new skills, knowledge, abilities, and experience that the student accumulates from each project. This allows children to develop their values and skills emergently over time as they learn and become more capable of helping. We believe our approach follows the trajectory of many moral leaders of today and the past who had experiences that helped them to emergently develop the values and skills needed to make the world a better place.

When youth are active members and leaders in their communities, all of humanity will benefit. It is through that engagement that new and innovative ideas are born. Who better to lead communities than  youth who have first hand knowledge of their needs and open hearts needed to collaborate with diverse groups of people?  I truly believe that we have unlocked a path to address poverty in our communities. If we empower the youth to help their communities through what they care about, they will be more likely to stay involved as they age. In order to end poverty, those that live in it must end it.