Hana Butorova, Author at Citywise

Strength cards: Developing Self-knowledge

Strength cards is an activity that we use in some of our Citywise groups while focusing on the topic of Self-knowledge. If your child is in a group this year, they may have used the strength cards with their mentor. It can also be an interesting activity to do with your child at home, to […]

Making a family coat of arms

In our mentoring curriculum, one of the first things children consider is the topic of self-knowledge. This is all about identifying some of the key things, that make you who you are. These can include for example your hobbies, your strengths and your values. It’s also a brilliant way for the mentors and children to […]

Glasgow Spring Camp 2021

We had such fun at this year’s Spring Camp … and it was so wonderful to be together in-person again that we kept a bit of a diary to share with you!

Helping children make and keep good friendships in a pandemic

(4 minute read) We recently wrote a blog post about the gift of friendship. There we shared some pretty good reasons why friendship is great. Friends keep us happy and healthy, and even just knowing that we share a connection with somebody can help us feel less alone. So how can we help children make […]

Spring Camp 2020

Bookings are open for our free spring holiday camp – scroll down! Children currently attending P4-P7 can join the spring holiday camp taking place in Glasgow this April! Run by Citywise staff and supported by our outstanding team of volunteers, your child will make new friends, try new activities, stay active, eat healthily and have lots […]

Growing in Self Knowledge

The first of the seven key areas that make up the Citywise curriculum is Self Knowledge. During our first few sessions we reflect on who we are. We think about the different things that make up our character and that make up “me”. We explore what has influenced who we are today, and think about […]

The group setting: Responding to problems with continuity

Youth mentoring programmes are common around the world as prevention programmes. However, evaluation of such programmes finds again and again that their positive effects are small in magnitude (DuBois et al., 2011). Therefore, it is becoming increasingly clear that we cannot simply assume that pairing up any young person with a mentor will automatically lead […]

The Importance of: A curriculum

Youth mentoring programmes are popular around the world as prevention and intervention programmes. However, evaluation of such programmes has repeatedly found that positive effects are often small in magnitude (DuBois et al., 2011). Why such small effects? It’s time to move towards more supervised, structured and targeted mentoring programmes. Lyons, McQullin and Henderson (2018) recently analysed […]

And the award goes to…

3,109 hours is the amount of time our mentors have given this academic year to the Citywise Challengers Programme, mentoring young people across Manchester and Glasgow. Towards the end of our projects our mentors recommended each other for three awards and we want to share them with you…. *Mentor of the Year* Megan Halfacre and […]

Heroes Academy 2018: St Monica’s

We are pleased to announce that pre-registration is now open for the Citywise Heroes Academy Summer Holiday Project! This 2-week project will be held at St Monica’s RC High School from August 20th-31st 2018 (excluding Bank Holiday Monday). It will include interactive English and Maths lessons as well as fun games, character building activities and an off-site […]

How to: Build Resilience in Children

Resilience is essentially our capacity to bounce back from stressful or challenging experiences and is one of the key Citywise strengths. It is an important strength to build in young people, and it can be developed from a young age. Read on for three top-tips adapted from author Donna Jackson Nakazawa and psychologist Rick Hanson, […]

The Good Life: Seminars on Personal Development & Character Formation

Last Wednesday marked the last of a series of four seminars on ‘The Good Life.’ These were led by Fr Joseph Evans, the chaplain of Greygarth Hall (the student residence in the building next to Citywise in Manchester), followed by a discussion and refreshments each week. We were so excited to tackle some of the […]

Meet the Mentor: Anna Spiesova

This week marks the final week of the wonderful Anna’s internship in Glasgow. Read our latest #meetthementor (or more like #meettheintern) interview to find out all about who she is, what she’s been doing and what she’d say to anybody thinking about getting involved with Citywise! So Anna, Tell us a bit about yourself – where […]

SGOOP

This is the second of 2 articles on the topic of “promoting lasting change.” Click here for part 1. Besides learning about how to make goals SMART, young people in Citywise learn about SGOOP, an interesting strategy that has been found to be most helpful in achieving our goals. This is a helpful tool that […]

Making Resolutions Stick

This is the first of 2 articles on the topic of “promoting lasting change.” Click here for part 2. At least once a year, many of us set resolutions, or goals, with the hope of achieving lasting change in our lives. While it is simple to set goals, it can be tricky to ensure that […]

How to: Nurture Generosity in Children

The Christmas season is a time of giving, and with this in mind, here are a few tips on how you can nurture generosity in your children this Christmas! Be generous, and talk about it Children closely watch and absorb what they see their parents do, so the best way of encouraging children to behave […]

Why Mentoring?

This post highlights some of the reasons and research findings that back our mentoring approach. At Citywise, we work in partnership with schools and families to empower young people to take hold of their futures, grow in character and the skills needed to succeed in today’s world, and positively contribute to society. One of the […]

The Importance of: Self-control

Our character curriculum is centred on building four key character traits discussed in relation to human flourishing and success since the times of Classical Greek Philosophy: resilience, self-control, good judgement and fairness. Why do we focus on these traits? This series, called “The importance of”, explores the importance of each of these four traits. Self-control includes being able to […]

The Importance of: Fairness

Our character curriculum is centred on building four key character traits discussed in relation to human flourishing and success since the times of Classical Greek Philosophy: resilience, self-control, good judgement and fairness. Why do we focus on these traits? This series, called “The importance of”, explores the importance of each of these four traits. Growing in fairness includes […]

The Importance of: Good Judgement

Our character curriculum is centred on building four key character traits discussed in relation to human flourishing and success since the times of Classical Greek Philosophy: resilience, self-control, good judgement and fairness. Why do we focus on these traits? This series, called “The importance of”, explores the importance of each of these four traits. Good […]

The Importance of: Resilience

Our character curriculum is centred on building four key character strengths discussed in relation to human flourishing and success since the times of Classical Greek Philosophy: resilience, self-control, good judgement and fairness. Why do we focus on these strengths? This series, called “The importance of”, explores the importance of each of these four topics. Being […]

Promoting resilience: The Growth Mindset

3 minute read One of the things we look at in the first term of our school projects is the Growth Mindset. This is a really important tool that develops resilience, and we want all of our young people and volunteers to know about it. We’ve loved talking about it, and wanted to share it […]

How to: create a culture of thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! At Citywise we believe that thankfulness is a core part of good character. Here are some tips, written by developmental psychologist Thomas Lickona, that we found really interesting on how you can nurture thankfulness in your children, and within your own life. Teach Your Kids What Gratitude Is and Why It Matters Explain to your […]