Bearapy: Books, Bears, and Therapy

 

Bearapy: Books, Bears, and Therapy

by Kanesha Adams

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"I will be okay. I was not okay last year, I was not okay earlier this year, but I will be okay.  It is time for us to help our students so they too, can share their stories so that they WILL be okay." 

• Kanesha Adams

Our founder, Kanesha Adams is an educator, change agent, and advocate. She has been serving her community, state, and country for many years. As a former elementary educator, Kanesha was very intentional about choosing activities that supported the social and emotional well-being of her students. While working in a rural community, she learned that the trauma many students live with is often never discussed, treated, or dealt with. She would design safe spaces in her classroom for students to vent and release. She was also adamant about finding culturally-relevant stories, that would help students express themselves, and craft their own narratives.

In February 2020, Kanesha lost her sister, her only sibling, and became what she coins as a "Momtie"; books and bears, stories of comfort became all she knew to help her get through this tragedy. Kanesha learned that she had to create a solution to support students in and out of school, who are dealing with academic and emotional trauma because she needed it too. In April 2020, Kanesha birthed "Bearapy" by using books and bears for her 3-year-old niece's birthday party, where all the guests stuffed mini horses and read amazing stories.

She is excited to continue to work on building bears and giving books, through the lens of reading and therapy, and wants to scale her efforts to work with more students, even globally. This funding opportunity will allow her to begin building the digital Bearapy Bookshelf. 

Bearapy Bookshelf is a digital library housed with self-care books from self-published authors across the country. Everyone has a story, and so do our "furever friends." Our books are written with our bears and their stories in mind. These stories promote positive self-care. Through the lens of the well-researched CASEL model, our books focus on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Our software will be developed as a digital reading program for students and families to log in to in order to read and learn together. We will house bearapy brain breaks, bearapy books, and bearapy blues all in efforts to provide students with self-care skills and tactics to help them cope with their traumas. 

We are also seeking to purchase an additional mobile bear stuffing machine as we travel across the world to share Bearapy with school partners and other after-school organizations. 

Listen to our story via the video file, and make a pledge to help us live out our mission of healing the hearts and minds through books and bears, one child at a time. 

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