Children Within Our Borders Spotlight: Monthly Workshops

by Jennifer Nicholas

Children Beyond Our Borders, Inc. aims to provide opportunities for children and youth affected by social injustice to find peace, prosperity, and well-being through education and empowerment. CBOB wants every child to dream big and strive for a bright future. These are the reasons why CBOB has developed educational tools and workshops that stimulate children’s self-esteem, interest, curiosity, and innovation. CBOB delivers these educational tools and workshops not only beyond our borders to countries in Latin America, such as Colombia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, but also within our borders to local communities in Florida.

​Children Within Our Borders provides opportunities for at-risk youth in CBOB’s local communities, such as Alachua and Orlando. One way CWOB does this is by providing monthly educational and empowering workshops to the children in both of these at-risk communities. CWOB has already hosted a very successful workshop this year in Orlando. However, CWOB is not stopping there! CWOB has already planned two more exciting workshops for these communities in the month of February.

​Children Within Our Borders kicked off the new year with the Be the Light Workshop in Orlando, Florida. The Be the Light Workshop’s purpose was to allow the children to develop their own goals for the new year and to teach them lessons about how to be the best version of themselves. First, the children played safety bingo which helped reinforce their safety skills and let them identify the correct safety procedures they would use in emergency situations. Next, the children played math bingo in order to get their minds stimulated by practicing both addition and subtraction. The second activity was called the reflective hand. For this activity, the children drew their hands on construction paper and then cut them out to make a “reflective hand.” The children wrote five things they thought made them a good friend on the left hand and then wrote five new things they thought they could do to make their friendships better on the right hand. This activity allowed the children to build better relationships in the new year by being self-aware of the things they already do and of the things they can do in the future. The final activity of the workshop was a game of kickball. This activity taught the children to get active in their own environment in order for them to stay healthy in the new year.

Children Within Our Borders has already accomplished a great deal for the local communities in Florida this year. CWOB will continue to serve these local communities in February by hosting two more workshops. The first workshop, Valentine’s Day- Relationships and Cultures, will take place on February 17th in Alachua. This workshop will show the children the importance of healthy relationships and will teach them how Valentine’s Day is celebrated in other cultures. The second workshop, In a Perfect World, will take place on February 24th in Orlando. This workshop will help the children understand their own emotions and help them learn how to cope with them. Therefore, as you can see, we have a fun and exciting month ahead of us. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more updates about our future CWOB events!