JOIN US IN OUR DARING INCLUSIVE DREAM

Dare To Dream Institute

Since 1998 The Dare to Dream Institute has actively worked to cultivate and nurture learning environments where all feel seen, heard, and able to find purpose.  Through our CORE developmental programs students, parents, educators, and child life specialists learn to crack open their personal seeds of connecting, creating, learning, and interacting supporting not only their own deep roots of learning and development but how this learning supports their families, their work classrooms, and communities.

We would be honored to share this learning with you!

Learn More

At the Dare to Dream Institute we’re committed to direct developmental learning that transforms dreams into realities. Through our CORE instructional programs those who truly want to support others have the tools to cultivate relationships and nourish skills in connecting, creating, learning, and interacting through each developmental stage in life. WE would be honored to share this learning with you!

Our mission is to elevate inclusive spaces where all can be seen, heard, and find purpose. JOIN US IN A TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING PROCESS BY UNLOCKING YOUR INNATE ABILITIES TODAY: CONNECTING, CREATING, LEARNING, AND INTERACTING through deep self understanding and better communication.

Our Vision is to unlock the innate abilities of individuals, families and child life specialists. Supporting direct transformative development; cultivating inclusive relationships; creating thriving learning containers; and nourishing skills that allow all to connect, create, learn, and interact in all aspects of life

YOU TOO CAN HAVE A THRIVING SUPPORT SYSTEM!

Dare To Dream Institute

I founded The Dare to Dream Institute in 1998 after many years as a special educator working with students who did not fit into the traditional education frameworks.  Each day they taught me more about myself: how I set up the environments they were in with me, how I showed up, and how that affected my ability to instruct. In short, they taught me that to reach them I needed to learn about my own expectations, adapting my patterns of instruction and interactions so I could build bridges of better communication and trust creating a more open and available learning environment. 

 I had to be willing day to day to reach out to each of my students, making sure through instruction and social interactions that each felt they were a necessary part of our classroom culture.  I needed to commit to being open to continued learning and deliberate growth so that I could better support not only my students but anyone participating in our classroom culture. This took an availability for reflection, adaptation, feedback, and reflective dialogue. 

Why is this important?  I feel it is a crucial framework when working in education, social services, or as a parent (raising three children myself) that all within the environment feel they have a place and purpose.  Feeling seen and connected allows for deeper learning and creative expression. They can truly make mistakes, adapt to new challenges, and not be afraid to create and share their learning and abilities with those around them. 

It is within the cultivation of connection that deep roots can be established supporting the structures needed for dreams to exist for you and those around you.  I would like to share with you my learning in a dynamic transformative way, how reflective connecting, creating, learning, and interacting can create the necessary environments and interactions needed for dreams to become realities.

Contact

Crack open the seeds of how you cultivate a culture of deliberate development for yourself, your family, your organization.

See More

Dare To Dream Institute

Instructional Coaches 

Instructors

My calling to work with students and families touched by developmental and emotional challenges came at an early age.As I entered my first classroom of three beautiful souls, my paradigms of what my “job” was to be were shattered and the breath was knocked out of me. These souls, all non-verbal, found it a daily challenge to communicate and navigate the world around them. They often went into fight mode as their internal world seemed traumatized. I had looked at my job as a practitioner to shape behavior using reinforcements and controlling the environments so their behavior could be shaped and skills acquired. It took me time to realize that was only a part of my vocation. The first and foremost part was that of cultivating a relationship with each one. That meant becoming aware that I needed to meet each student where they were and not where I thought they should be.

– The place I felt most comfortable-

This transformative learning shifted not what I knew- but how I knew it. I became aware of how my own assumptions, behaviors, and habits of mind interacted with the environments I was trying to create and the interactions I was having. This shift eventually allowed me to found The Dare to Dream Institute. But before I was available to create the CORE Programs, I had another transformative gut punch. My oldest son was born with challenges processing cognitive and emotional information. He was extremely loving and sensitive but when angered by family members, especially by his siblings, he could become destructive and display bullying behavior. I was frustrated and scared of his bullying. It took time for me to realize again I was not meeting him where he was but expecting him to rise to where I wanted him to be. My fears were overwhelming that if anyone knew this side of our family my shame would overwhelm me, I was struggling, even with all my professional knowledge

Cultivating a thriving environment in my home through those years with many other challenges was quite a messy but loving process. We were not always thriving and needed to again and again bring out the tools of awareness, reflection, and compassionate dialogue to move from one developmental stage to another. Recently we were again challenged to see how deep we had cultivated our root system when I was diagnosed with stage 4 uterine cancer. I needed to dig deep and face some challenges I had been avoiding. MY three children now in their 20s pulled those tools out again as we cultivated together another layer of development allowing even more vulnerability, digging deep, and weeding out what did not serve us to continue to grow. I, now cancer free, am able to see this challenge rainbow with clarity and can say with 100 % conviction that you too can grow with your family/ partner/students so all feel heard, seen, and able to thrive in their purpose.

Core Programs

CRACK OPEN YOUR  REAL ENERGY TO CONNECT, CREATE, LEARN, AND INTERACT THROUGH EACH LIFE STAGE

CORE Dynamic Programs

Today the term VUCA is used to describe the complexities of the world we and our children are and will continue to live in.  VUCA describes a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous relying on individual and collective skills that are adaptive in nature.  How do we and our children Dare to Dream in this type of world?  We believe it is by cracking open individual and group energies cultivating awareness in the deep root systems of direct developmental growth, becoming resources for each other, able to adapt and thrive. 

 Our CORE DYNAMIC PROGRAMS are based in the research of integral direct developmental theory and transformative learning theory. Through our programs individuals, parents, and child life specialists learn to:

  •  Connect to our narratives, values, and beliefs
  •  Become aware of how our present stories from our narratives and how we can create narratives of our daring dreams
  • Contemplate how assumptions and habits of mind we rely on in our interactions and decision making
  • Become aware of our emotional “immune system” how it helps and hinders development
  • Self-reflect and dialogue helping us to grow and interact through a transformative learning process
  • Take the new learning as food for roots for collaborative contribution allowing thriving support and growth for ourselves and others. 

  CORE programs provide instructive tools that consciously connect who we are now in our narratives, values, rituals, and assumptions, to where we want to be by cultivating skills of reflection, dialogue, and contemplation, creating sustainable behavioral shifts that allow all to be seen, heard, and able to thrive in their purpose.

Cohort Programs

Our programs integrate learning cohorts and provide individualized instruction for individuals, families, and teams. Pricing varies, please contact us for more information.

Contact

For the past 24 years The Dare to Dream Institute has been cultivating the soil for individuals, families, educators, and leadership teams Through our CORE Transformative Programs, cracking open the real energies that allow us to reflect and dialogue on our personal and collective development.

Has your organization struggled to put your goals and objectives into sustainable practice?

Are you wanting to create an inclusive culture of growth and development where your staff, students, and families all feel they are thriving?

Ready to “level up” how you and your staff connect, create, learn, and interact with each other and those you support in their growth and learning? 

Allow us at The Dare to Dream Institute to partner with you through our CORE Transformative Programs creating an inclusive culture of dynamic development, where all are able to thrive in their unique purpose, and support the growth and development of others. 

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Dynamic Investing

We at the Dare to Dream Institute believe it takes community working together to grow sustainable change.

Through CORE Dynamic Investing you can help crack open the real energies that stimulate transformative development in individuals, families, and communities.

The Dare to Dream Institute is a 501c3 recognized organization, working with others to cultivate cultures of trust where seeds of dreams can be planted and transformed into interactive realities.

Our Dynamic Investment Program allows you to buy into our clients’ dreams by supporting deep transformative growth through direct developmental learning.

Investors can choose to pay from ¼ to 100% of any program for individuals, families, teams, or community organizations willing to learn how to hold space for their development and others by becoming HUMAN WHISPERERS

Contact

YOU TOO CAN HAVE A THRIVING SUPPORT SYSTEM!

Testimonials:

“I would like to say how blessed our family has been to have Jennifer in our lives. She has helped our family become much healthier and happier with the Dare to Dream family program!”
Timeshia Datillo
“My brother finished school because of The Dare to Dream Institute.”
Vianney Cassias
“The Dare to Dream Institute is very pro-student and very humanistic in their approach to education.”
Kim Zupek
“Jennifer always had us look at a new creative way to face a challenge.”
Devonte Jones
“Jennifer worked with us to develop goals that supported our vision”
Julie Perdue, Principal St. Bernard School
“We Worked for three years with Jennifer to put together programs for our educators and students”
June McGuire, Board President Quest Academy

Contact

For any inquiries please contact us

jefner81@gmail.com

1-618-535-1713

Facebook-f