About Us

Our Mission and Vision

Our mission is to provide spiritually-based resilience training programs that build character and well-being in children and adults.

Our vision is a world in which children and adults everywhere have the spiritual and emotional tools they need to build strong character and a life of resilience.

Our Approach & Model

As academics and people of strong personal faith, we are interested in piloting research to find out what really works to create resilience and strong character. At GROW, we follow several important steps for the development and implementation of our curriculum:

  • Pray for wisdom

  • Combine evidence-based spiritual practices and evidence-based positive psychology interventions

  • Ask for feedback on cultural appropriation from people inside the particular culture

  • Test the curriculum with a pilot program

  • Train local male and female leaders who are already role models with strong positive character

  • Implement the program

  • Provide weekly coaching for leaders

  • Test the final version using validated measures and scales for hope, resilience, character growth, and alcohol & substance use

Our Core Values

  • We believe a strong positive relationship with God is very important. Knowing the One who made us and loves us makes our lives richer, deeper, and fuller. As we lean into His love, we find meaning and purpose.

  • We all need to know and believe we are truly loved and belong to a family that cares for us. It’s our goal to make that happen in every GROW group.

  • Humor makes life fun, happy, and light. We teach our program through games, drama, and dances. Laughter is the best medicine!

  • We believe everyone in the world is created in God’s image and deserves to be treated with honor and respect. We all have a story, and we can all learn from each other! Whoever you are and wherever you have come from, you are welcome!

  • We hold our program and ourselves to a high standard of excellence. Whether we are analyzing data, polishing a curriculum, training leaders, or building an obstacle course to teach character, there is nothing quite as satisfying to our team as finishing well and getting it right.

  • Since we are committed to building a sustainable and cost-effective program, we get plenty of opportunities to exercise creativity! Games, drama, music, and dance are great teaching tools that don’t cost a thing.

  • We are researchers for a reason. We are curious about how to create and combine best practices for building strong character, hope, and resilience while at the same time lowering alcohol and substance use.

Meet the Team

Dana McDaniel Seale, M.A.P.P

Founder

Founder

J. Paul Seale, M.D.