I sat around a table with a group of fourth graders learning to be mentors for younger students, and a girl looked at me and said, “Now whenever I am upset, I have Buddy and Snuggles in my head.”
Buddy the dog and Snuggles the bunny are two of the five resilience habit animals that children at a Milwaukee school are learning to help themselves thrive. Buddy reminds kids they are not alone, and Snuggles represents kindness.
A violence prevention grant brought me into kindergarten through third-