Friends By Heart - Francis's Little Dragon Project

[c horiuchi]

Francis's black belt project is called "Friends By Heart". 

LETTING FOSTER CHILDREN KNOW THAT THEY ARE IMPORTANT AND SPECIAL

Sometimes a child cannot stay with his or her first family, and is moved to a foster home or shelter. A foster child can make new friends but may be moved again to another temporary family. He or she will need to adapt to that family and make more new friends. 

We can help by welcoming all children as important and a special part of our community.

 

SOME IDEAS FOR MAKING A NEW FRIEND

• Say “Hi!”
• Introduce yourself; share your own story
• Start a conversation
• Note your similarities
• Invite a person to sit with you
• Introduce the person to your other friends
• Share a book with another person

 

MORE ACTIONS WE CAN TAKE

• Join Francis and his family in a letter-writing jam (in early January, time/date TBD)
• Make a New Year’s Resolution: befriend someone new
• Talk in your family about the importance of having a family and friends
• Take other actions at school, church, or in the community as your heart guides you

FriendsByHeart.jpg

[c horiuchi]

About 2500 children in Sacramento county are in foster care.

[c horiuchi]

Francis has a few things to say about being a friend.

First, a couple of questions:

What do friends mean to *you*?

How do you think you can help get friends?

How do you think you can help others get more friends?

To me, a friend means somebody who cares about me and can understand when I have other friends or I am not in the best mood and don't want spend time with them right now. Also, a friend is somebody who is forgiving. 

To get friends, my ideas are: you could shake hands, or notice similarities such as shoes and other clothing. Once you get used to them or just want to be their friend, you could introduce yourself, or have a polite physical greeting.  Say nice stuff, like, "good morning" or "hello". Keep it up, it may take a few days for a person to get used to you.  You could say "Hello, my name is .... What's yours?" with a smile. Make eye contact.

You could either use these ideas or make up new ones that seem to be more effective for you.  If you are friends with somebody who is not very popular or people just don't know or like them, that will make other people think again about how nice that person is and try again. Or, if you make friends with them, and you have a lot of other friends, naturally they will get to know that new person better and become their friend, too.  And that could lead to a LOT of friends for the new person.