Ever Scouts – A Video Game to Teach Life Lessons

"Ever Scouts teaches kids the skills they won’t learn in textbooks—skills like empathy, collaboration, and self-awareness. Every weekday, 7-10 year-olds join Missions: online adventures that are like part games, part shows, where kids learn through play and practice. Know a kid who’d love it? Try for free here." - Fish Stark

The news of the "Ever Scout "game was forwarded to Annapolis Friends Meeting by Barbara T., clerk of Pastoral Care Committee, she shares it and helpful information concerning the game and its young creator, Fish Stark.

"Friends,

Do you remember the "9-11 Ten Years Later" Reflection that our Peace and Justice Center did with the Naval Academy and St. John's College in 2011? After the panel and program at St. John's Chapel, we challenged participants to envision their own ideas for improving our world and helped to fund and support those ideas.

Fish Stark, a Key School senior, started a program there to work with children. Now, 11 years later, Fish is getting back to us with what he has created on a broad scale as a young adult. It is amazing. See below.

Sometimes a seed grows that we don't even know we planted. Thanks to Phil Caroom for the original program and to Phil and Janet Favero for nurturing Fish at Key School.

Blessings to all on this reflective time of year."

Barb

From Fish Stark:

Date: 12/13/2022 1:51 PM

Subject: Fish Stark Update: Introducing Ever Scouts

Hi all,

I wanted to let you know something I've been up to: meet Ever Scouts, a new way for kids to learn the life skills they need for the real world - like collaboration, empathy, and problem-solving - through interactive, social, choose-your-own-adventure games.

It's currently free for families with 7- to 11-year-olds to try as much as they want, and they can sign up in 60 seconds here.

I'm writing because I'd love for you to see this - and I hope you'll share it with folks who might be interested. (See below.)

I've been working on Ever Scouts for the past two years with an incredible team, including creatives from Scholastic and Nickelodeon and the visionary founders of Plated and Bond.

We got together to ask the question "What would the Boy/Girl Scouts look like if they were started today?" We identified a set of skills kids need to learn to take care of themselves and others - what we call The 12 Keys.

We know that kids learn through play, exploration, and dialogue - so we built a series of interactive choose-your-own-adventure games called Missions. Check out a video of what Missions look like.

Imagine if Jim Henson and Fred Rogers made a video game, and you have Missions. A Mission is an interactive choose-your-own-adventure game where a live adult Guide helps kids navigate their way through the story. Kids come onscreen to discuss their ideas with the Guide, and every kid gets to participate in activities and make choices that affect how the story ends. Every Mission is based on child development research and brought to life by a team of experienced writers of children's books and TV.

Missions are a new type of kids' media that takes the best of a live classroom experience (discussion with a caring adult), the best of kids' TV (reach, production value, and never boring), and the best of video games (replayable, give you agency). Research shows interactive media is an effective tool for helping kids learn - and we hope that this will help kids around the country (and the world!).

Some of what we're hearing from parents:

"It's made a wonderful improvement in her self-esteem and social anxiety."

"What my daughter gets from it is invaluable."

"The boys love new experiences and get excited for every adventure."

"My children love it!"

What you can share:

"Ever Scouts teaches kids the skills they won’t learn in textbooks—skills like empathy, collaboration, and self-awareness. Every weekday, 7-10 year-olds join Missions: online adventures that are like part games, part shows, where kids learn through play and practice. Know a kid who’d love it? Try for free here."

Thanks all for reading - this has been a labor of love for nearly two years, and if you know parents and kids it would work for, it'll mean a lot to me if you share.

Warmly,Fish