About
A Proven Evidenced Based Program!
Founded by Dr. Patricia Gorman Barry Ph.D. in 1995, the BrainWise Program, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, has been involved in the research and development of curricula that teach children, youth, and at-risk adults essential emotional, social, and cognitive skills through an innovative structured approach called the “10 Wise Ways.”
As a public health nurse early in her professional career, Dr. Barry counseled and worked with teen mothers, battered women, new parents, victims of physical and sexual abuse, youth with sexually transmitted diseases, truants, drop-outs, substance abusers, suicidal youth, families of suicide victims, and the mentally disabled.
In this work, she saw the tragic impact on lives caused by non-thinking, impulsive, behaviors. When she realized that many people with whom she worked reacted emotionally and impulsively to problems because they had never learned any differently, she created BrainWise to teach about the brain and how learning certain skills—the “10 Wise Ways”—would help promote Wizard Brain thinking over Lizard Brain reacting.
BrainWise is a comprehensive program that provides the essential tools to help individuals make good decisions and take control of their lives. After years of using and evaluating BrainWise, researchers, educators, counselors, social workers, public health nurses, and those who specialize in child and adolescent development agree that this program offers a proven means of teaching essential critical thinking skills called “executive functions.” They agree that knowing and practicing these skills will greatly benefit participants throughout their lives.
Hundreds of schools, service organizations, youth groups, community based organizations, health providers, mental health agencies and others have taught BrainWise and helped thousands of individuals learn the 10 Wise Ways. Here’s how they do it.
ApplicationsBrainWise has an extensive history of applied research and evidence-based evaluations that show program graduates make improvements in behaviors that affect their health and well-being .
The foundation for the BrainWise Program combines information about our “hard-wired brain” with other research that includes:
This information, together with decades of scientific-based research in the fields of education and the social sciences, was used to develop and measure BrainWise.
The BrainWise Program, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, is the recipient of support from a wide range of donors, foundations, government agencies, and other supporters.
In 2007 the BrainWise Program was awarded a Capacity Building Grant by the Department of Health and Human Services to help expand its base and enable it to reach more programs and schools.
International support to fund operations in China has been received from the Institute of International Education, the Ford Foundation, Save the Children – UK, and the Yunnan Reproductive Health Association. Dr. Li Xiaoliang, a BrainWise instructor in China, has translated the curriculum into Chinese and it has been published there with the support of these agencies. These resources have also allowed the training of Chinese educators and the program is being taught in rural areas of the country.
In the United States, these are some of the foundations, corporations, and agencies who have been major supporters of the BrainWise Program:
Because it is a non-profit organization, revenue generated from the sale of BrainWise products is used to subsidize program costs at inner city schools and help pay for the agency's operating expenses. In addition, by outsourcing and using volunteers to supplement its operations, the agency has determined that over 90% of its revenue is spent on the development, production, implementation and evaluation of the BrainWise Program.