Build trust
Listen with curiosity, see the person behind the behavior, and build consistency in everyday interactions.
A separate I2A offering
Showing up matters.
How we show up matters, too.
The Caring Adults Program supports the people who stand beside young people: staff, mentors, educators, foster families, and volunteers.
Explore Caring Adults trainingThe Caring Adults Program
Help young people feel seen
and supported to grow.
Adults bring care, experience, and good intentions. They also need practical ways to build trust, understand motivation, respond under pressure, and hold healthy boundaries.
This program offers space to reflect on everyday interactions and practice a more thoughtful response. It is available on its own or as an optional addition to an I2A youth cohort.
Caring Adults is separate from the core eight week Youth Empowerment Program.
Areas we can work on together
Care with understanding.
Accountability with connection.
Support inner motivation
Explore hope, a personal “why,” goal setting, and the young person’s own reasons for taking action.
Respond with intention
Practice emotional regulation, constructive feedback, healthy boundaries, and care for the adult’s own wellbeing.
Format, depth, and learning priorities are scoped around the adults you serve and the setting in which they work.
It touched an area that I had never thought about before.
Carolina Benedum described gaining a new understanding of intrinsic motivation and intending to adapt it into a lesson for her teen group. Her testimony reflects that learning and intention, rather than measured youth outcomes.
Speaking and workshops
Bring a meaningful conversation
to your community.
Invite Sensei Dave for a keynote, workshop, staff development session, or facilitated conversation shaped around the people in the room.
His lived experience, 24 years of Air Force service, and work as a resilience and accountability coach inform conversations about leadership, hope, emotional regulation, and the role of caring adults.
Discuss your event
Conversations can explore
- Seeing possibility beyond present circumstances.
- Leadership, resilience, and personal accountability.
- Foster care, juvenile justice, and the power of caring adults.
- Moving from reacting to responding.
- Turning a personal “why” into meaningful action.
For the adults in a young person’s corner
Let’s talk about the people
you want to support.
Tell us about your team, community, or event. We will explore the format that fits.