"Hardwired to Connect" DVD Now Available

WHY ARE LARGE AND GROWING numbers of U.S. children and young people suffering from depression, anxiety, attention deficit and conduct disorders, thoughts of suicide, and other serious mental and behavioral problems?

Several years ago the Institute for American Values together with the YMCA of the USA and Dartmouth Medical School answered this question in the 2003 report, Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities. Written by the Commission on Children at Risk, a panel of 33 leading children's doctors, neuroscientists, research scholars and youth service professionals, Hardwired to Connect draws upon a large body of recent research showing that children are biologically primed ("hardwired") for enduring connections to others and for moral and spiritual meaning.

Because of the enormous interest in the Commission's findings and recommendations (Hardwired is now at the end of its 5th reprinting, with over 25,000 copies disseminated), the Institute has created a short, informational DVD that distills the most important aspects of the report.

Produced by Globalvision, the Hardwired to Connect DVD won the prestigious silver Telly Award this year in the category of non-broadcast video.

Through the generosity of several donors—including the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation—the Institute is able to make this DVD available to you free of charge while supplies last. To receive a copy, please complete this order form found on our Center for Marriage and Families' website.

Copies of the full report, Hardwired to Connect, are available from the Institute for $7.00 each (volume discounts are available).

Copies of the Commission at Risk's working papers will be published this fall by Springer in Authoritative Communities: The Scientific Case for Nurturing Children in Body, Mind and Spirit.