Welcome!

Hello, Hello, It’s the Danni Dragonfly Blog!

This blog allows us to share a bit more about the “behind the scenes” aspects of the YouTube channel. In particular, it provides us with the opportunity to engage with educators, families, and caregivers who wish to learn more and understand how to utilize the songs, videos, and puppets to help build resilience and foster mental health in their children.

Early animation test for Glo

This project has definitely been a labor of love, fifteen years in the making. Back in 2009, I became interested in understanding how to build resilience in children. My quest led me to reading a lot about neuroscience. The more I read, the more I realized that there is a lot of information from the field that is extremely useful, but it was not accessible to most people because the information was so dense. As an educator, I decided to take on the task of translating the brain science in a way that even young children could understand. That is how I created The Resilient Mindset Model. I spent several years speaking about the model, sharing it with anyone who would listen. I felt a bit like Chicken Little, telling people that if we did not start teaching people about their brains, we would be facing a significant mental health crisis.

Meeting Jason in 2019 was a game-changer. He recognized that no matter how valuable the model was, I needed a scalable product. We launched Pathways to Empower in January 2020, becoming one of the first content creators focused on mental health literacy. In the past five years, we have published workbooks for students K-College through Kendall Hunt Publishing as well as online video content for families and educators. (Additionally, we launched and grew The Mental Health Literacy Collaborative into a nationwide non-profit, along with Annie Slease).

But through all of the years, the project that has always been on my mind has been musical/animated/puppetry content geared toward preschool children and their families. I have always wanted to see the characters come to life. And in the past few months, everything has come together in a way that I could never have dreamed of.

Voice acting in the studio

We have a dream team of voice actors, musicians, writers, animators, and funders/advisors. Every time we turn around, the person we need is there, excited to join us on the journey. Much of what we have accomplished over the last fifteen years has laid the foundation for Danni. For me, it feels like we are at the top of the roller-coaster. It has been a long trek up, but here comes the ride.

I hope you will join us.

~Donna Volpitta