TouchStone Leaders Platform

For 21 years the Stone Soup Leadership Institute has been developing these educational tools based on the award-winning humanitarian book Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Everyday Heroes. 

The TouchStone Leaders Platform scales up The Institute’s real-world experience, using rich bi-lingual content and methodologies to educate young people to become leaders in their lives, our communities and our world.  TouchStone Leaders is a one-stop shop for people to access these educational tools.  It is a values-based, video-enhanced, content-driven, blended experiential learning environment featuring resources that educate, engage and connect people with sustainable solutions that empower the next generation of changemakers to lead our world.  These offerings are bottom-up lessons learned, working directly with community-based programs. They are action oriented making it possible for learning and social change to happen simultaneously and effectively.  

Goals & Objectives

The Institute’s goal is to make its Stone Soup style leadership training modules accessible to all through the TouchStone Leaders Platform. The 100 life-changing stories are the touchstone for our leadership training programs, youth-community initiatives, sustainability projects and activities.  We use these stories to teach values: empathy & authenticity and inspire our youth to find their moral compass, a true north as they navigate important decisions for their life, their community and the world. 

Virtual Library

  • The Institute’s Book: Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Everyday Heroes offers 100 heartwarming, action-oriented stories of multicultural people from 29 countries and 65 communities. Pan Y Vino Para El Camino is the only bilingual education curriculum targeted to reach young and emerging leaders. The Institute’s Educational Curriculum: provides a lesson plans for each of the 100 stories with a Leader’s Guide, audiotapes, videotapes. It is self-paced and flexible providing step-by-step instructions for how to integrate these stories into academic programs and community service projects.  It is easy-to-use, versatile and adaptable.

  • The Institute’s Sustainability Tools opens to a whole new world that nurtures innovation, exchanges best practices, inspires initiative, catalyzes effective civic engagement and directs them towards green-blue jobs. Users access our courses, trainings, mentors, resources to transform their lives and build a sustainable world.

  • The TouchStone Life Planning Tools: Dream Map™ is an online framework for individualized learning, self-directed careers, for 21st century workforce development, especially blue/green jobs. Designed and tested with young people, The Dream Map™ is the gateway for youth to enter The Platform and track their 5-year plan journey. It is a smart tool for them to discover their “true north” and start to see themselves becoming their dreams. It becomes a digital portfolio to showcase their work.

  • The Institute’s Performance Metrics measures youth progress in 21st century job market skills: adaptability, communication, critical-thinking, conflict-resolution, teamwork, project management, and problem solving.

  • Our YouTube Education Channel: over 100 videos; dedicated to Institute’s Chairperson, Walter Cronkite.

  • Facilitator Certificate Program is an effective, grassroots, train-the-trainer program for emerging leaders to receive hands-on training using our tools with young people to accelerate the development of “21st century skills” vital for jobs of tomorrow. This personalized workforce development trains people in “soft skills” and real-world situations to be servant leaders: powerful communicators, able to lead and work on teams, adaptable to the demands of various settings, able to problem solve, to think critically about issues, to resolve conflicts that arise and utilize project management skills to get work done.  Taking initiative in one’s life is especially critical for systematically disenfranchised communities in inner cities, rural areas and on islands.