What Does EQ2 Mean?

The time youth spend in our care offers a window of opportunity to help build the social, emotional, and self-regulation skills needed to lead healthy and productive lives. Together, these skills create what we call Emotional Intelligence or EQ. (It’s like IQ. But instead of referring to your cognitive intelligence, EQ refers to your ability to understand and manage emotions.) These EQ skills don’t develop in a vacuum. They are cultivated through relationships with invested and consistent caregivers. For youth, EQ skills such as developing the capacity for trust, managing strong emotions, increasing impulse control, and learning responsible decision making, take place through the transformative relationships created with us. Each caring contact with youth, each genuine interaction, becomes an opportunity to learn and heal. That’s why the fundamental belief of EQ2 is that what is hurt through relationships can be healed through relationships. EQ2 refers to the healing experience that happens when we bring our own EQ to help youth build their EQ.

EQ2 = Staff EQ + Youth EQ