About CorStone

Vision
We envision a world that chooses Love over Fear, Compassion over Indifference, and Forgiveness over Blame in the face of challenge, conflict or crisis.

Mission
CorStone provides tools, training and resources to empower adolescent girls and young women to lift themselves out of poverty. We develop and catalyze evidence-based, culturally appropriate, scalable, integrative models and programs that foster mental, emotional, and physical health, life skills, and economic self-sufficiency. The organization was founded in 1975 and is based in Mill Valley, California.

When adolescent girls in developing communities are empowered, everyone benefits. With 600 million adolescent girls at risk today for poor health and challenging educational and economic outcomes, we strive to help girls develop the self-concept and internal strength that lets them know that they have the power to change themselves, their circumstances and the world. Working in partnership with international and local community-based organizations, CorStone helps girls translate their beliefs and values into action through psychosocial support, social-emotional learning programs, mental and physical health trainings, leadership development, and sustainable livelihood initiatives.

We believe that cultivating inner strengths, attitudes, and beneficial behavior patterns is a critical missing link in poverty reduction. We begin all of our programs in collaboration with local partners to adapt and integrate CorStone’s social-emotional learning-based model with local cultural values and resources. Upon this foundation we construct a holistic and integrative framework that fosters health, leadership, and livelihood and empowers adolescent girls and young women to make positive choices that can change their lives.

History
CorStone was founded in 1975 as the International Center for Attitudinal Healing by Gerald Jampolsky, M.D., renowned psychiatrist and author. Since its inception, the organization has provided trainings and programs to thousands of adults and children from over 50 countries. In 2008 we broadened our mission and changed our name to CorStone. The name CorStone is derived from “Cor” which is Latin for “heart,” and “Stone,” which connotes a strong base or foundation – as in “a strong foundation for the heart”. Our goal is to build upon our history and past successes while also providing an integrative toolkit of evidence-based low cost/high impact, scalable innovations to empower vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in poverty around the world.