Why We’re Moving Beyond “SEL”, And What That Means for the Future of Youth Development

Over the course of my career in youth development, I’ve witnessed the field cycle through many terms to describe the outcomes we hope to nurture in young people: whole child development, resilience skills, developmental assets, psychosocial competencies, soft skills, life skills, 21st-century skills—the list goes on.

Then, about a decade ago, it seemed like the field finally coalesced around one term: Social and Emotional Learning, or SEL. For a moment, it felt like we had a shared language—one that researchers, practitioners, funders, and policymakers could rally behind. SEL offered a common framework to describe the essential capacities that help young people thrive in school, in the workplace, and in life: emotional regulation, empathy, collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and more.

But as SEL gained traction, something else happened. What began as a broad, evidence-based vision for youth thriving slowly became narrowly defined—as a curriculum, a specific program, or a discrete set of activities. In some circles, it came to be viewed not as a framework for developmental readiness, but as a political ideology. It was labeled everything from “emotional indoctrination” to “moral overreach.” Some critiques stemmed from misunderstandings; others from deeper anxieties about identity, values, and who gets to shape the emotional lives of young people.

Despite this, we know what the research shows—and what youth development professionals have always understood: these capacities are essential. In fact, they are more essential than ever. Employers across industries are asking educators to help young people develop these very skills —collaboration, adaptability, emotional intelligence, innovation, and resilience. These are the building blocks of not just workforce readiness, but of community leadership, civic engagement, and lifelong well-being.

At Hello Insight, we’ve never been tied to a single term or curriculum. Our goal has always been to make it seamless for youth-serving organizations to understand and support the growth of young people. We believe that the most powerful way to do that is to center youth voice—to listen deeply to what young people say they are experiencing and how those experiences are shaping their growth.

We don’t evaluate programs based on the curriculum they use. We care about how youth programs engage young people—whether they’re using a sports-based approach, arts integration, outdoor education, workforce development, or academic enrichment. What matters is that they are grounded in a research-based Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach—one that prioritizes strong relationships, peer connection, challenge and support, and opportunities for youth to shape their own learning.

And so, to better serve our 6,000+ organizational partners nationwide—and to honor the many ways they describe their work—we’ve made a decision: we’re moving beyond the term “SEL.” Not because the capacities it represents are any less important, but because the term itself no longer serves all of our partners equally.

From now on, we will refer to these outcomes simply as Capacities for Thriving.

We are also renaming our tools to reflect this broader, more inclusive perspective:

• The tool HI SEL will now be called Hello Insight: Foundations.
• What we formerly called Core SEL will now be known as Foundational Capacities.

This shift is more than semantic. It’s a reaffirmation of our belief that thriving doesn’t belong to one framework or political perspective. It belongs to young people. And it begins with listening.