Antonio Grate
Foster Youth
Mindset Strategist
SPEAKING TOPICS
Speaking Experiences Designed for the Audiences You Serve
Each presentation is tailored to meet specific student and professional needs-whether the goal is youth empowerment, trauma-informed practice, or leadership development.
How to Choose the Right Talk
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Choose Seed of Greatness
if your audience includes foster youth or students impacted by trauma who need hope, identity, and a path forward.
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Choose Leading From the Inside Out
if you are developing student leaders who need confidence, values-based decision-making, and influence skills.
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Choose How Labels Can Negatively Affect Children Socially and Emotionally
if you are training educators, caregivers, or youth-serving professionals on trauma-responsive communication and relationship-building.
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Choose Run Your Race
if students are struggling with comparison, pressure, setbacks, or motivation-and need resilience without shame.
SEED OF GREATNESS
Helping foster youth understand how identity, environment, and choices shape growth-so they can believe in their future and take ownership of it.
AUDIENCE :
Current and former foster youth, Middle School to College-Age Students
OVERVIEW :
A powerful, story-driven message that helps youth understand how environment, experiences, and choices shape growth.
Drawing from lived experience in foster care, Antonio equips young people with language, hope, and practical tools to build resilience, strengthen identity, and believe in their future-even when they've been planted in hard places.
OUTCOMES/BENEFITS :
Ideal for foster care programs, alternative education settings, youth conferences, group homes, and schools serving students impacted by trauma or significant life transitions.
Students will walk away with:
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A clearer understanding of how their experiences shape identity without defining their worth.
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Language and mindset tools to reframe adversity and build resilience.
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A simple growth framework to make healthier decisions and take ownership of their future.
HOW LABELS CAN NEGATIVELY AFFECT CHILDREN SOCIALLY AND EMOTIONALLY
Helping professionals understand how language shapes identity-so they can build trust, strengthen relationships, and support healtheir outcomes for youth
AUDIENCE :
Youth Service Professionals, Child Welfare Professionals, & Educators
OVERVIEW :
This trauma-responsive presentation examines how labels influence a child's identity, behavior, and relationships.
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Participants are challenged to rethink everyday communication, shift from deficit-based language, and adopt connection-centered approaches that strengthen trust and emotional safety with the youth they serve, leading to healtheir relationships and more effective support.
OUTCOMES/BENEFITS :
Ideal for staff trainings, professional development days, conferences, and child welfare organizations seeking trauma informed, relationship-centered practice.
Participants will leave with the ability to :
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Recognize how labels impact a child's self perception, behavior, and social-emotional development.
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Evaluate their own communication patterns through a trauma responsive lens.
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Implement practical strategies to replace deficit based language with connection centered communication that strengthens trust and relationships.
LEADING FROM THE INSIDE OUT
Equipping student leaders to develop identity-driven leadership that positively influences culture, peers, and community.
AUDIENCE :
Aspiring and Current Student Leaders
Middle School through College-Age Students
OVERVIEW :
Leading From the Inside Out empowers students to develop leadership rooted in identity, values, and personal responsibility-especially in environments shaped by peer pressure, social media, and cultural expectations.
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Through real life examples and interactive moments, Antonio challenges students to lead themselves first so they can positively influence their schools, families, and communities with confidence and clarity.
OUTCOMES/BENEFITS :
Ideal for student leadership programs, youth councils, student government, leadership retreats, and school-wide leadership initiatives.
Students will learn how to:
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Identify and harness personal leadership qualities.
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Learn strategies to resist negative influences.
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Understand how to make a positive impact in their family, school, and community.
RUN YOUR RACE
Helping students build resilience, confidence, and forward momentum-without comparison, pressure, or burnout
AUDIENCE :
Students navigating identity, pressure, comparison, and life transitions
(Middle School through College)
OVERVIEW :
Run Your Race is a high-energy interactive presentation that uses the metaphor of a track and field race to help students understand setbacks, perseverane and personal growth.
Through real-time demonstrations and lived experience, Antonio helps students reframe failure, resist comparison, and recognize that progress isn't about speed-it's about direction, support, and consistency.
This presentation meets students where they are while equipping them with language and perspective they can carry forward long after the event ends.
OUTCOMES/BENEFITS :
Ideal for assemblies, student success initiatives, transition programs, leadership days, and school wide motivation events.
After this experience, students will:
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Walk away believing they are capable-even after setbacks.
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Learn how to identify obstacles without allowing those obstacles to define them.
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Recognize the importance of support systems when navigating challenges.
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