GivaGeta

Helping you make a positive difference in people's lives.
"Learn By Doing" tools and workshops that engages all ages
for character, leadership, family & team development

Give a smile ... Get a smile™ with short, catchy, kind & positive ways of thinking.
Part of GivaGeta profits goes to the GivaGeta Foundation to help children with special needs.

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Contact Us 860.657.0770

Give understanding ... Get understood™ with positive progamming.

Jim Cantoni Bio

Give a smile … Get a smile™. GivaGeta™ specializes in helping you engage kids in valuable lessons that help sustain them throughout their lives. Jim Cantoni, GivaGeta Co-Founder is the creator of over 60 short, catchy, kind and positive ways of thinking that help you make a positive difference in people’s lives.  Based in Glastonbury, Connecticut, GivaGeta workshops and Educational Kindness™ toolkits, including the eight editions of The World’s Kindest Playing Cards™, Positive Pen™ and Positive Pencil™ and more are being used for experiential character, leadership, family and team development. In less than two years, their “Learn By Doing” tools and activities are helping team build and develop leaders of character in over 45 states and 26 countries. 

Give understanding … Get understood™.  So what’s GivaGeta? It is a simple, positive, interactive and engaging approach that helps you make connections and build relationships. It opens the dialogue and gets children, students, staff, teams and families proactively talking about kindness, character, honesty, respect, appreciating diversity, friendship, caring, teamwork, leadership a positive attitude and more of these developmental assets in a fun filled way that they remember throughout their lives.

Give inspiration … Get inspired™ GivaGeta engages all ages as schools, business and organizations use it for staff professional development that transfers right onto the kids. Camps, Schools and Youth Development Organizations use the creative tools to improve climate and culture.  As well as for prevention - to reduce emotional bullying by teaching kindness and intervention – as a tool for peer mediated conflict resolution. Families also use GivaGeta to build houses of character to strengthen and bring the family together.

 As of June 2010, Jim Cantoni has conducted more than 52 character, leadership, family and team development workshops in ten states since starting in May 2008.  He is co-author of three books including Give Teamwork … Get Results – Playing with a Full Deck of The World’s Kindest Playing Cards. It is a character, leadership and team development activities programming book with a collection of experiential creative card games used to facilitate conversations with ice-breakers, mixers, problem solving, energizers, time fillers, diversity, trust, opening and closing team activities all with reviewing, processing, reflection and debriefing.

 Give a hug … Get a hug™ Jim was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and graduated from Central Connecticut State University and received an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Jim now lives in Glastonbury, CT with his wife Jackie who is also GivaGeta Co-Founder.  Born in Rhode Island, as a little girl Jackie would dot the “i” in her name with a special smiley on notes she wrote. That smiley now called GivaGeta Smiles is helping spreading more smiles, kindness and understanding throughout the world. Jackie and Jim Cantoni have two boys, Jimmy Jr. and Nathan. Jimmy Jr. at nine years old came up with the idea to put the short, catchy, kind and positive ways of thinking called GivaGeta Kindness Messages™ onto playing cards. Nathan, who the GivaGeta Foundation was created in honor of to help other children with special needs, is blind, has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and communicates with contagious giggles and smiles that makes Jim and Jackie appreciate the gift of a smile even more.