Our 2022-23 Youth Advisory Board represents a diverse group of young people who will work with Making Caring Common to make schools and communities more just, caring, and respectful places.
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Making Caring Common’s new Educator Advisory Board represents a diverse group of school leaders, content experts, practitioners, and others in the field of education who will help guide our work with K-12 schools.
Read MoreOur 2021-22 Youth Advisory Board represents a diverse group of young people who will work with Making Caring Common to make schools and communities more just, caring, and respectful places.
Read MoreMaking Caring Common’s Caring Schools Network (CSN) supports K-12 schools in cultivating strong, caring school communities that nurture students’ social, emotional, and academic commitments and skills they need to care for people who are different from them and build caring, just communities.
Join us to learn more about the following:
How we support schools
How schools improve their culture and climate
Ways to become involved
We look forward to seeing you and answering your questions!
Read MoreStudents’ capacity for empathy can be developed by learning to appreciate other people’s stories. During this webinar, we’ll explore a strategy in which students share their own and other's stories in order to develop insight into the nuances of others' lived experiences, values and perspectives.
Read MoreStorytelling is a powerful tool for eliciting emotion and curiosity. It can be especially valuable in prompting students to reflect on their own identities and values, and to recognize that despite people’s differing stories, we all share commonalities. Stories allow us to bridge difference through understanding and connecting emotionally with others, even when we are physically apart. This session will share a strategy in which students identify and investigate their personal set of values and what/who matters to them. Students will use these values to guide the telling of (and making sense of) their own story.
Read MoreCreating an equitable, inclusive school culture can be key in preventing a wide array of social and emotional problems and promoting the development of caring, responsible, and respectful children, even when school is remote. Because students primarily take signals from other students about social norms and what is ethically acceptable, and because students have inside knowledge about social dynamics, it is mainly students – especially acting together – who can change norms. One way to empower students to create positive social norms is by creating school climate committees comprised of students who work with peers and staff to develop these norms. This session focuses on the School Climate Committee, a strategy designed to help students – and adults – work collaboratively to shape their school environment. This session focuses on:
how to create a strong, effective committee of youth leaders that represents a diversity of voices among the student body and works with school staff to prevent bullying and other school social problems
how to use data to inform decision making and improve school climate, including creating more caring, inclusive social norms
how to provide students with a sense of agency and empowerment
We look forward to sharing evidence-based best practices. This will be an interactive experience, so we look forward to hearing what's working in your school community too! Please email caringschools@makingcaringcommon.org with any questions.
Read MoreResearch shows that acting with kindness and care makes people feel good by building connections with others and reinforcing a positive view of themselves. This sense of connection is all the more important in a time when students may not be interacting in person. Kindness and caring are contagious—they can spread and influence people to do good deeds beyond their existing networks.
This session will share a strategy to help students practice intentional acts of caring and to share and learn from their experiences. Learn how to help students reflect on and discuss how to encourage more kindness and caring, for themselves and others, at their school and beyond. They will practice regular intentional acts so they become routine and normalized parts of students’ lives. The activity encourages a variety of kind and caring acts, including self-care.
Read MoreResearch shows that gratitude is a predictor of both physical and mental well-being and can be regarded as a moral emotion related to recognizing the feelings and intentions of others. In turn, gratitude can lead to increased motivation to reciprocate and extend generosity to others.
In this session, hosted by Harvard’s Making Caring Common project, educators will explore a strategy to help students recognize and express gratitude to others in school and beyond. Click through to learn more and register today!
Read MoreOur 2020-21 Youth Advisory Board represents a diverse group of young people who will work with Making Caring Common to make schools and communities more just, caring, and respectful places.
Read MoreHow can we enable students to engage respectfully and constructively students who don't share their political views? How can we help students bridge political divides during a time when the country is so divided?
Read MoreWhether students are younger or older - learning in person or online - asking caring questions and listening to others can set the stage for sharing and promoting trust and connection in the classroom. Helping students learn and practice these skills can help them build relationships, understand their own thoughts and feelings and those of others, and make them feel heard.
In this webinar from Harvard’s Making Caring Common project, now available on demand, educators will learn strategies for building a caring community by developing student listening skills. Click through to watch now!
Read MoreHelping students develop greater empathy is essential for building a positive school climate, but equally important is considering who students have empathy for. Children and adults alike are predisposed to empathize for those who are in their own social group. But empathy for many different kinds of people is important in its own right; it is the basis for children’s developing conceptions of and commitments to fairness and justice.
In this on-demand webinar from Harvard’s Making Caring Common Project, educators will explore our Circle of Concern strategy, which is designed to help children become more aware of those for whom they do and do not have empathy.
Click through to watch the webinar now!
Read MoreChildren and adults alike are predisposed to empathize for those who are in their own social group. But empathy for many different kinds of people is important in its own right and is the basis for children’s developing commitment to fairness and justice.
Read MoreThis training covers barriers to voting and how to overcome them, the importance of the 2020 election and this moment to youth personally and collectively, and how to persuade peers and family to vote. It also engages youth in making a plan for mobilizing their peers and identify best practices in carrying out that plan.
Read MoreEnsuring that every student has a positive relationship with at least one school adult is more important – and harder – than ever. Join us Thursday, July 31 from 3-4pm ET for our free interactive training: “Relationship-building: Connecting to students during social distancing and beyond.”
Read MoreThis training covers barriers to voting and how to overcome them, the importance of the 2020 election and this moment to youth personally and collectively, and how to persuade peers and family to vote. It also engages youth in making a plan for mobilizing their peers and identify best practices in carrying out that plan.
Read MoreJoin us Sep 17 at 2:00pm ET for Compelling Counselor Letters: Recommendation Basics During the Pandemic and Beyond . This engaging webinar will discuss best practices for writing compelling counselor recommendations that communicate a student’s character, context and contributions to family and community.
Read MoreEnsuring that every student has a positive relationship with at least one school adult is more important – and harder – than ever.
Whether students are learning from a distance or in a traditional setting, a positive connection to at least one school adult — whether a teacher, counselor, sports coach, or other school staff member — can have tremendous benefits that include increased engagement, reduced bullying, and improved social-emotional capacities.
Read MoreRenowned civil rights leader Lynda Blackmon Lowery joined members of Making Caring Common's Youth Advisory Board for a conversation on voting rights in part one of our "Get Out the Vote: Voter Mobilization and Civic Education" series.
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