Building Intentional Communities is an initiative combining character development with youth development principles. With it, we transform learning climates into emotionally responsive, youth-centered, skill building zones where young people cultivate a love of learning.
Since 2010, Be the Change Consulting has field tested several approaches to character education in public education settings and developed this unique program design and education reform model for practitioners to understand the connections between students’ character, their attitude towards school, and the learning climate.
We have packaged our field research into a variety of options to support organizations to build their intentional communities, through a combination of Curriculum, Staff Training, Classroom Coaching, and Inquiry Groups. Some organizations choose to use our tools to enhance their existing programs, while others work with us to support their design and thinking. Select the approach that works best for you!
Our approach to character development builds young people’s intrinsic motivation to become responsible, ethical leaders equipped with the skills to make the world a better place for everyone. We see character building as a combination of creating the right environment, facilitating meaningful skill-building activities, and offering intentional experiences that empower youth to see themselves as leaders of character today. We believe that given the right social conditions and held to high expectations, every young person has the opportunity to flourish.
Character development initiatives often spring up when principals, educators, practitioners, or families realize that somewhere along the way, our communities lost the ability to motivate, captivate, and inspire young people to believe that being good leads to feeling good, that being productive academically is a viable pathway to success, and that being a caring and conscientious citizen is the way to ensure a stable and connected lifestyle.
As we began to study various approaches to engage young people in conversations about morals, values and ethics, we realized that the first teacher for character is experience. Young people develop a “feel” for good character by what is modeled and embodied in the adults and institutions that house them.
Learn more about our supporting research at:
- What Changes—Fact Sheet, Be the Change Consulting (2014)
- UC Berkeley Study (2011)
- Public Profit Three Year Impact Study (2013)
- Journal of Expanded Learning Opportunities (2013)
Download a Building Intentional Communities Fact Sheet.
