Children Are the Safest They’ve Been in 25 Years, Says Committee for Children SEATTLE – April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and according to Committee for Children, a leader in the child abuse prevention field, a recent review of national data trends shows that abuse prevention efforts appear to be yielding results, with US child victimization rates dramatically lower in several key areas since 1990. Read More
Sen. Litzow and Rep. Senn Back Bipartisan Bill for WA Social-Emotional Learning Standards Bill follows new survey revealing 94% of WA teachers want social-emotional learning in schools OLYMPIA, WA—A bipartisan bill recommending statewide standards for social-emotional learning (SEL) was introduced to the Washington State legislature today. This bill comes on the heels of a survey released this week, which shows K–12 teachers in Washington State overwhelmingly support SEL as part of their curricula. Read More
New Program Helps Protect Kids from Sexual Abuse: Research-based training and curriculum teaches adults as well as kids SEATTLE—Committee for Children has released its new Second Step Child Protection Unit, giving parents, teachers, and program leaders research-based tools they need to start these critical conversations and keep children safe from sexual abuse. With staff training, parent materials, and student lessons that can be used in any educational setting, the Child Protection Unit prepares parents, staff, and others to to recognize indicators of abuse and neglect, identify staff violations of child protection policies, respond to a child who discloses abuse, and teach personal safety skills to students. Read More
Elementary School Finds Solutions to Pressing Problems: Social-Emotional Learning Program to Be Rolled Out in All Classrooms TOPPENISH, WA—The Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) team at Kirkwood Elementary recently took a hard look at the school’s needs: achievement gaps in social skills and math, and physical aggression and defiance in the classroom. They determined that these seemingly unrelated problems all have the same main solution: social-emotional learning (SEL). After careful consideration, the team chose to implement the Second Step SEL program and its accompanying Bullying Prevention Unit, which teaches skills for learning, empathy, emotion management and problem solving through lessons, videos, class discussions and games. Read More
Experts Help Parents Make Caring Common SEATTLE—At every stage of childhood, children need adults to help them nurture seeds of empathy and compassion—seeds that are shown by research to be present from very early in life. To help parents with this critical development, the Making Caring Common project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education worked with character development experts and organizations on creating a set of guidelines, using social-emotional learning, for raising caring, respectful, ethical children, along with tips for putting them into action. Read More
Best Prevention for Child Sexual Abuse is Open Communication Nonprofit launches #KeepKidsSafe campaign to get families talking SEATTLE—New research suggests that approximately one in four girls and one in 20 boys report experiencing childhood sexual abuse before the age of 18. Working on breaking the taboo of talking about sexual abuse, Committee for Children is launching a six-week campaign this week called #KeepKidsSafe, to educate parents and caregivers about the importance of starting conversations with their children about sexual abuse, model how to start those conversations, and encourage people to share what they learn with everyone they know. Read More
Committee for Children Sponsors Points of Light Civic Accelerator: Fall 2014 Program Now Accepting Applications SEATTLE—Committee for Children (CfC), the nation’s leading nonprofit provider of social-emotional curricula, has teamed up with Atlanta-based nonprofit Points of Light to find and support innovative ventures in social-emotional learning during the fall 2014 Civic Accelerator. This fall’s 12-week accelerator program provides both nonprofit and for-profit startups with valuable advice, mentoring, and networking opportunities with the goal of equipping them to seek investments and scale their social innovations. It also offers $50,000 in funding to the top candidates, as selected by their social-enterprise peers. Read More
Lawmakers Working to Give Students Vital Skills Congressional briefing focuses on research linking social skills, academics WASHINGTON, DC—Nonprofits Committee for Children of Seattle and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) of Chicago hosted a congressional briefing that focused on effective social-emotional learning programs in all stages of the educational system, from preschool through college. The briefing, titled “Social and Emotional Learning: Essential Skills for Success in School and Life,” took place on Capitol Hill today and presented evidence to support why social and emotional competencies like self-control, problem-solving, and working cooperatively are skills that will help students succeed not only in school, but in future roles as citizens, employees, managers, parents, volunteers, and entrepreneurs. Read More
Teaching Social Skills Means Assessing Them, Too Seattle nonprofit teams up with two assessment publishers to evaluate social-emotional learning SEATTLE—Seattle nonprofit Committee for Children, creators of the research-based Second Step SEL program, is now partnering with publishers Apperson, Inc. and Pride Surveys to bring schools dependable tools they can use to evaluate what their students are learning in the Second Step program. As more and more positive effects of social-emotional learning (SEL) are being shown through research, it’s important to assess whether students are truly learning what they’re being taught. Read More
Helping Little Children Face Big Challenges Sesame Street teams up with Committee for Children to help kids overcome odds NEW YORK—“Providing your love and support is the most important step in helping children develop the confidence to overcome anything they face,” reads the Little Children, Big Challenges page of nonprofit Committee for Children’s website. Sesame Workshop, creators of the iconic Sesame Street TV show, asked the Seattle-based nonprofit to collaborate in the dissemination of materials that will help young children and their adult caregivers face challenging situations like divorce and incarceration, as well as addressing general resilience. Read More