Youth Empowerment for Character Development

Character must be developed through active participation and supported by dialogue, reflection and action. The Character Development Initiative is grounded in the vision of an education system in which students play a pivotal role, and are actively engaged in their own learning, in the life of the school and in their communities

Finding Common Ground, p. 8

Character development is the foundation of our efforts to create respectful, caring, safe, and inclusive school and community environments. Finding consensus on values we hold in common within our school community allows us to work together.

As a community, we can deliberately and proactively cultivate those values and related skills and attitudes in students and adults alike. In so doing, we prepare our students to "be citizens who have empathy and respect for others and who will think critically, feel deeply and act wisely". ( Finding Common Ground, p. 4). As adults, we are challenged to model and teach those very same values, skills and attitudes in all facets of daily school life.

What is the relationship between the development of positive, pro-social values and their related character attributes, and empowerment?