Kind and Safe Schools Initiative – KASSI
Kind and Safe Schools Initiative
The Kind And Safe Schools Initiative provides bullying prevention and character education activities for schools. The Kind And Safe Schools Initiative is a character education and bullying prevention program that is based on outcome research gathered from over 125 schools. The character education part helps create a positive school climate that gives increased attention to pro-social behaviors. It is recommended that a school begin by focusing on creating a positive school climate before trying to reduce bullying behaviors.
Our findings indicate that when a school implements KASSI in this way, bullying behaviors almost immediately go down by 30% and put-downs are reduced by up to 94%. By implementing the three-part program over two years, it is possible to virtually eliminate bullying and put-downs in a school.
Implementing KASSI
KASSI can be implemented as a part of a community-wide Kindness Campaign or be a stand-alone project in any school. The community-wide Kindness Campaign is often so effective that the organizers naturally want to expand and extend the community-based principles and philosophy more deeply its schools. Either way, the steps for implementing KASSI in a school are summarized below.
Spreading Kindness: Volume I: A Guide For Implementing The Kind and Safe Schools Initiative
You will need to purchase Spreading Kindness Volume I: A Guide for Implementing the Kind And Safe Schools Initiative from our store via PayPal and then download it to your computer. This Program Guide gives you a step-by-step process to guide you in implementing KASSI in your school. There are two additional program guides that you will need to purchase in order to fully implement KASSI.
Below is a brief summary of these initial implementation steps contained in Volume I: The Implementation Guide, plus indicating how the additional program guides might be utilized as part of the complete implementation of KASSI in your school. Begin planning the project and establishing initial timelines for each step in your Implementation Plan. In order to implement the complete KASSI program for your school, you will also need to purchase Spreading Kindness: Volumes I and II of the program. Click here to purchase the programs.
I. Implement KASSI to Change the School Climate
a. Discuss the purposes of KASSI with faculty and staff at a regular staff/faculty meeting
b. Select a KASSI Coordinating Committee & School Coordinator (s) (You need to include students on this Committee)
c. Have committee design program to meet school needs and select the activities to use from Volume II of the Program Guides containing 180 field-tested all-school and classroom activities
d. Offer in-service training for the staff and faculty on what is expected of them to implement KASSI
e. Organize kick-off assembly or classroom presentations to introduce KASSI to the students
f. Follow up regularly with faculty & students, and hold regular meetings of the KASSI Coordinating Committee to review progress
g. Help start Kind Kids Council(s)
h. Create an Evaluation Plan for KASSI in your school and conduct on-going evaluation of outcome criteria. Volume I will provide you with all the information you need to create an Evaluation Plan, including the evaluation instruments.
II. Design & Use All-School Bullying Prevention Activities
a. Conduct student/faculty survey/needs assessment of bullying in the school
b. Do in-service for faculty & staff (utilize data from surveys) on bullying prevention
c. Design classroom activities for students to address bullying prevention
d. Develop classroom and school rules designed for bullying prevention
e. Do follow-up with teachers and students
III. Create Other School Bullying Prevention Programs
a. Purchase Volume III of the Spreading Kindness Program Guides. It contains activities on how to start a peer mediation/counseling program, the lessons for a semester-long conflict resolution curriculum and instructions of how to create a restorative justice program: in your school..
b. Develop a peer mediation/counseling program for your school
c. Establish a conflict resolution curriculum for all students (you can select a grade level to target)
d. Create a Restorative Justice School Discipline Program (this would replace or supplement the traditional school discipline program)
KASSI Resources
Kindess Campaign: Spreading Kindness: A Program Guide for the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative, Volume I
A Program Guide for the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative, Volume 1: Implementing the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative – This program guide, available in downloadable ebook format, contains a step-by-step process for implementing the various components of the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative. It includes practical information drawn from over ten years of experience in implementing components of the Kind and Safe Schools Initiative (KASSI) in schools.
Price: $100
Kindness Campaign: Spreading Kindness: A Program Guide for the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative, Volume II
A Program Guide for the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative, Volume II: Character Education & Bullying Prevention Activities- This program guide, available in downloadable ebook format, contains over 180 easy-to-use, field-tested activities for K-12 schools to help them create a character education and bullying prevention program. Includes activities for promoting kindness, cooperative learning, positive peer culture, service learning, and bullying prevention. Some activities are for the whole school, some for the classroom, and some for counseling groups.
Price: $100
Kindness Campaign: Spreading Kindness: A Program Guide for the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative, Volume III
A Program Guide for the Kind & Safe Schools Initiative, Volume III – Conflict Resolution, Peer Mediation, and Restorative Justice Activities – This program guide for KASSI, available in downloadable e-book format, contains over 100 easy-to-use, field-tested activities for K-12 schools to help them create conflict resolution, peer mediation, and restorative justice programs. Includes outline and learning activities for teaching a six-week conflict resolution class to all students.
Price: $100
