Ultimate Character Education Network

Give-it-Forward®
Choice and Civility Development

Powered by:
USA VALUES - CDP Phone 763-550-0769
Character Development Program Fax 507-452-2202
(A 501 (c) (3) company)

The Give-it-Forward campaign uses a gift program to mobilize communities to read stories and reinforce the early reading, civility and positive choice messages. The belief is that a grassroots understanding of quality and continuous improvement starts with sending positive messages in and out of the local schools.
Instructions for using the gifts are at http://www.usavalues-character.org

USA VALUES-CDP has been formed as a non-profit organization to facilitate corporate contributions and business that will stretch community wide early language development (ready-to-read), and character development choices.

The Give-it-Forward Program uses messages based on the premise that there are basic societal values that transcend religious, political and cultural differences. The following samples present an outline of civility to be projected to children and citizens. See other messages to be sponsored on the website http://www.usavalues-character.org
Compassion- We grow through sharing; Courage- Dare to be friendly;
Discipline- Expectations require discipline; Friendship- I will always need friends;
Honesty- I am right by being honest; Loyalty- I am trusted because I am loyal;
Persistence- Try again-gain confidence and wisdom; Respect- My respect is necessary;
Responsibility- Everyone accepts a responsible person; Work- It is smart to work for my choices

There are three sets of products that can be easily sponsored for teachers use by fund giving on the website.
Give-it-Forward K-3
Positive Expectations K-3
Age 3-6 Sticker boards

The Give-it-Forward Program®, powered by USA VALUES®

Principals, teachers and the community need effective tools that consistently send positive messages to children. A child needs to understand why character is the most direct method to achieving success and sharing. We suggest this is also a refinement of the future for parents, community and government.

In short, the nation is at risk of being uncivil and unsafe, principals are being asked to cover for many shortages, when civility rules- trust and choices become available- the flow of positives supplant the negatives. When civility does not rule… lives (physical, emotional, financial) are not secure or safe. One issue is how do we pitch positive messaging as the foundation to public school continuous improvement. This effort is designed for the grass roots around a public elementary school.

Gary Heil, http://www.garyheil.com/ noted author on leadership in changing environments, suggests we think about giving to start a giving movement. This logic is very appropriate- the leading customers must, without expecting payback, assert the requirement to give forward. This will result in creating the long-standing stage for leadership, trust, early reading choices and civility for our children when based from the elementary school. Effective citizens come into the picture at a grass roots level, as a leading customer seeking a character and choice network in the local school community. The Give-it-Forward Movement focus is on effective citizens giving to principals, teachers and young adults the materials to deliver early reading and civility in the schools and pre-k community.

Give-it-Forward is defined as a donation; delivered with the expectation that it will not be paid back; but in turn will be reciprocated to three others under the same conditions. The gift explodes through the community by a factor of three. A classroom covers for its own materials in the second year. Business starts the giving and fills in shortages.

Classroom Tested -- A summary of teacher evaluations indicated that the classroom material were relevant to 90 percent of the children. In addition, 90 percent of the teachers rated the K-3 Ultimate Materials "effective" or "very effective" in accomplishing the goal of helping teachers communicate values.

Program Development Staff Bonnie Hermann, former regional director of training, KinderCare Learning Centers, developed the curriculum and programs. During the two-year pilot process, she worked with teachers, principals and curriculum specialists in schools, including those in the large districts of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Thomas D. Wolfgram, Executive Director, USA VALUES - Character Development Program, researched character development programs and assisted in organizing the materials around the messages. He has also been in executive and consultant positions with businesses over the last 25 years. The materials used in this program and the pinpoint targeting of customer requirements is a result of efforts since 1997 to effectively help public school principals and teachers. This focus has led us to pinpoint preschool age children and first things first 100% coverage thinking.

Brief on the three levels of effort.

Level One Purpose is to expand the principal’s collaborative capacity in the community and first create the emotional intelligence needed to execute the school change.
The school trust fund for this program most likely already exists (designated giving)
Needed principal confirmation
Needed business confirmation
Needed kindergarten confirmation
Needed PTA confirmation
Needed List of teachers who need the materials for the classroom
Why? See 100 words at http://www.usavalues-character.org

Who? The list of who will give is unlimited
· School and PTA could make this happen themselves.
· District employees and school employees could make this happen themselves.
· A suggestion is that a corporation could sponsor a school and run Give-it-forward at

the corporation for the benefit of the school and community.
· A joint effort of the faith base could sponsor this pitch for civility.
· No limits!
What/How? See at http://www.usavalues-character.org/

Where? Child groups of 200 are already in place, Schools need help!
When? Now!! Communities led by principals (or vice-versa) must set School Change

that take less than 4 years of effort; but expect it to last forever.
!!! Goal? Adopt the goal to reach the community to Make 100% Certain all at-risk children

are ready-to-read going into kindergarten.
Cost? $10,000 covering two years of materials.
Duration? Two years

Level Two Purpose -- See the Early Reading School Change Program
http://www.usavalues-character.org/References/early_reading.pdf
Create the local school capacity in the local, district, city and state to Make 100% Certain all at-risk children are ready to read going into kindergarten.
Cost “Two school changes”* $90,000 per school per year for 4 years- $720,000
Funding Federal and state school change funds are available for this activity within Title I,

II, III, IV, V and VI. Bonding with payback from the school and public savings

is also an option. Long-term leadership is required!
Duration School receives 4 years of added resources to change; results in reorganization

to continue the change forever.
* Dollars are defined around 100 children entering kindergarten regardless of how many schools it takes to reach that level.

Level Three Purpose -- Be the Ultimate Character Network
http://ulticharnetwork.blogspot.com/
Getting to this level of program is the ultimate gift that gives and uses gift money to pay for the time and energy of teaching ready-to-read skills, one-on-one, to at-risk age 3-6 children. Teacher/mentor (educated adult to teach early reading skills) deliver this without the support of the classroom one-on-one as the ultimate gift of early reading skills. 100% of the children are included in screening and the bottom half of the bottom half are intervened upon. Principals (with extra resources from level 1 and 2) are in-charge for their accountable authority and responsibility. Principals rely on the gift giving community to reach the most at-risk children before these at-risk children fall behind. Each situation is one-size-fits-one and could include the mentoring of the parent or guardian of the child. This doubles the direct instruction time during the child's most sensitive language learning period.

Size of effort being projected here is 200 children entering kindergarten; in front of that there are 400 children age 3.5 to 5.5 in pre-k status; 40% of the children (most- at-risk) require one-size-fits-one intervention at $2,500 per child, or $400,000 per year. A preschool solution, not recommended here, would cost 3 times this much and supply less than one-half the individual one-size-fit-one time/focus on this critical early reading skill building program.

Funding and available resources are the future mountains to be climbed. There is a tendency to try to fund this as a part of school and government processes when in fact it is ultimately a one-on-one gift given one-size-fits-one to an individual not yet ready to learn in a classroom. The decision makers, who would raise the taxes to pay for this, have already given the gift to their children (not at-risk). Generally they gave at home one-on-one in combination with informal home schooling or a private preschool. They will not be inclined to pay $7,500 to $10,000 per at risk child per year. Monies from the tax base, supplemental education funds, gifts from business and individuals (Full Employment Act of 2004) and foundations will be required to change the world as we know it for at-risk children. Even voluntary fully funded preschool in the government or school funding systems will not address the full 100% of at-risk children for the principal in the urban schools.

Under all conditions some level (5%-40%) of the population will require one-size-fits-one individual teacher/mentor effort to be ready-to-read. This is exactly the effort that should be funded first to insure the return on investment in the community. Logic tells you that many of the most at-risk children and parents are not good fits for classroom efforts at age 3.5 - 4.5. Yet they are excellent matches for individuals looking for a loving purpose in life. Nothing less will reach the most at-risk child and it is pre 911 to think there are alternatives to this.

Expect a +16% internal rate of return on this investment! It has a full payback within 10 years; and after that, expect the return to skyrocket as positive attitudes about opportunity replace negatives in the school and public sectors of society at-large.

Email Tom Wolfgram at tdw.usavalues@comcast.net for the exhibits. Or find this document with the exhibits as a PDF at http://www.usavalues-character.org/referencematerial.shtml