The Institute for Advancing Unity

download this article as a .pdf

In California, nearly 37% of middle and high school students were bullied our physically assaulted at school, and about 75% of these experiences were bias-related.1 Students without a strong connection to school are more than three times more likely to be bullied repeatedly.2

Traditional, top-down disciplinary strategies have failed to turn this tide because they focus on policing individual offenders, instead of addressing the root causes of negative school climate.3 Yet we know that sustainable, positive school climate, and the Social and Emotional Learning it enhances, improves a range of essential factors,

To view or download the slide presentation, click here or on the image below.  For more information, visit the website of Community Matters.

The School Climate Consortium believes that by fostering a positive school climate schools can ensure the physical and emotional safety of their students and effectively stop the pervasive bullying in today’s schools. The Consortium has developed the Empowered Communities Model to help communities create safe, bully-free schools.

In 2008 the Institute for Advancing Unity partnered with The Healthy
Community Consortium (HC2) in Petaluma, California to create and help
implement a Unity Mission Model for three school campuses. The project was an overwhelming sucess, providing a model for other schools to implement.

When bullying incidents go unaddressed, anguished parents' growing response is to pursue litigation. By Rick Phillips, M.Ed. Executive Director, Community Matters.

As mounting research shows the limitations of zero tolerance policies, new methods of school discipline are creating safer schools and more productive opportunities for youth to learn appropriate behavior. 

A sustainable, positive school climate improves students' academic achievement, mental health, graduation rates, school connectedness, teacher retention and risk prevention.

For many students, the fear of failing a class is less daunting than the fear of being assaulted or harassed. The UNITY Lab helps school stakeholders reduce violence, strengthen youth developmental assets, and create a learning environment where students thrive.