School Partnerships

Our world needs more men and women of character.

what

Regardless of their background, culture, or belief, people need to be respectful of one another. We need to know how to respect authority even when we don’t like the person in the position. Our model for investing in communities starts with offering lessons on different character traits. High school students live out the old adage “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” and giving them important life lessons isn’t any different, so for us, it all starts with relationships.

Our character development lessons are written for 100% of the students we serve, but their attention and retention of those lessons will be based on the relationships they have with the communicator. Partnerships with a school and/or athletic program begins with a conversation. A lot of the coaches & teams we work with already have some sort of character development program going on (or they want one), but the demands of a season can pull them away from fully diving into it. NG3 Staff and volunteers come alongside these teams/groups to help facilitate a character development program that’s suitable for that specific team. If a team or coach doesn’t have any type of ongoing character development, we can offer suggestions and work with the coaches to execute the best option for them.

We believe that giving students the opportunity to serve others is one of the best ways to teach them the importance of having good character. For any team/group that is willing, we help connect and lead different community service projects in their local areas. We work with a number of organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Food Co-ops, Salvation Army, and other local non-profits that need assistance.

How

Once approval has been granted by the principal and athletic director, the process of implementation begins with the school staff, such as teachers or coaches. Because each school is different, the logistics of what works best come from the school staff we partner with. Telling them to fit into our “box” doesn’t work. We are adaptable to any situation. Our goal is to work alongside these teachers and coaches to cover lessons and key character traits that are most prevalent to their team. Sometimes that means giving a 10 minute character lesson at the beginning of each week. Sometimes that’s a character lesson followed by groups of students going through tangible questions on how the trait pertains to their life and their team.

One of the most important parts of character development is having a connection with the communicator. Students get talked “at” most of their lives. We want to make sure our character development revolves around talking “with” students. Interaction is key. Whether we use our own character talks or someone else’s, we believe that the long term impact will come through relationships. We find adults in the community who are willing to give some of their time to work with these students. Our goal is to have at least one community member for each team/group on campus. This helps alleviate some pressure on the school staff, but it also gives the student a neutral party to connect with. Our character development can be used without a volunteer, but we recommend that an outside community mentor steps into that position.

Who

Our partnerships with the school are first focused on the athletic departments, but it’s not limited to just sports programs. As relationships are built and trust is formed by the school, we have the ability to offer our character education to any group that wants it. All of our lessons are designed to be given to every student at a school. Although we can work with private schools, most of the schools that we work with are public schools. We can work with all athletic teams, leadership groups, bands, orchestra, math clubs, drama teams, and anyone else who wants to bring character education into the development of students.

Next Steps

If you’re reading this and you’ve decided that you want to partner with our organization, the first step is to contact us and let us know your role with the school. From there, we will schedule a meeting with the principal and athletic director to talk in more detail about what we do and find out if there are any questions. Once approval is given to move forward, we will set up a time to meet with coaches and leaders of the teams that want to use NG3 as their character development program. Once you contact us, one of our area directors will be in touch to go through next steps.

We believe that kids don’t need more programs, they need more people. Having a caring mentor invest in the life of a student has been proven to increase the long term success of a child.