Ground-breaking work with gangs and at-risk youth in special schools has spread to the entire school system in this central California county. Civic leaders have dedicated "Pillar Square" to underscore the community’s commitment to the Six Pillars of Character.

"It’s making a tremendous difference in the way the schools run," says John Forenti, whose full-time job is to coordinate CC! throughout the school system. The community has noticed, and is supportive. For instance, the local newspaper, the Visalia Times-Delta, runs front-page stories throughout the year profiling exemplary young people who embody one of the Six Pillars of Character. The program is run by the County Office of Education, which has carried the message to over 15 other California counties and facilitated the endorsement of CC! by the California Teachers Association and its nearly 300,000 members. Other local highlights include:

• The Six Pillars provide a common language for the curriculum of the Court/Community Schools, which serve over 550 at-risk teens who have been expelled from school or are on probation.

• Since October 1996 over 2,200 educators, parents and community members have attended CC! seminars in Tulare County.

• In October 1996 on "CHARACTER COUNTS! Day" at Sunkist Stadium in Visalia, over 100 students were honored as "Kids of Character" with 1,100 people present. This has become an annual tradition, with increasing numbers of young people receiving honors, and increasing numbers of residents attending ceremonies.

• The Friday Night Live Program uses CC! to reach out to 750,000 students with an anti-drug, -alcohol, -tobacco and -gang message.

• The Tulare County CC! program sponsors weekly features on a local TV station recognizing the area’s "kids of character."

• Read more on how CC! has affected Tulare's youth.:
  http://charactercounts.org/album/CA-htm/CalSide_Tulare_0700.htm