Our Centers for Ethics:

U.S. Army Child & Youth Services and CC!

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The U.S. Army concerns itself not just with its troops but with the success of their families. Character education is a foundation stone of that commitment and tradition. For instance, the Army has worked for years with Boys & Girls Clubs and 4-H, bringing character-building activities to children’s programs on posts around the world.

Now the Army Child & Youth Services (CYS) has formally partnered with CHARACTER COUNTS!, the country’s most widely-adopted character education framework. CHARACTER COUNTS! is already active on several Army posts, and now, with a series of special seminars for CYS teachers and youth-service professionals, CC!'s common language and proven instructional techniques will enhance the wide array of Army CYS programs and lend them greater consistency and predictability. Everyone benefits, especially the children, who get a community-wide, effective education about the centrality of their character in determining the course of their lives, and society.

Natural partners with aligned values

Army CYS and CHARACTER COUNTS! are natural partners. Both organizations know that parents have the frontline responsibility for teaching values to their children, and both believe that other institutions, including schools, play a vital supporting role.

The Army promotes the Core Values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. CHARACTER COUNTS! promotes values called the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

These two sets of values are highly complementary, and can in fact be expressed in tandem. An Army general put it best when he recently said that the Six Pillars “operationalize” the Army Core Values. Consider:

• Trustworthiness – honesty, integrity, promise-keeping and loyalty
• Respect – honor (valuing self, others, tradition and country)
• Responsibility – duty (in the sense of accountability)
• Fairness – honor (upholding what is right and just)
• Caring – selfless service (placing the good of others before self)
• Citizenship – duty (obedience to established rules and law), selfless service (placing the good of country before self), personal courage (seeking the common good)

The CHARACTER COUNTS! presence on Army posts today

Many Army posts are already thoroughly involved with CHARACTER COUNTS!. Since children aged 13 to 18 make up only 23 percent of the total youth population on Army installations, most CYS programs focus on younger children. With the new formal partnership between the Army and CHARACTER COUNTS!, the list will get longer and the successes will mount. Click on the Army posts below to read more about their character-development efforts:

Fort Bragg, NC Fort Campbell, KY Fort Carson, CO Fort Dix, NJ Fort Drum, NY Fort Hood, TX Fort Irwin, CA

Fort Lewis, WA Fort McCoy, WI Fort Monroe, VA Fort Polk, LA Fort Stewart, GA Hunter Army Airfield, GA Redstone Arsenal, AL

History of CC! in CYS

1999 — General Thomas Schwartz, FORSCOM Commanding General, requests that a character education program be developed for youth at FORSCOM installations. CHARACTER COUNTS! is introduced to these installations through the Teen Forums.

1999 — FORSCOM installations join the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition. Over the next couple of years, several CYS employees throughout FORSCOM attend Character Development Seminars (CDS).

2001 — Through a major grant in the state of Texas, CC! conducts numerous CDS trainings throughout the state and is able to fund a full CDS for Ft. Hood CYS staff and members from their surrounding community and school district.

Spring 2002 — Jan Hicks presents the success of CC! in FORSCOM to the CYS leadership, encouraging full CYS adoption of the program. July 2002 — U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center issues a memorandum to establish CC! as part of baseline programming across all CYS programs.

August 2002 — CC! President Michael Josephson is invited to introduce the CC! initiative to CYS Coordinators at the 5th Biennial Garrison Commander and DCA MWR Training Conference in Atlanta, GA.

April 2003 — A CYS/JI team is established to plan and steer the implementation of CC! across Army CYS programming, and planning begins. January 2004 — The first formal training based on this partnership begins.