PK-12 Education and Youth Serving Organizations

CHARACTER COUNTS! focuses on building students’ character skills and shaping a positive school culture. Our flexible framework emphasizes:

- the Six Pillars of Character (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship),
- our TEAM approach to character education,
- practical, research-based instructional and implementation strategies, and
- making rational, ethical, and effective decisions to find the best solutions to problems.

How We Can Help

PK-12 Education

Our flexible framework helps PK-12 educators and students develop good character and a create positive school culture. Using research and educator feedback, we’ve created a pathway to success that highlights best practices for schools to meet academic, character, social-emotional, and school culture goals.

With the CHARACTER COUNTS! framework as a guide, we provide practical, research-based strategies, curricular resources, and professional development training. We’ll also provide best practices on incorporating CHARACTER COUNTS! into your existing character development or SEL program.

Charter Schools

CHARACTER COUNTS! partners with charter schools, charter networks, and youth organizations to strengthen school culture, student leadership, and academic success. Our training and resources are customized to support a charter school’s unique mission, vision, and student population.

Rather than adding another program, CHARACTER COUNTS! provides a practical framework that weaves ethical values, social-emotional competencies, and leadership skills into daily instruction, relationships, and school culture. Students learn to connect what they believe with the choices they make, developing the skills needed for success in school, work, and life.

Our research-based training and classroom resources strengthen your existing curriculum by equipping educators with practical strategies to build a positive school culture and develop students of character. Through an integrated framework that promotes student leadership, social-emotional learning, ethical decision-making, and civic responsibility, CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students grow into confident learners, responsible leaders, and engaged citizens. Rather than serving as an add-on program, our approach intentionally embeds character into the daily life of your school, supporting both academic excellence and your charter’s unique mission.

Homeschools

CHARACTER COUNTS! partners with homeschool families, pods, and co-ops to cultivate a vibrant learning culture that prioritizes character development alongside academic success.

Our flexible training and resources are easily customized to align with your family’s unique educational vision, core values, and individual learning goals. Rather than adding another rigid curriculum to your day, CHARACTER COUNTS! provides a practical, adaptable framework that seamlessly weaves universal ethical values, social-emotional habits, and life skills into your daily lessons, family discussions, and routines.

Your children will learn to connect what they believe with the daily choices they make, helping them develop the critical decision-making skills needed for a lifetime of success.

Our research-backed resources complement your chosen curriculum by equipping you with practical strategies to turn everyday moments into meaningful character lessons. Through a simple, integrated framework that promotes personal leadership, ethical decision-making, and civic responsibility, CHARACTER COUNTS! helps your children grow into self-motivated learners, responsible leaders, and engaged citizens. Instead of feeling like an overwhelming “add-on” program, this approach intentionally embeds character into the very fabric of your home’s daily life, supporting both academic excellence and your family’s mission to raise individuals of strong moral character.

Youth-Serving Organizations

Every organization that works with young people has the opportunity to shape character, strengthen relationships, and create a positive culture.

Youth Sports & Athletics
Help coaches and athletic organizations develop sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership, accountability, resilience, and respect—on and off the field. Learn more.

Afterschool & Youth Development Programs
Create consistent expectations and meaningful opportunities for young people to develop leadership skills, build positive relationships, and practice good character.

Camps & Outdoor Education Programs
Strengthen community, responsibility, cooperation, and personal growth through character-focused experiences that reinforce lifelong values.

Mentoring Organizations
Equip mentors and program leaders with a shared language and practical tools for guiding youth toward positive choices, healthy relationships, and responsible leadership.

Juvenile Justice, Prevention & Intervention Programs
Support accountability, ethical decision-making, personal growth, and restorative practices through a strengths-based approach to character development.

Youth Leadership & Civic Engagement Programs
Prepare young people to become responsible, ethical, and engaged citizens who contribute positively to their schools, organizations, and communities.

Community & Nonprofit Organizations

Organizations that serve youth need more than programs, they need a culture that reflects their values. CHARACTER COUNTS! provides a common language and framework that aligns staff, volunteers, families, and youth around shared expectations and positive behaviors.

“I am a great fan of the CHARACTER COUNTS! online workshop and training programs. The insightful materials are professionally delivered and the concepts are easy to grasp and put into action. I found the two introductory sessions I attended motivating, engaging, and truly inspiring. Overall, they markedly exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend CHARACTER COUNTS! to educators looking to positively impact their school or youth organization by instilling strong values (and the habits to maintain them) into their students and faculty alike. My heartfelt thanks to the CHARACTER COUNTS! team at Drake University!”

– Bill Bahr, Bloomingdale CC! Coalition (IL)

Faith-Based Education

Our services can be customized for faith-based schools and organizations. In addition to the fundamentals of CHARACTER COUNTS!, participants learn how to align scripture with Six Pillars of Character. In addition, we offer character lessons and journal prompts that incorporate scripture.

“CHARACTER COUNTS! helps motivate the students to have better character because they are recognized for their good conduct. During Religion we deal with the topics of trustworthiness, fairness, caring and citizenship. Each of these Pillars align well with the Gospel message of being kind to others and helping out.”

-Cheryl L. Jablonski, Principal, St. Joseph the Provider School (OH)

“Teaching is a ministry opportunity to serve young and developing people. CHARACTER COUNTS! has been a solid tool in creating a positive culture for our families and students. Families are encouraged to talk about these same values at home that we teach at school. There is a continual tie in that treating others the way we want to be treated is the Golden Rule and what Jesus calls us to. There are Christian virtues that tie in directly with all of the character values.”

– Kristi Underhill, Assistant Principal, Grace Lutheran Church and School (IL)

Meaningful, Measurable, and Sustainable Outcomes

Administrators, educators, and families want safe, supportive, high-performing schools. By prioritizing character development and positive school culture, schools can see improvement in students’ character, social-emotional, and academic skills, and ensure their school is a safe and welcoming learning environment.

Character Skills

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students develop the Six Pillars of Character.

Trustworthiness
Have integrity, be honest, keep promises, and be loyal to your values

Respect
Show acceptance and respect for others

Responsibility
Be accountable for actions, show perseverance and self-discipline

Fairness
Be open-minded, don’t take advantage of others, play by the rules

Caring
Show compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness

Good Citizenship
Make choices that protect the safety and rights of others

The Impact

When students develop character skills, they’ll be more likely to achieve their personal, school, and career goals and become engaged, responsible, and productive citizens. You’ll notice more:

- - respectful and civil conversations,
  - kindness and consideration,
  - acceptance of others,
  - accountability, and
  - commitment to your school community.

Learn more about the Six Pillars of Character.

Social-Emotional Skills

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students develop key social-emotional skills.

Relationship Skills
Create positive relationships and meaningful connections with family members, classmates, and teachers

Responsible Decision-Making
Make decisions based on rationality, ethics, and effectiveness

Self-Awareness
Identify and understand emotions, values, attitudes, motivations, mindsets, and personal attributes

Self-Management
Regulate emotions, attitudes, and actions, and manage negative emotions and impulses

Social Awareness
Assess and be sensitive to the feelings and needs of others

The Impact

When students develop social-emotional skills, they’ll be more likely to develop positive, healthy relationships, manage their emotions, and make good choices. You’ll notice more:

- - healthy and respectful friendships,
  - fewer disruptions during class,
  - more positive choices, and
  - better communication between students and educators.

Academic Skills

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students develop skills to be more successful in academics.

Critical and Creative Thinking
Acquire, remember, understand, and apply knowledge

Curiosity and Passion
Enthusiastic to understand more about themselves, others, and the world around them

Diligent Learner
Exhibit a growth mindset and willingness to learn from mistakes

Effective Problem-Solving
Make rational, ethical, and effective decisions to find the best solutions to problems

Self-Direction and Engagement
Fully engaged in the educational process and connected to the school community

The Impact

When students develop these skills, they can reach their intellectual and academic potential. You’ll notice:

- - improved student performance,
  - increased academic integrity from students (less cheating and plagiarizing), and
  - students who are more prepared for college and careers.

Positive Culture

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students, administration, faculty, and staff contribute to shaping a positive school culture.

Committed to Excellence
Value collaboration and feedback in order to grow and improve

Supportive and Respectful
Treat each other with respect, every student is connected to a caring, responsible adult in the school, and staff feel supported by the administration

Safe
Contribute to making the school a safe place to learn; a proactive, instructive, and restorative approach to student behavior

Dedicated to Stakeholders
Commitment to ensuring students’ mastery of academic content and character development.

Accepting and Encouraging
Ownership of creating a positive, welcoming learning environment where everyone can feel accepted and part of the school community

Inspired
Appreciate and trust other school community members and dedicated to making the school better

The Impact

When schools focus on character development and educators teach, enforce, advocate, and model school values, you’ll notice:

- - students’ commitment to their character development, and
  - improvement in students’ character, social-emotional (SEL), and academic skills.

Measurable Outcomes

+ 1 %

GRADUATION
RATES

+ 1 %

ELEMENTARY MATH PROFICIENCY

+ 1 %

ELEMENTARY ENGLISH PROFICIENCY

2-year implementation results, Buffalo Schools (New York)

More Services

Assessment

The success of any character education program is directly tied to the fidelity and consistency of its implementation. We offer two types of assessments:

- - Implementation Survey
  - Culture of Excellence and Ethics Assessment

Learn more about our assessment opportunities.

Professional Development Workshops

Our interactive, professional development workshops provide strategies to teach the Six Pillars through our TEAM approach and research-based tools.

Workshops include:

- - An Introduction to CHARACTER COUNTS!
  - Building a Six Pillar Culture
  - Character Development in Early Childhood
  - Increasing Positive Parent Engagement
  - Building Character Through Sports

Learn more about our workshops.

Ongoing Consultation

Our team can collaborate with you on:

- - best practices,
  - brainstorm ideas to teach, enforce, advocate, and model good character,
  - feedback on CC! lessons, and
  - any of your questions.

Consultations are a great way to keep your CC! program on track and provide your team with new ideas to help make you successful.

CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition

As a member of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, you’ll join an alliance of schools, districts, youth-serving organizations, businesses, and communities that are committed to spreading the message of character education using the CHARACTER COUNTS! framework and teaching the Six Pillars of Character.

Learn more.

Assemblies

Enhance your CHARACTER COUNTS! integration with engaging and impactful virtual or in-person assemblies.

Learn more about our assemblies.

Curricular Resources and Teaching Tools

We offer a variety of character education curricular resources in our online store, including:

- - student journals,
  - daily activities,
  - lesson plans, and
  - awareness products like posters, banners, wristbands, and pencils.

Check out the curricular resources in our store

Get Started Today!

Let’s talk about how we can help you reach your goals.

Rated 5 out of 5

Success Stories

"CHARACTER COUNTS! is alive and well in Downey and will continue to be incorporated into what we do on a daily basis across the district and community. This helps us fulfill the Downey Unified vision that reads: All students graduate with a 21st Century education that ensures they are college and career ready, globally competitive and citizens of strong character."

Dr. Robert Jagielski,

Downey Unified School District (Downey, CA)

“On behalf of the Carroll High School staff, I would like to thank you for an amazing session of learning with you. My staff is still talking about your presentation and we are thankful for the resources. We were told you would be amazing and you did not let us down! I will be in touch for future opportunities, thank you!”

Tammie McKenzie,

Carroll High School (Carroll, IA)

“Our school has done an incredible job weaving the Six Pillars of Character into all aspects of the school’s culture, routine, and academics. Teachers use the Six Pillar traits, lessons, and CHARACTER COUNTS! app to create a common understanding and language to positively influence the climate of the building."

LaFraya Wilson

West Hertel Academy (Buffalo, NY)

The TEAM Approach

Teach children that their character counts. Teach character skills and what they look like in action.

Enforce and encourage good character. Reward good behavior and discourage bad behavior by imposing fair and consistent consequences.

Advocate character. Continually encourage children to show good character by explaining and showing why it matters.

Model good behavior. Everything you say and do sends a message about your values. Be sure that these messages reinforce doing the right thing, even when it is difficult. When you slip, be accountable; apologize sincerely, and do better!

Resource Highlight

Good Ideas

The Good Ideas book is full of engaging lessons and activities designed to infuse character development into your classroom. The variety of lessons allows teachers to customize and select instruction based on the learning needs of their classroom.

Each lesson can be done as a stand-alone activity, in conjunction with other lessons, or as a supplement to your already established character education program.