Characters of Character

Characters of Character is committed to making a difference in the lives of as many children as possible. Our organization establishes a strong foundation for children to develop strong civic values.

Characters of Character started off as a character education program. Since then, we have grown tremendously. Our organization offers a variety of tools and resources for educators and parents to help teach children positive character traits. Our services and products include classroom visits, community visits, conferences, children's books, character education programs, positive reinforcements, and so much more.

As we continue to evolve as an organization we will continue to add new services and products. Be sure to click the photo to the right to see what products our organization has available right now. As a nonprofit organization, our organization does offer free resources (available all the time on our website) at various community events, character education program donations, free classroom visits, and so much more. Unfortunately, funding is extremely limited for our organization, as it is for many others as well. When we do offer free services and products, we post it on our website and/or other social networking sites. If you have any questions, or would like to suggest a location for organization to visit or donate to, please visit our 'suggestion' page here.

Characters of Character started off as an idea and simple concept for children to relate to feelings, emotions, and character traits. It began when Joni, the creator, was working in a room with LD/BD boys who were unable to express themselves in ways that so many people take forgranted. After creating these nine Characters she noticed that the students with the most behavioral problems began to familiarize themselves with the Characters, and soon internalized the meaning behind them. The Characters had such a strong impact on the students and showed such improvement that she continued using her Characters in the classrooms that she was working in. Fast forward to now and we have taken her concept and created a full character education curriculum for educational facilities. While our program is a large portion of our organization, it is not all that we have to offer. Please visit our website if you are interested in learning more about the other services, including free character education resources, that we offer.

Our character education program is divided into nine separate trait bundles. Each individual program focuses on a single character trait. What I personally find the most beneficial and convenient for educators is that our program is not divided into grade levels. You do not need to purchase five different programs for each grade level. The reason that we have combined it in this fashion is because as Joni was an educator, she understood that in a classroom full of third graders you may have students who are at a 2nd grade or even a 4th grade learning level. Having the grade levels combined allows the educator to be in control, personalizing each activity and focus to their own needs. It can be used as an entire classroom activity, or a one-on-one activity for a student who might be struggling with a concept. In addition to the program being easily implemented for different grade levels, it also incorporates basic skills. Why should an educator waste valuable classroom time on managing the class when students should be learning about their academics? We've designed a unique way to combined academics with internalizing positive character traits. While building character in your students, they will also be developing social skills, fine motor skills, reading, writing, and decision making skills. For more information about our character education program, please click here.

As a nationwide organization, it is extremely difficult for us to appear at every community in person. As a way to help bring character traits into the home or classroom without us physically being at a specific location, we have started to offer character education videos. These videos will be available online and are completely free for everyone to use. Once a month Characters of Character will post a new video based on the questions that our Characters and/or organization receives. The videos that are built off of the letters received will include the letter, a trait focus, a discussion, and a contest. It is our way of engaging your children or students and to get them excited about making positive choices. We strongly encourage you to have your students and/or children write to our Characters with their questions. If we don't receive letters, we won't know what subjects children are struggling with or where we should focus. Don't forget to enter the contest while you're at it. If you're letter is featured during one of our videos or if you are the contest winner, you will receive a prize. Prizes and winners are announced during the most recent video.

Aside from the monthly videos, our organization will also post 'shorts'. These 'shorts' will not be based off a letter that has been received. They will range from art projects, quick updates, announcements, and more. The video 'shorts' will not include any sort of contest, but most will include a link to a free resource, and all of them will include valuable information. If you have any suggestions for our organization, please feel free to contact us. We are always looking for feedback, suggestions, and new traits and subjects to focus on.

We were fortunate enough to be introduced to goodsearch.com about a year ago. It is a simple way to raise funds for Characters of Character by doing something you probably do daily-searching the internet. It is a search engine powered by Yahoo! and generates one penny for each search. The steps are simple:

1) Go to www.goodsearch.com
2) Enter 'Characters of Character' under the charity
3) Hit verify
4) Search the Internet

You've just earned one penny for Characters of Character! Do you shop online? Take a moment to search through the stores that donate a percentage of your purchase when shopping through Goodsearch.

Even if you don't use Goodsearch for Characters of Character we strongly suggest that you search for another nonprofit organization that interests you. Every penny helps when it comes to changing the lives of others.