ALL and Classroom Champions Take Lifeskills Partnership Beyond the U.S.
What are your summer break plans? We hope they’re filled with sandy beaches, good conversations and a cool breeze every once in a while. What will we be doing? We’ll be thinking of those sandy beaches, too, just a little differently.
This past 2014-2015 school year, we worked with the Ministries of Health and Education in three different countries to bring Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don’t Mix to Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia reaching over 1,500 students, approximately 500 parents in 11 schools. However, we couldn’t have done it alone. Ask, Listen, Learn’s partnership with Classroom Champions has blossomed into a global effort that has now inspired thousands of these students across the globe.
“We’re expanding in a strategic way that gives us the unique and important opportunity to impact kids of all backgrounds,” said Classroom Champions President & CEO Steve Mesler. “We value being a part of the community in which our students live, no matter where that community is located. We’re trying to inspire the next generation of these kids to make smart, healthy decisions and to change the way they think about some tough topics, like underage drinking.”
Classroom Champion is based on the principle that an Athlete Mentor can help inspire classrooms of kids to be the best they can be through a relationship established using recorded video lessons, live video chats, and social media. Through this relationship, and the work of dedicated classroom teachers, students are learning from some of the world’s highest achievers how to set goals and accomplish them, and how the choices they make today can effect their futures positively or negatively.
Teachers have also been very vocal to Ask Listen Lean about the need for this kind of character education program to coordinate with their curriculum. For each country we visit, we take the time to assess the needs of each region to better understand how our materials can help their students. It’s important to us to not just show numbers, but show results.
We’re so excited for the opportunity to expand and really create more opportunities for teachers to start tough conversations in their classrooms – like the dangers of underage drinking.
“We hope that through our partnerships and dedication to education, we are able to help teachers around the world have the confidence to help their students become smart, confident decision makers,” said Responsibility.org President & CEO Ralph Blackman. “We’re excited that we have the chance to give teachers resources that they really wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Life-skills education can start in the classroom, and we’re trying to create the most impactful conversations possible through this new arm of Ask, Listen, Learn.”
We can’t wait to keep you posted on the next leg of our journey.
