WHY COMMUNITY MATTERS IN KEEPING OUR SCHOOLS SAFE (with Rick Phillips & Chris Pack)

With the recent extreme violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT and other disturbing incidents in schools across the nation, the question, especially if we are parents or teachers is: 

How can we make our schools really safe for our children?

The Government and other officials in power always seem to offer solutions that bring more authority and control into the schools, making some of them appear like prisons. This is NOT the answer nor is it the solution altogether. You can keep guns and knives out of the schools with increased security, but you can’t keep out the attitudes, beliefs, and prejudices that cause students to be cruel and mistreat each other. The answer lies in changing the emotional climate of our schools altogether.

How can this change be accomplished?

Listen to my (26 min) interview about this critical matter with two experts, Rick Phillips & Chris Pack of Community Matters (CM), a non- profit organization committed to improving the social-emotional climate of our nation’s schools and communities. organization.

CM is most well known for their highly effective student training program “Safe School Ambassadors” which effectively changes the school climate by empowering students themselves to be agents of positive social change, and intervene in incidents where students mistreat each other. During the past two decades, Community Matters has worked with more than 1,000 schools, agencies and organizations across 30 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and Canada. 

Rick Phillips, a former teacher and principal, is the founder and Executive Director of Community Matters, and co-developer of the “Safe School Ambassador” program with Chris Pack who, until recently, was Director of Training and Program Development for the organization. 

This (26 min) interview can be accessed here for immediate listening on line or to download in mp3 format.

Thank you for listening. We hope you enjoy and learn from this show 

To learn more about the work of CM, their website is (www.community-matters.org)

There is also a book SAFE SCHOOL AMBASSADORS: Harnessing Student Power to Stop Bullying and Violence by Rick Phillips, John Linney & Chris Pack (2008) - available at amazon.com - http://amzn.to/UvOmHg

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Robert Han Bishop (3-22-13)

*NOTE:To listen on line, place your cursor on the button shaped symbol just to the left of the interview title. When you click on this button, the screen will change, and the recording will play. You can also access the recording by clicking on the mp3 link shown at the bottom of this posting. NOTE: To play thses interview, you will need to have Quick Time, or another compatible media player installed on your computer.

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Robert “Han” BIshop, Ph.D.

Producer and Host

TRANSFORMING REALITY

Internet Talk Show

www.transformrealityradio.net

[email protected]