Capturing Kids’ Hearts is a research-based process designed to strengthen students’ connectedness to school through enhancing protective factors (strong bonds with teachers, clear rules of conduct that are consistently enforced) and targeting modifiable risk factors (inappropriate behavior, poor social coping skills). Results from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health demonstrated that student connectedness reduced negative behaviors in four domains of adolescent health and morbidity: emotional health, violence, substance use, and sexuality.

The flexibility of the process allows schools to implement Capturing Kids’ Hearts at the classroom level (Capturing Kids’ Hearts – Teen Leadership) or school-wide (Capturing Kids’ Hearts – Campus By Design) in order to address district-specific goals. For the classroom-level model, teachers attend the Capturing Kids’ Hearts 3-day workshop and teach the Teen Leadership* curriculum. For the school-wide model, schools implement all of the following components of the process, with or without the Teen Leadership curriculum:

1. Capturing Kids’ Hearts — a 3-day teacher and administrator training program that provides school faculty with the skills they need to model and teach relational skills, communicative competencies, problem solving skills, citizenship, and consequential thinking. This program provides the foundation on which teachers build effective classroom management strategies including engaging students at the beginning of class, developing classroom expectations for behavior, providing effective feedback, and identifying and addressing conflict.

2. Teen Leadership — a semester or full-year course elective that is approved for course credit in some states. Through the Teen Leadership curriculum, students learn to develop healthy relationships, recognize and resist peer pressure, build public speaking skills, make responsible decisions, resolve conflicts and develop a sense of personal responsibility.

3. Process Champions — a 2-day teacher and administrator training program that reinforces Capturing Kids’ Hearts (CKH) training and teaches a small number of faculty members and administrators to act as onsite CKH mentors, helping their colleagues apply and master all aspects of the training. Process Champions mentors receive special additional instruction that prepares them to assist and support their peers in implementing the CKH process with fidelity.

4. Campus TrAction Pacs — two, 2-day sessions that provide the opportunity for campus administrators and Process Champions (teacher mentors) to work one-on-one with a Project Consultant who helps improve implementation of the CKH-CBD process. One session is offered in each school term (fall and spring).

5. Priority Customer Call — six, 1-hour phone calls that provide support for campus administrators and Process Champions as they implement the CKH-CBD process. During the consultations, the Project Consultant may assist with setting CKH-CBD implementation expectations, dealing with conflict, establishing an effective communication system, or addressing other issues that require attention. The consultation phone calls are conducted on a monthly basis during the school year.

Capturing Kids’ Hearts is a skill intensive, systemic process designed to develop high-performing school cultures, align organizational and individual behaviors to outcomes, and increase school connectedness. As a result of implementing this integrated approach, 1) faculty members build an intentional culture that emphasizes connectedness with students and with each other, 2) negative behaviors are minimized while learning is maximized, and 3) students acquire communication and conflict resolution skills that help them succeed in school and beyond.