The Unity Project is the Center’s flagship program.
It is an intensive, multi-year collaboration between the Center and school districts to address bullying, bias and harassment. The Center provides Unity schools with a customized series of workshops, presentations, and support to develop and maintain a safe and respectful environment.
The Center works with Unity schools to select students who have social influence and leadership potential. Center workshops provide student leaders with the knowledge, skills and confidence to safely intervene before degrading language has a chance to escalate to more severe forms of harassment.
It is critical that schools have the opportunity to make multi-year investments of time and resources to address bias and harassment. The goal of the Unity Project is that over time, increasing numbers of students, staff, and faculty will begin interrupting degrading language in low-key ways and the school culture will change from one in which young people believe they receive peer approval for the use of slurs to one in which they are valued for treating one another with civility and respect.
Center workshops for faculty, staff and administrators assist participants in applying harassment-prevention strategies and reinforcing the natural alliances between students and the adults who work with them.
The Unity Project may include any combination of the existing Center programs and custom-designed workshops to address issues that are of particular relevance to a given school. Trainers are also available to assist schools when unexpected issues of bullying, bias or harassment occur.
