Roots of Empathy Resource Materials
Publisher's Description
Roots of Empathy (ROE) is an evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effects in reducing levels of aggression among school children while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. The program reaches children from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and in Canada is delivered in English and French and reaches rural, urban, and remote communities including Aboriginal communities. The contribution ROE has made was acknowledged in 2005 by the rewarding of the Order of Canada to its Founder/President, Mary Gordon, who wrote the ROE curriculum. All of ROE's Learning Resources are in support of transferring the organization's philosophy and knowledge base. These resources provide Instructors, Mentors, and Trainers with the tools to deliver the program to the students, and train and mentor Instructors. They also fuel the organization's capacity to deliver our mission, 'to build caring, peaceful and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults' and to reach program goals - to foster the development of empathy; develop emotional literacy; reduce levels of bullying, aggression and violence, and promote children's pro-social behavior; increase knowledge of human development, learning and infant safety; and prepare students for responsible citizenship and responsive parenting. Research has found that programs such as ROE who offer a menu of curriculum, training, mentoring, certification process, and research are most effective. It is a value of our organization to engage in research and evaluation. There have been several independent, scientific research studies to promote an evidence base for the effectiveness of our program by the University of British Columbia, Healthy Child Manitoba and the University of Western Australia. These studies repeatedly illustrate that students who have completed the ROE program show a decrease in aggression and an increase in pro-social behavior with improvements being maintained at least three years after the end of the program.
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Note: These learning resources are recommended by Curriculum Services Canada. However, such a recommendation is of the resource only and should not be construed as a general recommendation of the developer of such a resource or the developer's business or related activities. While CSC recommends a resource on pedagogical grounds, the end user is fully responsible for its use.