Wilmington College (Wilmington,
OH)
Community
Outreach from Peace Resource Center
Summary
Wilmington College’s Peace Resource Center’s mission includes
being an active player in spreading peace educatin and non-violence in
our local school communities. Three community outreach programs build
on the College’s education major.
The Practice
ProjectTrust began as collaboration between the Education Area and the
U.S. Department of Education that provided a grant of $50,000 to support
the program. A local assistant principal wanted to address a fighting
problem in his school. His idea was to break down the barriers between
different groups. Working with the schools, Wilmington College created
a program to address the concern. The core of this program is a two-and-one-half-day
retreat. Opinion leaders from various student groups are placed in family
groups with students with whom they would never affiliate. Trained adult
counselors are assigned to family groups. Team building, problem solving,
and attention to the effects of “put-downs” are all part of
the experience.
By the end of the experience the students consistently, through a research
instrument that has been created by the PRC, report that at pre-camp there
are a group of students that are not very well-liked. After camp, popular
kids tend to stay very popular. But there is a significant increase in
the willingness of most students to give some time to those students who
were “out-group” students prior to the camp. The goal of the
program is to influence the opinion leaders over the retreat weekend so
that they will return to their school and influence other members of their
group.
Wilmington College student Jared Diamond inititated a Mediation Training
Program using PRC resources. Experienced Wilmington College peer mediation
training teams work with high school and middle school students, training
them to be peer mediators. Twenty-four hours of training ensures the effectiveness
of the training program. We are involved with Wilmington High School,
Wilmington Middle School, East Clinton High School, and Blanchester High
School.
Effectiveness
The success of this program has led the program director at a local senior
center to ask for peer mediation for seniors. The College has provided
this training also.
The Positive Discipline program provides teachers with the tools to create
caring, non-coercive, non-punitive classroom environments. This type of
problem-solving approach has been shown to promote high academic achievement.
The College partnered with Holmes Elementary School in Wilmington, New
Vienna Elementary School, and Loveland Middle School to train teachers
in these classroom management techniques. Systematic data is available
on the effectiveness of Positive Discipline. Teachers who have Positive
Discipline training were surveyed after three years. They agreed most
with the statements, “PD has improved the climate of my classroom”
and least with “I hold daily class meetings” and “PD
is the primary classroom management philosophy used in the building.”
The Education Area benefits from all programs by being able to place
students for observations and student teaching in classrooms that are
closely aligned with the mission of the College and the Area.
Resources
For more information, contact James Boland, Director of the Peace Resource
Center: jim_boland@wilmington.edu,
(937) 382-6661, ext. 371
Contact Information
Kathy Springsteen
Vice President for Academic Affairs
and Dean of the Faculty
Wilmington College
Pyle Center, Box 1327
Wilmington, Ohio 45177
Kathy_springsteen@wilmington.edu
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Effective
Practices Exchange
