Welcome, Community of Caring

The National Center for the Community of Caring is moving to Utah. Today, founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver and University of Utah President Michael Young are expected to sign a three-year agreement to relocate the center to the U. campus.

Although the organization has been headquartered in Washington, D.C., the character education program has been a staple in many Utah school districts for years. Utah makes up about 20 percent of the 1,000-plus public and private schools that use the Community of Caring curricula. "Welcome home" might be a more appropriate greeting for the center.

The relocation of the National Center for the Community of Caring also means Kristin Fink's return to Utah. Fink, who taught in Utah more than 20 years, was Utah's character education specialist before moving to Washington, D.C., to take the helm of the NCCC. Fink's enthusiasm and vast knowledge about the academic and social benefits of character education will be a boon to the program. The center itself will be immensely helpful to U. education students' research pursuits.

Community of Caring integrates the core values of caring, respect, responsibility, trust and family into the K-12 curriculum. Research suggests that character education can influence academic performance. As Fink explains, "The core values help students to be better and stronger students, citizens and human beings."

In fact, a 1991 Center for Health Policy study found that students who attended Community of Caring schools earned higher grade point averages and had lower rates of teen pregnancy and alcohol use.

This past summer, when the national organization held its annual conference at the U., McKell Withers, superintendent of the Salt Lake City School District, told the Deseret Morning News that campus crimes and violence declined each year when a school participated in the Community of Caring concept.

There are sound educational and sociological reasons that educators in Utah's Salt Lake, Granite, Park City, Nebo, Duchesne and Washington school districts have embraced this concept for many years. The presence of the National Center for the Community of Caring at the U. should foster growth of this concept statewide, if not across the nation.