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There may be nothing more important in a child's life than a positive and stable relationship with a caring adult. For students, a positive connection to at least one school adult - whether a teacher, counselor, sports coach, or other school staff member - can have tremendous benefits that include reduced bullying, lower drop-out rates, and improved social-emotional capacities.

Rather than leave these connections to chance, relationship mapping invests time in making sure that every student is known by at least one adult.

Using this strategy, school staff identify youth who do not currently have positive connections with school adults during a private meeting. Those students are then paired with a supportive adult mentor within the school. Throughout the year, mentors support each other through the successes and challenges of building relationships with students, and school administrators routinely communicate with staff to determine how well the process is going. At the end of the year, the staff convenes to talk about how their efforts may have positively affected students. Adults may also choose to pay particular attention to "at risk" students as these connections may be particularly important for students who are having a hard time at home or in school.

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Relationship Mapping Strategy | Making Caring Common - Making Caring Common

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Use this online version of our popular Relationship Mapping Strategy for your school, community organization, or religious group to help ensure that everyone has a strong connection to someone else during challenging times.

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Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind. -Brene Brown

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Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind. -Brene Brown

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A book excerpt from Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead book — We need braver leaders and more courageous cultures.

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Bridging efforts to advance protections for people displaced by the climate crisis with efforts to build climate resilience, this interactive database joins global data on climate displacement, climate event exposure and vulnerability, emissions...

Featured Work

With the death toll in Gaza climbing past 8,500 people , including more than 3,500 children , and hundreds more being killed each day in Israel's relentless bombardment of homes and other civilian infrastructure, we at OBI join a growing global...

Take free classes with us on our new learning platform to learn about structural marginalization and the processes of othering, and the building blocks of belonging. OBI University is also home to the 2023 O&B Conference Archive.

BERKELEY: Hawaii kept its streak going by placing 1st for the sixth consecutive year as most inclusive state in the country, according to the latest Inclusiveness Index produced annually by the Othering & Belonging Institute. Maryland and Vermont...

Areas of Work

The faculty, staff, researchers, and affiliates of the Othering & Belonging Institute work together with multidisciplinary approaches to learn, research, and construct solutions for society's most pressing issues. Our programs and initiatives are all designed to effect transformative change.

SEE ALL AREAS

Facts, Findings, and Strategies for 'Loss and Damage.' - Despite the growing consensus among climate scientists and international governing bodies that forced migration is an effect of climate change, and although the expression "climate refugees" is often used to describe climate-induced migration across ...

Featured Publications

The "Structural Racism Explained" video draws upon many varied sources in formulating specific definitions for different types of racism. The video and prompts provided in this video and teaching guide are designed primarily for teachers to help students clarify and sharpen their understanding of the material.

For a several years now I've observed with growing alarm, then despair, as California's housing woes-astronomical prices, skyrocketing rents and rates of annual appreciation, knee-jerk opposition to new housing, an epidemic of displacement and...

This 90-minute workshop dives into the history of how corporate power is organized in the United States and contemporary cases of how growing corporate power has rolled back successful gains in democratic rights, environmental justice, migrant...

The U.S. continues to underperform on an annual list that ranks inclusivity as experienced by marginalized groups in countries across the globe. The Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley tallies every year an...

The median price of a home in Los Angeles will soon cross a startling threshold: $1 million. The median price of a home in California, meanwhile, is approaching $750,000, according to Zillow. That is more than double the national median and more than triple the figure in Ohio. This is the definition of housing unaffordability.

Image: Shirien Creates for OBI x Fine Acts. "Let us use the Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action to push colleges and universities towards a long overdue overhaul of the admissions process altogether. We must, at the very least, develop...

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Bridging efforts to advance protections for people displaced by the climate crisis with efforts to build climate resilience, this interactive database joins global data on climate displacement, climate event exposure and vulnerability, emissions...

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CLEE Protocols | Center for Leadership & Educational Equity

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Access CLEE’s Protocol & Resource Library. Find tools and guidelines to support leadership and equity initiatives in educational settings.

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Center for Emerging Educational Practice

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The CES Center for Emerging Educational Practice serves as a resource hub for teachers, education leaders, practitioners, care-givers, policy-makers, researchers and other education decision-makers who are working to ensure that all students thrive, especially in the unique contexts of small and

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Communication is predictable, timely, clear, useful, and corageous when necessary. 

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Communication is predictable, timely, clear, useful, and corageous when necessary. 

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Dysregulated Students Need Regulated Adults

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Addressing challenging student behaviors starts with prioritizing teachers’ well-being.

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School Resource Officers: When the Cure is Worse than the Disease

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SROs, also known as Campus Resource Officers (CROs) are commissioned law enforcement officers with sworn authority to make arrests, deployed under the auspices of a need for community-oriented policing in K-12 school districts.

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Empowering Education: Nurturing a Dedicated Substitute Teaching Force through an Employee-First Approach

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School administration software to proactively manage your people and processes for greater student success.

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Why the ‘warm demander’ concept is becoming popular in K12 leadership

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A warm demander embodies empathy, high expectations, and a nurturing environment to facilitate optimal learning outcomes.

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River Valley Counseling Center partners with local school districts to provide mental health counseling during the school day.

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GIC health insurance coverage is not required to access the many Mass4You EAP work/life and other support services. Through Mass4You, GIC benefits-eligible employees and their families can find easy access to a comprehensive suite of free, confidential support available 24/7, including:

Three in-person or Tele-EAP (virtual) counseling visits per issue per year - at no cost

30-minute telephonic or in-person legal or mediation consultation per issue per year- at no cost

Guidance from a financial advisor to help with debt, foreclosure, financial planning and more

Get referrals for a variety of Work-Life convenience services: child care, elder care and more

Access to Optum's 24/7 confidential Substance Abuse Treatment Helpline and a licensed clinician

No formal enrollment is required.

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Mass4You: Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

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GIC health insurance coverage is not required to access the many Mass4You EAP work/life and other support services.

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At MTA Benefits, we understand that mental health is crucial to overall well-being. Life’s challenges can be overwhelming, and it’s essential to have access to support and resources that cater to your unique needs. That’s why we, in partnership with MyRosalie, now offer two mental health programs exclusively for MTA members: a group plan (paid for by local associations) and an individual plan.

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How To Navigate Life is an award-winning program that empowers parents, students and professionals to develop a sense of purposeful belonging in life.

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Purpose and Belonging Informed from How to Navigate Life authors Belle Liang & Tim Klein

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Purpose and Belonging Informed from How to Navigate Life authors Belle Liang & Tim Klein

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Purpose & Belonging Informed Worksheet.pdf