Youth Frontiers group presenting Kindness, Courage, Respect and Responsibility retreats for Allamakee Community School District students

The Allamakee Community School District will be sponsoring a number of retreats for its students during the month of January that will focus on bringing back respect to school hallways.
The retreats will be hosted by Youth Frontiers, an organization from Minneapolis, MN in existence since 1987 that partners with schools to build positive communities where students thrive socially, emotionally and academically. Youth Frontiers has delivered over 650 retreats this year to over 90,000 students with a vision "to change the way kids treat each other in every hallway, lunch line and classroom of every school in America."
The retreats will be held at Village Creek Bible Camp in rural Lansing, although Youth Frontiers is not a religiously-affiliated or religiously-based organization. The group is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with the main purpose to make schools and communities a better place to live.
Youth Frontiers retreats act as a catalyst for students. By taking an entire grade off-site (to Village Creek in the local case), Youth Frontiers challenges them to bring respect back to the hallways of their school. These retreats will focus on Kindness, Courage, Respect and Responsibility. Ultimately, students become engaged in making the school a place where students and teachers are respected and both are challenged to learn to maximize their full potential. Parents will be receiving information on these retreats in the very near future.
The scheduled retreats in January will consist of the following:

KINDNESS RETREAT:  January 29, 2013 (5th Grade) - This full-day retreat for students inspires character by engaging students in activities that emphasize the value of kindness. Kids are empowered to be “everyday heroes” by using kindness to include others, be respectful and make their school a better place. Students learn that some peer pressure can cause fighting, verbal taunting and social exclusion. The retreat teaches students a positive and safe way to handle these difficult situations with their peers.
This retreat will include adult and junior high student leaders. This positive peer interaction is essential for both groups (adults and students) in building positive skills that allow the school and community to be a better place to live and learn.

COURAGE RETREAT:  January 4, 2013 (8th Grade) - This full-day retreat inspires character by empowering students to act with moral courage and identify the social fears and peer pressures that impede responsible decision-making. The retreat encourages them to take positive risks that make a healthy difference for themselves, their peers and school, and it will include adults and ninth and 10th grade student leaders. This positive peer interaction is essential for both groups (adults and students) in building positive skills that allow the school and community to be a better place to live and learn.

RESPECT RETREAT:  January 3, 2013 (10th Grade) - This full-day retreat will give students a day to experience what a school could be like if everyone is respected. It will also challenge students to respect themselves. The vision of the group is to help students resolve conflicts without fighting, insults and threats. This retreat will include adult and 12th grade student leaders. This positive peer interaction is essential for both groups (adults and students) in building positive skills that allow the school and community to be a better place to live and learn.

RESPONSIBILITY RETREAT: January 30, 2013 (11th Grade) - This retreat inspires juniors to set the tone for a positive school environment for their senior year. Students acknowledge and accept their “ability to respond” and examine how their daily choices impact their classmates, teachers and the greater school community. This half-day program challenges students to be leaders and to take responsibility to make their school a better place.

Each of these retreats will be held during normal school hours. The school district will transport the students to Village Creek and back for their respective retreat. The district will also provide sack lunches for the students from the school cafeteria. Parents must sign a permission slip, which will be sent home in the near future, so that their child may attend the retreat.
One of the unique things about Youth Frontiers and these retreats is that they have a lot of follow-up material that includes tips for educators, conversation starters, character challenges and other reflective pieces for student, staff and parents. Parents and teachers can access information about Youth Frontiers and the retreats that are to be held from the Youth Frontiers website:  www.youthfrontiers.org.