THE PROGRAM

Crime is learned behavior. It can be unlearned. Even children who have never been nurtured can learn how to nurture others and themselves, thus intercepting the cycle of violence, abuse, neglect, and crime.

Healing Species does not only address the problems of violence, truancy, and poor performance at school. Instead, Healing Species addresses the roots of these problems by dealing with issues of poverty, returning violence for violence, and gang related activities. The Healing Species curriculum opens the eyes of children and teens by teaching and empowering them that they do not have "to give up" and "drop-out". There are other choices.

The lessons provide an epiphany for the children that they do not have to accept abuse; that they do not have to join gangs; they do not have to sell drugs; and they do not have to fight their way through life.

Poverty begets crime. "Drop-out" and truancy begets crime and poverty. Many children go home to poverty, domestic violence, bullying, despair, violent crime within the home, and violent neighborhoods.

Healing Species Character Education can literally lift these children from this world

• by empowering children with age-appropriate awareness about abuse and providing tools for getting help if abused; by making certain the children learn appropriate ways to deal with bullies
• by providing avenues of resolving conflict without fighting
• by providing "hands on" experience with lessons in respect for the feelings of others, and gaining power, leadership, and esteem from practices in mercy instead of from bullying

Once children gain empowerment in taking care of themselves, the Healing Species opens their young eyes to ways of "making their heart strong" by teaching them how to practice responsibility, compassion, and empathy by reaching out to those around them.

The children learn first hand that - just like the visiting dogs nobody else wanted- that they are important and do have something to give.

Standardized Testing Improvement Among Healing Species Students

Healing Species teaches in every fourth grade class in Lexington School District One in South Carolina. This relationship has been ongoing for the past two years.

The results in Lexington District One are astounding.

Standardized testing (PACT) performance of these students before Healing Species implementation and after Healing Species implementation was tracked. In all of the fourth grades in the Lexington One schools, the percentage of students meeting overall PACT standards increased significantly from the year before Healing Species implementation to the year of Healing Species implementation.. Additionally, the same results emerged in the Orangeburg, South Carolina districts. These results emerged as a partial result of the students learning to concentrate in class, not react to bullying, and gain self-esteem through success in respectable venues such as academics, as opposed to joining gangs or acting out in violence.