Haiti Partners staff who participated in this exercise felt like our Children’s Academy staff, students, parents and others in the community would also benefit from focusing on values. In a public community meeting we posted in advance 92 different values in Haitian Creole. Each was on an 8.5″ x 11″ paper in big clear letters. After reading out loud the values several times, we invited the 70 plus members present to identify the values that they felt the school in their community absolutely must adhere to and teach the children. One person after another picked one and explained why s/he picked it. We ended up with 15 that were placed on a separate wall and all present agreed that it was a great list.

Next, we took the list to the teachers and staff at Children’s Academy. They loved the idea of focusing on values with our 118 three to five year olds. It was determined that we’d pick a value for each month. The value would be posted in all classrooms and office and teachers would speak about the value and encourage reflection among students of that particular value each morning for a month. Then, the next value would be the focus for following month. Here are values the teachers and staff identified from the list of 15 that members in the larger community:

September – COMPASSION
October – RESPECT
November – HONESTY
December – LOVE
January – WISDOM
February – SMILES
March – JOY
April – DIALOGUE
May – EXCELLENCE
June – RESPONSIBILITY
July – CREATIVITY

We’re grateful to Barrett Values Centre and Jim Ruberg along with our friends at WorldBlu for the organizational learning they’ve facilitated at Haiti Partners and we’re excited to see how it’s rippling out. We’re also so very, very grateful for all the partners–individuals and organizations/companies–that make our work possible.

Thanks for reading,

John Engle
co-director