OUR MISSION
The Relationship Foundation’s mission is to teach high school students how to express their needs and feelings without blaming others, and to listen without thinking about what to say in response. Hard to imagine, but it can be done! Using classroom presentations, teacher assisted curriculum and journaling we provide students with a specific communication skill set to help them express confidence, leadership, compassion and empathy in all of their relationships. “Collaborative Communication” is integrated into each lesson and is the basis for strategies students can call upon to utilize in any interpersonal relations in which they are engaged.
Our Vision
The Relationship Foundation envisions that our student program Healthy Relationships 101 and our parent program Healthy Parenting 101, in partnership with educational institutions will enrich the family communication dynamic and improve outcomes academically and socially in high schools everywhere. Our experience shows us that this framework gives parents, students, teachers and administrators a concrete foundation to help them understand the value of social and emotional learning.
Key To Our Success
Good communication. What is it? What’s good to you might not be good to someone else. Effective communication is different than good communication. Effective communication is when all people get their needs met. We use a process called “Nonviolent Communication” (NVC) that helps to develop a vocabulary to articulate exactly what you are feeling and needing. It teaches us how to express ourselves by making requests, instead of demands or criticisms. Students and teachers alike, point to building a vocabulary of needs and feelings as having had the most impact on them. Marshall Rosenberg’s book, Nonviolent Communication, is the cornerstone of our work. In New York City, we learn and practice with two organizations that are led by certified NVC trainers.