JAMS Foundation/ACR Initiative for Students and Youth in United States

Priority Areas

• There are three proposal priorities:
  • The proposed project will work with school districts to create policy and procedure change that embed conflict resolution skills and techniques, in both classroom and interactions among students, and interactions with the administration.
  • This policy and procedure change will reward students’ ability to be assertive in a manner that leads to cooperation not degradation, and lessen the reliance on detention, suspension, and expulsion and an expansion of conflict resolution practices district wide. These changes will strive to make normative non-violent communication, cooperation, and self-reflection, affecting all students in their district, or subset population of students.
  • Evaluation measures for the proposed project will include, at a minimum:
    • an increase in applied conflict resolution skills by youth, specifically for appropriate interactions with others in a manner that leads to cooperation and
    • a change in school disciplinary policy that adopts a more restorative frame when fights and other anti-social behavior arise among students, and,
    • an integrative, empathetic and responsive setting to meet social-emotional learning needs of students in post-pandemic conditions.

Funding Information

• Requests for Year 1 funding may be up to $20,000, of the potential two-year funding cycle.
• While the proposed projects are two-year projects, decisions on funding for a second year will be contingent on evidence of benchmark accomplishments at the end of the first year of funding with a focus on the integration of the new service or expansion of the current services. For those who may seek a second year of funding, those requests may be for up to $40,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Pre-K through 12th grade students and youth are eligible to apply.

For more information, visit ACR.