Partnership with Children is a leader in implementing and integrating social and emotional learning through our school based program, Open Heart-Open Mind (OHOM). Founded in 1992, OHOM is the only program to put social workers into schools full-time to address the social and emotional needs of at-risk students.

Our integrated service model serves the “whole child” as well as families, teachers, administrators and school staff.  Social Workers explore all areas of the student’s life in order to understand the root cause of behavioral issues and help resolve the problem.  By providing these students with the social-emotional learning opportunities and behavioral skills they need to focus in school, we increase their ability to succeed academically and in life.

SERVICES
We use three principal modalities in support of its mission: crisis intervention and individual counseling, small group work, and whole classroom interventions.

Individual Counseling and Crisis Intervention

• Provided to students with the highest needs and to families that require intensive support.
• Gives students the opportunity to build self-esteem, express their feelings and discuss their problems and find solutions on a one-to-one basis

Small Groups

• Include an academic component, a psycho-social component and a school wide benefit
• Help develop positive leadership skills, increased self-esteem, improved social skills and positive classroom behavior
• Increase academic achievement through skills based groups including Bookstore, Newspaper and Job Readiness programs

Whole Classroom Intervention

• Improves class cohesiveness and classroom climate and models effective classroom management
• Focuses on topics such as bullying/cyber bullying, test anxiety, sexual harassment, anger management and gang awareness

Impact
Partnership with Children seeks to influence the education process by finding solutions to problems that negatively impact the classroom and school environment. The program impacts five key areas:

1. Students: Our program develops social and emotional skills that are necessary for success in the classroom and in life.
2. Parents: We engage parents and guardians in their children’s education. Students and families obtain needed services and support in the school community and from the community at large.
3. Teachers: We train in classroom management skills for improved teaching and student learning.
4. School Environment: We increase school safety and create a positive, nurturing school climate.
5. Attendance: We work with chronically absent students to improve student attendance rate as well as help those students with good attendance, maintain high attendance.

Results
Each year, we monitor our success of OHOM by commissioning a report that measures outcomes of our program.  Our evaluation shows significant improvement in student behavior, parent engagement and school climate.  Please visit our Results Page for the complete results of our most recent evaluation report.

Read more about the positive impact of social and emotional learning in CASEL's (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) report: The Positive Impact of SEL for K-8th Grade Students.