a goodwill project inspired by the Virtues Project ™

PILOT PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR THE CITY OF SOFIA

“VIRTUES IN ACTION”

www.virtuesinaction.com

Motivational intro about the project on youtube.com

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

Idea The idea for the "Virtues in Action" project was born

as an antidote to the prevailing mores in today's society based primarily on material values and the lack of virtues in our relations, especially among the younger generation. The word virtue is so rarely used that probably the majority of students do not know its meaning. According to the Webster’s dictionary a virtue is a commendable quality or trait. Virtues like caring, honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness are traits that are practiced less and less in our everyday relations.

By distributing FREE the folder "Virtues in Action" and introducing the Virtues Project™ to as many schools as possible we will be able to assist in the moral and spiritual development of children in our local communities and throughout the world since our goal is to work globally with willing partners.

The “Virtues in Action” photo competition and exhibition aim to make the virtues popular among the younger generation and to encourage daily virtuous behavior.

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

2nd Element - Photo Contest & Photo Exhibition The idea for the photo competition is children with the help of parents and teachers to capture with a camera moments showing a virtue in action or an element of it. A photo exhibition will be organized with the winning photos that will be displayed in public places such as parks, squares, libraries, schools and others. This will remind the young generation and the general public about the virtues. Once the virtues become an object of attention, the topic of practicing virtues in our daily relations will become popular over time and that would lead to positive changes of the status quo.

1st Element – Printed materials a) “Virtues in Action” folder consisting of 24 posters A3 format based on the text from the Virtues Cards (part of the materials of the Virtues Project™) b) “Virtues in Action” wall posters 50x70cm The goal is the folder and the wall posters to be distributed FREE to kindergartens, schools, libraries, community centers, etc. Parents could also order the folder online from the web site free of charge.

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

Here are the selected 24 virtues for this project.

1.Caring 2.Compassion 3.Confidence 4.Consideration 5.Courage 6.Courtesy 7.Creativity 8.Determination 9.Forgiveness 10.Generosity 11.Gratitude 12.Honesty

13.Humility 14.Love 15.Loyalty 16.Patience 17.Respect 18.Responsibility 19.Self-discipline 20.Service 21.Tolerance 22.Trust 23.Kindness 24.Unity

(The complete list of the 52 virtues presented by the Virtues Project ™ could be seen here http://www.virtuesproject.com/virtuesdef.html

Each one of the Virtues in Action posters contains: A quotation by a famous person regarding this specific virtue A description of the virtue Signs of success (when practicing it) An affirmation A photo depicting a scene or element of the mentioned virtue

Larger images of the posters could be seen here http://www.virtuesinaction.com/#!gallery/stackeraccordion0=3

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

Purpose The “Virtues in Action” folder with the 24 posters inside is to serve as an

introduction to Linda K. Popov's book “Family Virtues Guide: Simple Ways to Bring Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves”. The book shows how to:

learn the language of integrity and self-esteem

understand the five roles parents play

discover ways to introduce sacred time into family life

help children to make moral choices.

For more information about the Virtues Project and character education

Here http://virtuestraining.com,

http://ondemand.neaacademy.org

Teachers can use ready lesson plans from

The Educator’s Guide of the Virtues Project

more about the guide here

More about the book in English click here

More about the Bulgarian translation of the book click here

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project™

Printed Materials

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

Annual “Virtues In Action” Photo Contest and Exhibition

practicing courtesy

practicing the virtue of trust

practicing respect practicing generosity

Example public places for display of the “Virtues in Action” annual exhibition

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

Pilot Project on the Territory of the city of Sofia

At the beginning, we’d like to use the “step by step” approach, so we decided to distribute FREE of charge 1000

folders A3 format to 3 kindergartens, 3 primary schools and 3 high schools together with sets of 24 wall posters

300 folders for 3 kindergartens

or 100 folders for each one.

300 folders for 3 primary schools

or 100 folders for each one. 300 folders for 3 high schools

or 100 folders for each one.

For the period of 3 weeks, we’ll visit 3 kindergartens, 3 primary schools and 3 high schools. We’ll present them

the Virtues in Action folders as well as a set of the wall posters. During the visit we’ll introduce the Virtues in

Action project and will schedule dates for teachers training seminars. The seminars are led by educators who are

teaching themselves virtues in several schools in Sofia. In this way the teachers in the prospective schools can

have an understanding on how to teach virtues in their classes. On the project’s web site there will be also

available various teaching tools and lesson plans regarding each virtue.

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

Timeline for implementing the pilot project “Virtues in Action”- 24 weeks/6 months

1st week 2nd week 3rd week 4th week

5th week 6th week 7th week 8th week

9th week 10th week 11th week 12th week

13th week 14th week 15th week 16th week

17th week 18th week 19th week 20th week

21st week 22nd week 23rd week 24th week

CARING COMPASSION CONFIDENCE CONSIDERATION

COURAGE COURTESY CREATIVITY DETERMINATION

FORGIVENESS GRATITUDE GENEROSITY HONESTY

HUMILITY LOVE LOYALTY PATIENCE

RESPECT RESPONSIBILITY SELF-DISCIPLINE SERVICE

TOLERANCE TRUST KINDNESS UNITY

Goal of the project – Each week for the period of 24 weeks (6months) introduce and teach students one of the 24 virtues comprising the

project “Virtues in Action”. At the end of each week after the virtue has been already studied and practiced, we’ll contact the schools

and fill out a report with feedback from both students and teachers. All written assignments and projects associated with the virtue will

be recorded in a digital record and uploaded to our web site. This is important so, it can serve as an example and demo to other schools

interested to apply the Virtues in Action project. At the end of each week students will be asked to create a project in the form of a

photo or photo collage with text depicting the studied virtue. After the completion of the pilot project an exhibition will be organized

with the awarded students’ works. The prizes will be in 3 categories a) kindergarten b) primary school c) high school.

“VIRTUES IN ACTION” inspired by the Virtues Project ™

The images below represent part of the current reality of children today and the influences they’re exposed to. It is our responsibility to change the status quo and to make photos like those history.

At the core of all negative demeanors shown above is the lack of virtuous behavior . This can change once virtues

are taught in schools, starting from kindergarten and parents get educated to speak the language of virtues to their

children. We’ll end this presentation with a powerful quote by Albert Einstein - “The world is a dangerous place to

live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

Bullying in schools Domestic violence Violent video games

Arrogant disrespectful behavior Drinking alcohol Racial intolerance Misbehavior in the classrooms

Smoking cigarettes and other substances

Author of the presentation: Teodora Atanasova – graphic designer e-mail: paxpublishing@gmail.com