Resources for the Greater Good

Organizations conducting research and running programs in the field relevant to the Greater Good Science Center and Greater Good magazine.

Research sources

• The Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute at Humboldt State University

  Founded with the dual purpose of studying specific examples of heroic and conventional altruism and seeking out ways to enhance altruism and prosocial behavior in society.

  
  

• The Center for Peaceable Schools

  Provides training, resources, and information to educators and community workers interested in learning principles and practices that create positive change in schools and communities.

  
  

• The Center for Social and Emotional Education

  An educational and professional development organization devoted to developing leaders in social, emotional, and academic education. Its website includes a wealth of information for school personnel and parents.

  
  

• The Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University

  Studies how changes in the social organization of schools can make them more effective for all students in promoting academic achievement, development of potential, and eventual career success.

  
  

• Character Education Partnership

  A nonpartisan coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to developing moral character and civic virtue in our nation's youth as one means of creating a more compassionate and responsible society.

  
  

• Child Trends

  Dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children. The organization collects and analyzes data; conducts, synthesizes, and disseminates research; designs and evaluates programs; and develops and tests promising approaches to research in the field

  
  

• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning

  A partnership between researchers, program developers, and educators working to establish social and emotional learning as an essential part of education from preschool through high school.

  
  

• Council on Contemporary Families

  A nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the national conversation about what contemporary families need and how these needs can best be met.

  
  

• Developmental Studies Center

  A nonprofit education organization working with elementary schools to help their students become skilled, motivated readers and caring, principled people. Recognizing that children's academic, ethical, social, and emotional development are inter-related and interdependent, DSC has designed in-school and after-school programs that address those dimensions of children's learning in seamlessly coordinated, systemic ways.

  
  

• Educators for Social Responsibility

  A national nonprofit organization that helps educators create safe, caring, respectful, and productive learning environments. Its work spans the fields of social and emotional learning, character education, conflict resolution, diversity education, civic engagement, prevention programming, youth development, and secondary school improvement.

  
  

• Fetzer Institute

  A private foundation that supports research, education, and service programs, including scientific research on altruistic and compassionate love.

  
  

• George Lucas Educational Foundation

  A nonprofit organization that documents and disseminates models of the most innovative practices in K-12 schools.

  
  

• Gottman Institute

  Reaches out to families in order to help create and maintain greater love and health in relationships. The Institute helps couples directly and provides training to mental health professionals and other health care providers.

  
  

• The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love

  A research and educational institute that funds high-level scientific research on altruistic and unlimited love.

  
  

• Metanexus Institute

  Advances research, education and outreach on the constructive engagement of science and religion.

  
  

• Mind & Life Institute

  A working collaboration and research partnership between modern science and Buddhism to promote the creation of a contemplative, compassionate, and rigorous experimental and experiential science of the mind which could guide and inform medicine, neuroscience, psychology, education and human development.

  
  

• PATHS

  The PATHS (Providing Alternative THinking Strategies) curriculum is a program for educators and counselors designed to facilitate the development of self-control, emotional awareness, and interpersonal problem-solving skills.

  
  

• Positive Organizational Scholarship

  Based at the University of Michigan Business School, this is a networking community for researchers and practitioners interested in Positive Organizational Scholarship.

  
  

• Project Zero

  An educational research group whose mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels.

  
  

• Positive Psychology Network

  A research network devoted to understanding and building the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

  
  

• Relationship Research Institute

  The Relationship Research Institute fosters research on couple relationships, parenting, and families. The goal of the institute is to study relationships including but not limited to: love relationships between adults, parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, friendships, and family-community relationships.

  
  

• Search Institute

  A nonprofit organization that conducts applied scientific research on positive child and adolescent development to strengthen and deepen the scientific foundations of the developmental assets framework. It also provides publications, consulting, and other practical tools to youth, parents, and their communities.

  
  

• Seattle Social Development Project

  SSDP began in 1981 to test strategies for reducing childhood risk factors for school failure, drug abuse, and delinquency. First graders in five Seattle schools were assigned to intervention or control classrooms. Each year through the elementary grades parents and teachers in intervention classrooms learned how to actively engage children in learning, strengthen bonding to family and school, and encourage children's positive behaviors.

  
  

• Templeton Foundation

  A foundation dedicated to focusing the methods and resources of scientific inquiry on the moral and spiritual dimensions of life.

  
  

 

 

• The Carter Center

  The Carter Center, in partnership with Emory University, is guided by a fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering; it seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.

  
  

• The Center for Peaceable Schools

  Provides training, resources, and information to educators and community workers interested in learning principles and practices that create positive change in schools and communities.

  
  

• Character Education Partnership

  A nonpartisan coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to developing moral character and civic virtue in our nation's youth as one means of creating a more compassionate and responsible society.

  
  

• Child Development Project

  A multi-year school improvement design that fosters students' decoding skills, reading comprehension skills, and caring, respectful connections among students, educators, and parents. The integration of academic, social, emotional, and ethical development gives schools a schoolwide support system to reach their goals. Part of Development Studies Center.

  
  

• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning

  A partnership between researchers, program developers, and educators working to establish social and emotional learning as an essential part of education from preschool through high school.

  
  

• Community of Caring

  Through training for teachers, values discussions, student forums, parent involvement and service learning, Community of Caring addresses destructive attitudes that lead to early sexual involvement, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, delinquent behavior, and dropping out of school.

  
  

• Educators for Social Responsibility

  A national nonprofit organization that helps educators create safe, caring, respectful, and productive learning environments. Its work spans the fields of social and emotional learning, character education, conflict resolution, diversity education, civic engagement, prevention programming, youth development, and secondary school improvement.

  
  

• Facing History and Ourselves

  Facing History and Ourselves is a national educational and professional development organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development and lessons of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives.

  
  

• First Amendment Schools

  First Amendment Schools is a national initiative designed to transform how schools model and teach the rights and responsibilities of citizenship that frame civic life in our democracy.

  
  

• PATHS

  The PATHS (Providing Alternative THinking Strategies) curriculum is a program for educators and counselors designed to facilitate the development of self-control, emotional awareness, and interpersonal problem-solving skills.

  
  

• Resolving Conflict Creatively Program

  The Resolving Conflict Creatively Program is a well-evaluated, K-8 program in character education and social and emotional learning. It is the nation's largest and longest running school program with a special focus on conflict resolution and intergroup relations.

  
  

• Responsive Classroom

  The Responsive Classroom approach to teaching and learning fosters safe, challenging, and joyful classrooms and schools, kindergarten through eighth grade. Developed by classroom teachers, this approach consists of practical strategies for bringing together social and academic learning throughout the school day.

  
  

• Science & Spirit Magazine

  Science & Spirit Magazine, published six times each year, explores the relationship between science and religion in the context of our everyday lives.

  
  

• Seattle Social Development Project

  SSDP began in 1981 to test strategies for reducing childhood risk factors for school failure, drug abuse, and delinquency. First graders in five Seattle schools were assigned to intervention or control classrooms. Each year through the elementary grades parents and teachers in intervention classrooms learned how to actively engage children in learning, strengthen bonding to family and school, and encourage children's positive behaviors.

  
  

• Shanti

  Shanti at the forefront of a growing national movement to enhance the quality of life for persons living with life-threatening or chronic illnesses by providing volunteer-based emotional and practical support.

  
  

• Teaching Tolerance

  Founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance supports the efforts of K-12 teachers and other educators to promote respect for differences and appreciation of diversity. Teaching Tolerance serves as a clearinghouse of information about anti-bias programs and activities being implemented in schools across the country.