Roots of Empathy is an innovative in-class parenting program which fosters the development of empathy in elementary school children.  Empathy - the ability to understand another person's feelings - helps children develop skills to be the great parents of tomorrow, and reduced bullying, aggression and violence in our schools and in our communities.

Working with community partners, Roots of Empathy helps to build a caring and peaceful society by reaching out to children in their own classrooms with a fun and engaging program.

Each class "adopts" a baby, who visits the classroom along with his/her parent and a trained Roots of Empathy instructor once a month for the full school year.  As the children follow the development of "their" baby, they learn new skills to last a lifetime.

The program helps children recognize emotions in the people around them and understand how their behaviours such as bullying can affect others.  When children understand how others feel, they are more likely to identify with them and less likely to bully.

(Roots of Empathy is offered to schools when funding is available.)