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The Positive Action program is a comprehensive coherent program that has components for all parts of the school, the family, and the community. It works on many levels of the school—from the individual to the classroom to the entire school system. It addresses all areas of the self: the physical, intellectual, and social/emotional. It is both a content area and a teaching method. Within its curriculum, it teaches standards of achievement in every content subject area directly and applied. It is also integrated into all subject areas.

It is taught at every level of learning: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. It goes to the very heart of why we do things—to feel good about ourselves. It also brings all the power of positiveness to all participants so potential is reached and barriers are removed. It brings feelings of joy, accomplishment and satisfaction to all participants.

The synergy of all these dynamic working together improves behavior, school performance, self- concepts and attendance. The materials are complete and fully prepared for users. Lessons are planned —even scripted—and all hands-on materials are prepared.

The Positive Action philosophy, “You feel good about yourself when you do positive actions” (illustrated by the Thoughts-Actions-Feelings Circle graphic) underlies the goals.

The first unit begins with the philosophy and Thoughts-Actions-Feeling, and units two through six explain key positive actions for the whole self or physical, intellectual, social, and emotional areas.

• Unit 1:Self-Concept. What It Is, How It’s Formed, and Why It’s Important (Philosophy and Circle) Unit 2. Positive Actions for your Body and Mind
• Unit 2:Positive Actions for your Body and Mind
• Unit 3:Managing Yourself Responsibly
• Unit 4:Treating Others the Way You Like to be Treated (Social Skills and Character)
• Unit 5:Being Honest with Yourself and Others (Mental Health)
• Unit 6:Improving Yourself Continually (Setting and Achieving Goals)

The school program includes the Positive Action curriculum and the school-climate program. The K–8 curriculum has an Instructor’s Kit (manual/scripted lessons, activities, and materials) for each grade level. Materials include posters, music, activity sheets or booklets, and other manipulatves for 30 students per classroom. The 9–12 curriculum has an Instructor’s Kit (manual/scripted lessons, activities, and materials) for each grade level.

Materials include posters, activity sheets, journals, student textbooks, and other manipulatves. Each high school kit works for all four grade levels. The school-climate program, contained in Elementary and Secondary Climate Development Kits, helps students, educators, parents, and community members practice and reinforce classroom concepts.

The Climate Development Kits include items and activities to reinforce positive actions: words-of-the- week, newsletter templates, assemblies, stickers, tokens, positive notes, etc. They reinforce the good feelings that students have when they do positive actions (that is, they help develop intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, motivation to engage in positive actions).

A Counselor’s Kit (that includes the text, Positive Actions for Living) is used for additional counseling sessions and with individuals, small groups and families.

The Family Kit includes a manual of 42 lessons and colorful materials for parents to use at home. The Family Classes and Parenting Classes Kits teach families and parents how to use the Family Kit at home in seven classes (for entire families or just parents). The Community Kit describes how to organize all parts of the community to support the school and families in developing a positive community for children and youth.

Mission Statement:

“To improve society by teaching and promoting the positive actions that lead individuals, families, schools, and communities to success and happiness (being the best they can be).”

Preparing a grant application can be a daunting challenge. It's important to divide the tasks in a logical way and estimate the work required for each task. The coordinator should determine a timeline and assign the tasks as soon as possible. Time management is essential to completing a quality application.

Version control can be difficult to manage when working with multiple contributors on large documents. It's important to establish a common file naming convention to be used by all contributors when naming their documents.

If you are working on a large grant application, you may consider using project management or collaboration software. There are a number of applications available:

• Atlassian Confluence
• Microsoft Project
• Basecamp

Below are other important tips that we've found useful when preparing grants:

• Allow plenty of time to prepare
• Read the application package in its entirety
• Follow the formatting guidelines
• Structure your narrative according to the selection criteria. Make it easy for the reviewer to evaluate your proposal
• Be clear, concise and specific
• Justify your funding request according to project activities, keeping in mind that costs must be reasonable and necessary
• Check budget figures for consistency
• Proofread your proposal
• Use the checklist printed in the application package
• Have a fresh pair of eyes read your proposal before submission
• Make sure that all of the required forms are filled out, signed and submitted
• If submitting electronically, submit your proposal at least 12 hours before the deadline
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• If you have any questions or need additional information, contact the competition manager

If you need external assistance in writing and editing, there are talented grant writers for hire at elance.com. Again, we urge all applicants to budget enough time to complete a quality application. Grant applications usually take more time to prepare than is originally anticipated. The following links are a collection of other resources that can be useful when preparing a grant application:

• Department of Education
• National Institutes of Health
• Centers for Disease Control
• Health and Human Services
• Department of Justice
• CountyOffice.org