What is Community & Character? That’s a great question, and the answer is something deeper than words. It requires all of the qualities PCC emphasizes each month and more. It is really a lifelong commitment to encouraging these qualities first within ourselves and then in our community.

At the beginning of Partners for Community and Character, we asked people in the community what character qualities were important to them.  Over 1000 community members in over 35 dialog groups throughout Worthington prioritized the following character qualities, which became our "Words of the Month"

The Characters in Action Theater Troupe consists of high school students who create and perform skits in elementary schools.  The skits illustrate problems that an elementary student may face and offer positive solutions to dealing with the problems, emphasizing the twelve character traits.  After performing the skits, the high school students lead small group discussions about the topic presented.  Elementary students look up to and identify with the high school students, making the program an effective vehicle for delivering the message as well as offering a leadership opportunity to the participating high school students.

The PCC Character Award celebrates young people in the Worthington school district community who live out the PCC qualities of character in an extraordinary way. We award $1,000 to a graduating Worthington High School senior who exemplifies one or more of the PCC Character Qualities of the month.

In 2015-2016, recognizing a need to have greater reach to students beyond the elementary level, the PCC School Committee looked at the Laws of Life Essay Contest.  The Laws of Life is an essay contest that the BBB Center for Character Ethics sponsors annually.  The PCC Character Essay Contest was inaugurated at the Worthington School District middle school level.  Four prompts for essay topics were developed by the School Committee.  The prompts are designed to encourage students to complete an essay with a focus on one of the twelve qualities of character.  For the 2016-2017 school year, the goal for the PCC Character Essay Contest will be to start earlier in the school year, or even before, to allow teachers to incorporate the contest into their lesson plans for the year.  Ultimately, the goal is to expand the contest into the Worthington high schools as well as to other schools in the greater community.

During the past year PCC has reached out to the Worthington Community by hosting several “Critical Character Conversations” to discuss how character can be maintained and promoted in the Worthington Community.  We have also reached out to the Worthington City Council and The Old Worthington Partnership to look for ways to increase character traits within our community.