To help cultivate and encourage a welcoming and inclusive learning environment, Catasauqua Middle School is implementing the Start With Hello program for the 2021-22 school year.

Start With Hello is a Sandy Hook Promise program that teaches empathy and empowers students to end social isolation with three steps - see someone alone, reach out and help, and start with hello. Students are taught to recognize the signs of loneliness and isolation among their peers, find out ways to help others feel included and learn ways to strike up conversations.

“This includes playing a proactive role in developing a culture that respects all identities, ideas and ethnicities,” said Amy Dymond-Jones, CMS counselor.

According to the organization’s website, Sandy Hook Promise is a national nonprofit organization led by family members of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School Dec. 14, 2012.

“Our intent is to honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation,” the website states. “By empowering youth to ‘know the signs’ and uniting all people who value the protection of children, we can take meaningful actions in schools, homes and communities to prevent gun violence and stop the tragic loss of life.”

The program has more than 14 million participants and has engaged more than 23,000 schools.

CMS began Start With Hello week Sept. 20 with a number of activities to kick off the new school year.

The first step was ensuring students felt welcomed as soon as they arrived at school. According to Dymond-Jones, several students helped chalk the walkway out front of the school with positive and welcoming statements, including a few greetings in different languages.

Students got to meet their classmates Monday and held conversations with each other in their homerooms. This included a scavenger hunt activity where students were tasked with finding out fun things about their peers, such as finding someone who speaks a different language and someone born in a different country.

Tuesday was classroom connections day. Fifth-grade classes were matched with seventh-grade classrooms, and sixth-grade rooms were paired with eighth-grade rooms. These virtual meetings featured lively conversations and allowed the students to make connections with students in other classes.

Students explored ice breakers and conversation starters Wednesday. Students were also asked to wear apparel featuring something they enjoyed, such as their favorite team, super hero, color, etc. These helped give the students things to talk about.

Self-affirmations were the theme of Thursday. Students were asked to take a photo and write an affirmation about themselves.

After working on loving and complimenting themselves, the next day was about loving and complimenting others. Feel Good Friday saw students receiving personalized notes from teachers or staff detailing something positive about the student. Students then got to write a compliment about one of their classmates.

According to Dymond-Jones, they will continue with this exercise throughout the year. By the end, students will have written a compliment about each of their peers. These notes will be put together so the students can look back and see the nice things their classmates have said about them.

There will be continued programming throughout the year to ensure the students feel connected and included in the school community.