At Seeds of Caring, we believe all children have the power to make our community a kinder, more connected place to live. Our Kindness Corps program invites 2nd-4th grade student to use their hearts, hands, and minds to reflect and take action on a variety of community needs.
Through highly interactive lessons, children develop a sense of purpose, grow in empathy, and experience increased self-efficacy as they work together on service projects benefiting local nonprofits. Kindness Corps is a ready-to-implement program that equips your staff with everything needed—supplies, curriculum, and training—to lead six impactful community service projects at no cost to schools eligible for school-wide Title I programs.
In the 2025-2026 school year we are offering the program in the Columbus, OH area with a limited invitation-only pilot occurring in the Indianapolis, IN area. If you have an entire grade level of students interested in participating in Indianapolis, please reach out to sarah@seedsofcaring.org to have a conversation about our pilot.
Yes, please contact us for details of alignment in your state.
Each lesson has a video from Seeds of Caring introducing the community need, a game to practice social emotional skills, a book, and a hands-on project to either keep or donate to a local non-profit partner.
Approximately 60-90 minutes total, but the lessons can be broken into smaller components over several sessions if preferred.
The program is designed to complete one lesson each month for six months, though some groups choose to complete them in a shorter time span, and that’s fine too!
Yes. Contact Sarah Jorgenson, at sarah@seedsofcaring.org
The program begins in November each year. At this time, we do not have the capacity to start schools in the middle of the year.
We offer an online training session for educators in October to learn about the program.
Our curriculum is highly detailed and we believe educators benefit a great deal from the opportunity to work through the materials with our staff. For that reason, educator training is mandatory for schools that receive our program for free.
If a school purchases the program we will not require the educator training, but it is still highly recommended that educators take advantage of the training sessions.
Spring: Sites register for the program
August: Seeds of Caring begins preparing your supplies
October: Educator training and supply distribution
November: Program begins, with educators completing approximately one lesson per month with students
May/early June: Donations are delivered to Seeds of Caring by educators then transported to our non-profit partners by Seeds of Caring staff
The Kindness Corps is for schools with students in 2nd, 3rd or 4th grade. Kindness Corps can be led by classroom teachers, counselors, social workers, administrators and typically takes place during the school day. 2nd grade through 4th grade. This program has the strongest outcomes as an entire grade level experience. We strongly recommend you share this program with other same grade level teachers at your school to create a memorable experience that all students in your school will get to participate in. We do not change the lessons drastically from year after year, so if a student completes the program in 3rd grade and then does it again in 4th, it will be essentially the same material.
While schools that are not eligible for Title I Schoolwide programs may participate in Kindness Corps, at a cost, the program is free to schools that are eligible for a Title I Schoolwide programs.
Our program is free for schools that are eligible for a Title I Schoolwide Program. You may need to check with your administration or district for this information.
For all other schools, we have a per student fee of $20 for the program. Take a look at this page that shows the value of working with Seeds of Caring and this page that shares some ideas on how to cover that per student cost.