Our Approach
The Addressing Basic Conflict Framework
Our programming is grounded in the Addressing Basic Conflict framework, a mediation-based model developed by our founder to translate professional dispute resolution concepts into developmentally appropriate tools for children. The framework draws on principles from law, dispute resolution, education, and communication to create an interdisciplinary approach that is both rigorous and genuinely fun for kids and informative for adults.
Lessons are interactive, engaging, and designed to result in practical tools and usable frameworks that students and educators can apply immediately. Participants learn to recognize different forms of communication, practice active listening, reframe problems as goals, brainstorm options collaboratively, and evaluate choices before acting. These skills strengthen emotional awareness, resilience, empathy, and classroom culture while supporting academic success and long-term social development.
The Foundation
Hands-On Community Learning
Hands-On Community Learning
Inchy and Burt Make Good Choices
Our original picture book, Inchy and Burt Make Good Choices, introduces children to the foundational skill that everything else builds on: learning to pause, find calm, and choose kindness.
Inchy and Burt are lovable, trustworthy characters who show children what it looks like to take a powerful idea and bring it to life. They are the entry point into every lesson—the friends who make it safe to try something new. Children who meet Inchy and Burt do not just learn a concept; they fall in love with the idea that they are capable of making thoughtful choices grounded in kindness, even when things feel hard.
Hands-On Community Learning
Hands-On Community Learning
Hands-On Community Learning
Learn and Grow Together
Our lessons and workshops are not worksheets. They are creative, hands-on experiences where children build, draw, play games, make crafts, and create tools they are proud of and excited to use. Students make their own Inchy characters, build Four Corners posters filled with their own ideas, and design strategies they can take home and share with their families. The work children produce is not just an activity—it becomes a resource they own, created by them, reflecting their own thinking and their own solutions.
What Makes This Different
Hands-On Community Learning
What Makes This Different
Big Skills for Little People
Most programs designed to help children manage conflict focus on behavior management—rules, consequences, and compliance. Our approach is fundamentally different. We focus on teaching the underlying skills that support healthy communication and thoughtful decision-making. We do not tell children what to do. We give them tools and teach them how to think through challenges for themselves.
This work is grounded in professional mediation and negotiation principles—the same frameworks used by attorneys, diplomats, and organizational leaders—translated into language and activities that are developmentally appropriate and genuinely engaging for children. Lessons are built around original characters children love, art-integrated projects they create with their own hands, and interactive experiences that feel like play while building sophisticated skills. The result is programming that children look forward to and skills that adults recognize as lasting.