When Should My School Hold Its 21 Day Kindness Challenge?

We often get the question, "When should I hold my school's 21 Day Kindness Challenge?"

​We say, "Really, whenever it works best for your school!"

The Kindness Challenge is designed to fit within your school's schedule.  You and your student leaders decide when will be the best time to hold your school's 21 Day Kindness Challenge.  That said, we do suggest you consider a few factors that may come in to play.  Here are some of our suggestions for optimal planning:

• The 21 Day Kindness Challenge works best when it can be held over 21 consecutive school days. We recommend scheduling your Kindness Challenge so that it won't be interrupted by any lengthy breaks or holidays.

• Some schools have tied their 21 Day Kindness Challenge to other school events or celebrations. For example, some schools plan their Kindness Challenge to correspond with Back to School night in the Fall or Open House in the Spring so that they can showcase their school's efforts to the entire community.  Other schools have found that February is a fun month to celebrate Kindness in correlation with Valentine's Day.  One school held their Kindness Challenge in late October/early November and celebrated by giving thanks for kindness.  

• We recommend scheduling your 21 Day Kindness Challenge separate from your school's state testing dates.  That said, depending on when your school holds their testing window, you could kick-off your 21 Day Kindness Challenge immediately following testing.  For many students and teachers, testing is a challenging and difficult time. Studies have shown that acts of kindness can reduce the effects of stress.  The 21 Day Kindness Challenge is a way to release some of that anxiety by doing kind acts for others!

• The 21 Day Kindness Challenge provides all the materials, support, curriculum, and training you need to run a successful Kindness Challenge on your campus.  You should know that there is a 3-week planning process (1-2 hours planning/week max!) in advance of your actual Kick-Off date so it's good to give yourself a little cushion for planning and prep.  During this time you are recruiting kindness leaders from within your student body and helping them plan and launch the 21 Day Kindness Challenge.

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For more thoughts on planning, or for more information about how to bring the 21 Day Kindness Challenge to your school, please join us for our LIVE Q&A  session.  We meet the second Tuesday of every month from 9:00 to 9:30 a.m. PST.  The 21 Day Kindness Challenge team is available to answer all your questions and help get you started on making a change on your school culture!  More information is also available on our website or by watching our Webinar.  In just 24 minutes, we explain all about the 21 Day Kindness Challenge.

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