Character Counts Announces Closure – New Program on the Horizon

Character Counts Mid Shore’s Board of Directors is announcing the closure of the organization, effective December 31, 2020. During the course of the organization’s 23 years, Character Counts Mid Shore provided character education lessons to thousands of PreK – Grade 12 youth throughout Talbot, Caroline, and Dorchester Counties. As the Board of Directors considered the best path forward to serve the community’s youth, it was clear that now is the right moment to close Character Counts Mid Shore’s doors and give way to new comprehensive programming. For All Seasons, a nonprofit serving the mental health needs of the community, is well-positioned to re-envision and deliver evidence-informed programming that develops the necessary skills youth need to become healthy, productive, and resilient members of the Mid-Shore community.

“2020’s unprecedented nature offered our leadership team a unique opportunity to examine Character Counts Mid Shore’s programs,” says Richard Potter, President of Character Counts Mid Shore’s Board of Directors. “We emerged from this period of research, community dialogue, and reflection with a research-backed belief that character education is most effective as one component of a multi-pronged whole-child strategy. In the end, we made the strategic decision to close Character Counts Mid Shore with the understanding that a new program will be developed at our community’s leading mental health organization, For All Seasons.”

Established in 1998, Character Counts Mid Shore was the local affiliate of the national Character Counts! program. The organization’s Winners Walk Tall program has focused on the Six Pillars of Character, which are Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Citizenship, and Caring. Since the organization’s inception, the program remained largely unchanged, even as the challenges facing young people became increasingly more complex. The decision to close Character Counts Mid Shore’s doors paves the path for the development of entirely new, responsive, and uniquely local programming at For All Seasons.

Bill Allen, Supervisor of Caroline County Public School’s Pupil Services and member of Character Counts Mid Shore’s Board shares, “This strategic decision was made knowing that the resulting programming at For All Seasons will be something positive and synergistic for our kids and our community. What a powerful investment for improving the well-being of students… This is an exciting time!”

“Hundreds of leaders in our community have volunteered as Character Coaches over our 23 years,” reflects Lauren Kay Weber, Executive Director. “Their investment of time, energy, passion, and learned wisdom have transformed the lives of our community’s youth. They can never be thanked enough for all they have done to benefit young people and to build future citizens of character.”

The Spy spoke to both Lauren Kay Weber and For All Seasons’ Beth Anne Langrell about these changes last week.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about For All Seasons please go here.