Start With Hello

The Start With Hello program empowers students in grades K-12 to recognize loneliness and social isolation in their peers, offering effective strategies to reach out and help, and ways they can grow an empathetic and inclusive community. 

Learn about the Start With Hello program

The program is designed around three goals that are accomplished using the program's framework and reinforced through the program cycle.     

Goals

The three goals of the Start With Hello program are to teach students how to:

  • Recognize loneliness and social isolation in their peers.
  • Help their peers who may be lonely and/or socially isolated.
  • Grow an empathetic and inclusive community.

Program Framework

The goals are accomplished using our three-step program framework:

  1. See Someone Alone: Learn how to recognize social isolation and loneliness.
  2. Reach Out and Help: Learn the benefits of helping peers who are lonely or socially isolated as well as strategies to overcome the challenges. 
  3. Start with Hello: Learn ways to help peers who are lonely and socially isolated as well as help create a more connected and inclusive community.

Program Cycle

The goals and the framework are continually reinforced using our five-stage program cycle.

 

Because every school and youth organization is different, we have designed each stage of the program cycle to be flexible. 

 

All resources needed to implement the program cycle are available for free on our Digital Library and aligned with the social and emotional learning standards developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. To learn more about the program cycle, watch the video below.

 

How Do I Get Started  

Register to access all our program resources at no cost. 

 

Implement the Start With Hello program using our Implementation Guide

THE START WITH HELLO PROGRAM CYCLE

There are five stages to the Start With Hello program cycle.  Each stage provides enough flexibility so that educators and students can implement it themselves.  All of the resources you need are available here on the Learning Center at no cost.

View Program Cycle

8M+

have participated in the Start With Hello program.

4000+

SAVE Promise Clubs have brought Start With Hello to their school or youth organization.

With 70 percent of adolescents experiencing loneliness, the Start With Hello program can help build more connected and inclusive communities. 

Featured Trainings

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Start With Hello 9-12 Training Video

This training video teaches students how to recognize classmates who may be lonely or socially isolated; how to empathize; and ways to reach out and help.  Includes an interactive Student Activity Guide--search for Student Training under Resource Type.

Information about Start With Hello 9-12 Training Video Go to Start With Hello 9-12 Training Video
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Recess on the Moon

Students engage in an interactive storybook located on the moon! The storybook’s narrator and colorful characters explain the three Start With Hello steps during recess in a cosmic location. While on the moon, students practice Seeing Someone Alone, choosing different ways to Reach Out and Help, and implementing their unique Hello Style to help them Start With Hello.

This comes with an Educators Guide for grades K-3 and 4-5.  Find it on our Digital Library by searching for Lessons under Resource Type.

Information about Recess on the Moon Go to Recess on the Moon
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Arts & Crafts

Designed for students in grades K-3, this video showcases animated characters in their classroom working on an arts & crafts project. Viewers watch as one student struggles with feeling excluded from his classmates. The benefits of the 3 Start With Hello steps become obvious to viewers as the situation resolves thanks to a friendly character who decided to just Start With Hello.

Includes a lesson.  Find it on our Digital Library by searching for Lessons under Resource Type.

Information about Arts & Crafts Go to Arts & Crafts
Explore Start With Hello Resources