Project Cornerstone at Blossom Hill
At Blossom Hill Elementary, we are committed to creating a vibrant, safe, and inclusive school environment where every student feels valued, respected, and known.
To help support this goal, the Blossom Hill Home & School Club (HSC) proudly sponsors our partnership with YMCA Project Cornerstone, a premier Silicon Valley community initiative. Using a research-based framework, Project Cornerstone helps students build positive character traits, strengthen social-emotional skills, and contribute to a school-wide culture rooted in kindness, empathy, and respect.
What Project Cornerstone Means for Our Students
Project Cornerstone gives students, families, teachers, and staff a shared vocabulary for kindness, connection, and emotional resilience. Through monthly lessons and activities, students learn how to:
- 🎒 Identify “UPstanders”: Learn how to safely stand up for themselves and others rather than simply being a bystander.
- 🔋 Fill a “Bucket”: Practice “bucket-filling” through acts of kindness and positive words while recognizing the impact of “bucket-dipping,” or unkind behavior.
- ⚓ Find Their “Caring Adults”: Recognize the network of supportive adults around them, including teachers, staff, family members, and parent volunteers.
By reinforcing these ideas throughout everyday campus life, Project Cornerstone helps ensure that Blossom Hill Elementary is not only a place where students grow academically, but also a community where they can develop into kind, confident, and compassionate individuals.
What is Project Cornerstone?
Project Cornerstone is a beloved, community-building program at Blossom Hill Elementary focused on social-emotional learning (SEL). Run entirely by dedicated parent volunteers, this program helps create a vibrant school climate where every student feels valued, respected, safe, and connected.
Project Cornerstone’s curriculum is built on the Search Institute’s “40 Developmental Assets”—the essential building blocks (such as positive values, social competencies, and positive identity) that children need to grow into thriving, resilient, and responsible adults.
By embedding these core concepts into daily life at Blossom Hill HSC, we give our students a shared, campus-wide vocabulary. Our students learn exactly how to name their feelings, peacefully resolve conflicts, build healthy friendships, and confidently act as UPstanders against bullying or exclusionary behavior.
Once a month, parent volunteers called “Asset Building Champions” (ABC Leads) step into our classrooms to read carefully selected children’s books. Each story explores critical life lessons like empathy, honesty, handling bullying, standing up for others, and building strong friendships.
Following the story, volunteers lead the class in open discussions and a fun, hands-on activity or craft that reinforces the lesson.
Volunteer: Become an ABC Reader
- The Commitment: ABC Readers typically volunteer about 2 to 3 hours each month. This includes a brief monthly preparation meeting to review the featured book and activities, followed by a classroom reading and discussion session.
- Everything You Need Is Provided: No teaching experience is required. YMCA Project Cornerstone provides the lesson plans, discussion prompts, books, and supporting materials needed to guide each session.
- Make a Meaningful Connection: Whether you are a parent, grandparent, guardian, or other caring adult, volunteering as an ABC Reader is a rewarding way to spend time in the classroom and make a positive impact on Blossom Hill students.
Interested in becoming an ABC Reader? Please email our Project Cornerstone Lead at projectcornerstone@blossomhill.org.