​Established in 1996, Roots of Empathy (ROE) is an award-winning, evidence based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among school children while raising social/emotional awareness and increasing empathy.

At the heart of the program are a community infant and parent who visit the classroom nine times during the school year.  Together, with a trained ROE instructor, the students observe the baby's development and learn to recognize the baby's feelings.   

The focus of ROE in the long term is to build the capacity of the next generation for responsible citizenship and responsive parenting using the baby as the "Teacher".