Gratitude Britain

The Jubilee Centre for Character and Values, focusing on ‘gratitude’ in Britain, will address critical character issues among the British public and capture Sir John Templeton’s interest in character development, particularly in gratitude, service and humility. It will have a physical location: in the School of Education of the University of Birmingham; It will have a Director who will be responsible for shaping the shared strategic agenda, maintaining key relationships with partners and other collaborators and coordinating the activities undertaken on behalf of the Centre; It will have dedicated administrative support together with a Centre Manager/Deputy Director; It will serve as a hub for co-production and co-learning for academics, managers and stakeholders in relation to some issues facing character and values educators and professionals; It will support the professional development of individuals and institutions which seek to expand their awareness, knowledge, and competence in the area of character development; It will have an open program of seminars and workshops open to academics, politicians, professionals and members of the public which will combine policy-salient research on character and values with reflections on practice on the priority areas selected by the Centre’s research team; It will support a series of networks and learning sets for academics, professionals and others with a shared interest in developing particular services in character education and ethics; It will run a series of by-invitation events for broader networks of leading academics and respected public figures from within its partnerships and a wider range of agencies; It will facilitate interactions with national and international agencies with a similar remit around character and values. The Centre will also act as a connecting mechanism, facilitating exchange between academic colleagues in the field; It will be launched 16 May 2012 in the House of Lords.