Our Vision

Started in 1993, CBK Associates works at the intersections of social and emotional learning, youth-adult partnerships, leadership, and service learning for change. We put equity, justice and inclusion at the center of our work. We bring schools into community and vice versa.

We prize collaboration and seek out partners near at hand and across the globe. We facilitate conversations about the nitty gritty of what is required to begin and sustain a new program to theories about organizational development. We build relationships that last.

We believe that we learn best when we are engaged, adults and students alike. Whether presenting a keynote address to a room filled with educators or a half-day workshop with 100 middle-schoolers, our approach is the same: Looking for innovative ideas and strategies, then customizing them to the needs of our partners.

With 75 years of combined experience, from Singapore to North Carolina, we have built and learned a lot.

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UPCOMING | NEWS

NOVEMBER SPECIAL!! Join our NEW online course Dynamic Curriculum Design for Service Learning. Developed by Cathryn Berger Kaye, the course combines asynchronous and synchronous sessions. Always practical, benefiting classroom educators and coordinators. Inspire and enliven education for all ages! $450 — signup now for November! Email for January start date.

Join our yearlong Service Learning and Community Engagement Specialist Program! This personalized program is a bespoke blend of courses, coaching and community. Email info@cbkassociates.com to schedule an info call. Flexible, valuable, centered on YOU!

CBK Associates on the road

LeeAnne Lavender is currently consulting in South Africa. Cathryn is heading to Geneva, Switzerland. Shei Ascencio is arriving in Baku, Azerbaijan and will next be in Hanoi along with Erin Threlfall for a Happiness conference. Contact us to plan a consulting visit for this school year to advance in Service Learning, Social and Emotional Development and Intercultural Understanding.

Looking Ahead …. Cathryn returns to Asia in February 2025. Find her in Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Email info@cbkassociates.com for details.

February 14-16 in Hong Kong: The AAE and Bauhinia Experiential Learning Asia-Pacific Region Conference has five streams for learning. Cathryn leads Service Learning on Saturday and Sunday with a keynote and 7+ hours of a service learning intensive. Enrolling by October 31 guarantees a $200 US conference fee. 

February 8-9 in Singapore: Hong Kong: Join Cathryn at Nexus International School for Service Learning: NEXT LEVEL , with advanced content during this weekend workshop. Email info@cbkassociates.com for details and to register.

Register for “Becoming a Digital Storyteller,“ a 4-week online course designed by educational coach and facilitator LeeAnne Lavender to add another dimension to your service learning experiences and to fuel advocacy as a form of action!

We are coaches, virtual PD providers, and we are glad to come to your school or conference for onsite professional development experiences!

New Book Alerts! The second editions of two books co-authored by Cathryn Berger Kaye and environmental advocate Philippe Cousteau are now released! Going Blue and Make A Splash available now!

Congratulations Maureen Connolly and Jonathan R Davis on their Building Your Teaching Toolbox series: Creating Positive Classroom Climate: 30 Practical Strategies for All School Contexts.

For more info, contact info@cbkassociates.com

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Our Work

Our work takes many forms. Some know us best for our conference keynotes and presentations, our customized multi-day institutes and workshops. Participants in these professional development opportunities, we wager, exceed 60,000 globally.

Others know us for our consulting collaborations. Our partners include individual schools and school districts, international schools, organizations, and more.

Finally, many know us as curriculum developers, bringing learning to life through research-based, innovative approaches that engage students in 21st century skills, from social-emotional development to service learning. We have worked in schools that engage all grade levels, large and small, urban and rural.

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If there is only one professional development event that you are able to attend for the rest of your career, then it must be one delivered by the remarkable Cathy Berger Kaye. Regardless of the specific focus of her workshop, you will be inspired to read more, to encourage students to read more; you will be inspired to become engaged in the issues that we face as humans on this planet; you will remember why you became a teacher. Your classes will never be the same.

– Werner Paetzold, Chadwick International School, Seoul

Our Reach

When CBK Associates began, our collaborations were largely based in the United States. In 2007 we started working globally, eventually across five continents. Rather than seek out locations and partners for our programs, our work has flowed the other way around: through invitations from organizations, schools, governmental bodies, and more that have sought our ideas and advice. These collaborations have led us from the Cherokee Nation and West Hollywood to International Schools in Johannesburg, Warsaw, Tallinn, Zagreb, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Singapore, Manila.

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Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. – William Butler Yeats

The appetite for engaged teaching and learning, we have learned, is worldwide. We have worked in 47 countries and reached

Our Consulting

As consultants, we begin with the particular history and priorities of our clients. Our aim, though, is always the same: to bring forth ideas that improve opportunities and possibilities for all students, providing teachers and other adults the supports they need to transform ideas into action. 

Whether in-person or virtual, the best consulting, we have learned, includes two ingredients. The first is a partnership based on mutual respect and a collaborative spirit. The second views schools and organizations as ecosystems—interconnected networks that grow, contract, and evolve in response to changing needs and aspirations. 

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Being open to new ideas…new ways of doing things…new ways of thinking…new opportunities. These are the mindsets we seek to cultivate in those we support — from education and community leaders to teachers to students. 

Coaching and mentoring are integral to our relationships. Taking on new roles and approaches is hard work.