ABOUT
OUR STORY
CULTURE OF RESPECT
BEGAN WITH A SIMPLE IDEA
If we want a world where everyone’s life is valued, we have to learn how to talk to each other, especially when the conversations are difficult.
Today, Culture of Respect is a nonprofit equipping people, organizations, and communities with the skills to stay in those conversations. Our work started in a college classroom, but the need for it has only grown.
CULTURE OF RESPECT
BEGAN WITH A
SIMPLE IDEA
WHERE WE BEGAN
The program grew from a Cornell peer course into a multi-campus academic minor:
PRE-1995
Cornell University
Culture of Respect has its roots in the Peer Education for Human Relations (PEHR) program at Cornell University, an in-person course focused on human relations, identity, and equity, where students explored how systems shape lived experience.
1995
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
In 1995, PEHR educators piloted a new version of the work at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), creating the first real test beyond Cornell and showing how strongly students responded to a facilitated space for identity, equity, and lived experience.
1998
Program Expansion
By 1998, the course was formally approved as an academic minor. After completing the PEHR minor, educator Philip Poczik carried the work forward to Drexel University and later to Union College, helping train hundreds of participants and facilitators.
WHERE WE BEGAN
The program grew from a Cornell peer course into a multi-campus academic minor:
PRE-1995
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Culture of Respect has its roots in the Peer Education for Human Relations (PEHR) program at Cornell University, an in-person course focused on human relations, identity, and equity, where students explored how systems shape lived experience.
1995
HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES
In 1995, PEHR educators piloted a new version of the work at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), creating the first real test beyond Cornell and showing how strongly students responded to a facilitated space for identity, equity, and lived experience.
1998
PROGRAM EXPANSION
By 1998, the course was formally approved as an academic minor. After completing the PEHR minor, educator Philip Poczik carried the work forward to Drexel University and later to Union College, helping train hundreds of participants and facilitators.
WHERE WE BEGAN
The program grew from a Cornell peer course into a multi-campus academic minor:
PRE-1995
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Culture of Respect has its roots in the Peer Education for Human Relations (PEHR) program at Cornell University, an in-person course focused on human relations, identity, and equity, where students explored how systems shape lived experience.
1995
HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES
In 1995, PEHR educators piloted a new version of the work at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), creating the first real test beyond Cornell and showing how strongly students responded to a facilitated space for identity, equity, and lived experience.
1998
PROGRAM EXPANSION
By 1998, the course was formally approved as an academic minor. After completing the PEHR minor, educator Philip Poczik carried the work forward to Drexel University and later to Union College, helping train hundreds of participants and facilitators.
GROWING BEYOND CAMPUS
What started as a course became a proven, human-centered way to talk about identity, power, and lived experience. It also revealed something important: people outside academia were dealing with the same pressure, avoidance, and disconnect around hard conversations.
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Workplaces, schools, nonprofits, and community groups needed the same skills.The work had to grow.
Culture of Respect evolved into a model that could be used in many different settings. The goal stayed the same: help people talk honestly, listen deeply, and stay in the room together.
BECOMING A NONPROFIT
Culture of Respect now operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to this work.
We partner with:
COMPANIES & NONPROFITS
SCHOOLS &
UNIVERSITIES
COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATIONS
& NETWORKS
Programs are offered in-person and virtually, making it possible for teams and communities across the country to learn together wherever they are.
What has remained constant is our purpose: creating safe, structured spaces where people can talk openly about identity, power, and belonging, and develop the skills to keep those conversations going.
IF YOU BELIEVE THIS WORK IS NEEDED
YOU CAN HELP US REACH MORE PEOPLE BY MAKING A DONATION
WHERE WE’RE HEADED
Across the United States, conversations about identity, power, and belonging are becoming more polarized or avoided altogether. Many people feel uncertain about how to speak, or whether to speak at all.
The need for this work is clear.
Culture of Respect exists as a counter movement.
Our story continues wherever people gather with the intention to talk, listen, learn, and move forward together.
WE HELP PEOPLE TO:
Stay in the conversation
instead of shutting down
Listen with focus
and empathy
Understand how systems shape daily life
Act in ways that reflect the belief that each other’s lives matter