Lifting our school communities takes more than character vocabulary and teaching to a state test. In our pursuit of positive percentages and in the face of insurmountable asks, we often forego the honest conversations we must have with our kids, parents, and - sometimes most challenging - ourselves. Are we prepared to ask of ourselves the same we ask of our kids? Teacher, parents, and students must be provided opportunities to reflect, confront, and strengthen our approaches to the challenges we face every single day. "Connect to Character' (C2C) is a school based social and emotional learning (SEL) program that supports the SEL growth of the three main school community stakeholders: parents, teachers, students in the most densely populated neighbored in Houston. This session will explore the heart (and research) of what is at stake in our classrooms, hallways, and kitchen tables. Participants will learn about the C2C programming model, hear of lessons learned from our front line of school wide implementation, and participate in an SEL (Self-Awareness) activity that seeks to calibrate our perspectives of the social-emotional work. The session will culminate in an honest round table discussion about the state of our collective work and what needs to happen in order to truly uplift and serve our communities.