Our History

The roots of the HEAR program extend back to 1973 with the formation of Career Training Concepts, Inc. (CTC), a dedicated team that has amassed 42 years of experience and expertise in providing training, education and personnel services to customers in education, business and the armed services. 

CTC’s first entry into the high school arena came in 1987 with the launch of the Career Direction high school guidance program, which over the past three decades has helped more than five million students across the country explore and pursue post-secondary education opportunities.  Presented in a classroom setting, Career Direction – now Career Direction2 – is an interactive, high-engagement program delivered in schools by the National Guard.

CTC’s work with teachers, guidance counselors and school administrators brought to light the growing problem of bullying in schools.  In early 2012, CTC sought the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in securing world class expertise to create an effective approach to this increasingly harmful epidemic.  The CDC directed the company to research being conducted by the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, who brought in other leading experts at Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Over the course of the next 16 months, these experts on bullying worked with education and training experts at CTC to develop HEAR for High Schools, which was piloted in the spring of 2013.  HEAR for High Schools was revised over the following months, and formally launched to schools by CTC and the National Guard at the beginning of the 2013 school year.  Following the success of HEAR for High Schools, HEAR for Middle Schools was similarly developed, piloted and launched in 2015.