Serving Our Children & Families

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Thank you, Children’s Services Council of Broward County. Again.

CSC has been a highly valued partner of the Humanity Project for more than 15 years… and counting. That important tax-funded agency has just approved money for our Humanity Club program so that we can bring together more young students and teachers and parents to expand our garden at Pembroke Pines Charter Elementary School in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Last year, you may recall, we built a lovely Humanity Garden at this school. Now we can make it bigger and better, an even more welcoming place for reflection, relaxation and learning about the values of equality and respect-for-all. We’ll hold a community event this winter to do that with our new CSC funds.

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Pics from our 2021-22 Humanity Garden

The mission of Children’s Services Council of Broward County, in their words, “is to provide leadership, advocacy, and resources necessary to enhance the lives of the children of Broward County and empower them to become responsible, productive adults through collaborative planning and funding of a continuum of quality care.” CSC funds more than 100 programs that assist kids and families. They also support kid-friendly and family-friendly policies as well as help bring together those who work toward better lives for children and parents.

We want to make sure to thank Cindy Arenberg Seltzer, President and CEO of Children’s Services Council of Broward County. Her strong staff includes folks such as Dr. Sharetta Remikie, Chief Equity and Community Engagement Officer, and Andrew Leone, Director of Communications and Community Engagement along with too many others to name. We are grateful to each of these dedicated community activists — and to CSC Broward. We can’t do it without you.

For Kids & Community

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Children’s Services Council of Broward County is a special friend of the Humanity Project. Today we thank them again, as so many times in the past. And we remind the community of their important work helping to improve life for kids and families.

CSC Broward is a tax-funded agency that supports programs and offers other assistance to make sure that children grow up to be healthy, educated, well-balanced human beings. What could be more important? Since 2008, Children’s Services Council of Broward County has consistently aided the work of the Humanity Project as we continue to teach kids about respect for each individual, about equality, about bullying and how to stop it. Our programs are proven effective — and we have 16 years of empirical results to show their effectiveness. CSC’s funding is a reflection of our work’s value in the local community.

We recently received another generous grant from Children’s Services Council of Broward County to build a new “Humanity Garden” at an elementary school. The garden project is part of our Humanity Club program, which works with young student leaders to help them understand and spread throughout their school the values of equality and respect. We are proud of this program — and grateful for the continued support from CSC Broward. We know that expanding the minds of children requires efforts that also connect with their hearts. Our Humanity Gardens are one important tool to do just that.

We hope you’ll visit the website of Children’s Services Council of Broward County. They play a vital role in the life of the South Florida community — and in the work of the Humanity Project. Thank you, CSC Broward!

Garden Of Respect

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Doesn't something called a "Garden of Respect" sound like a wonderful place to be? Well, the Humanity Project has created just such a place with lots of help from the kids at Morrow Elementary School ... and vital funding from our friends at Children's Services Council of Broward County. It's a permanent large garden that reminds children daily about the importance -- and the beauty -- of respectful behavior.

The idea came about through our innovative Humanity Club program, where the Humanity Project works with a core group of all-girl student leaders of color. These girls came up with the original design, including a birdbath. With our generous money from Children's Services Council of Broward County, the Humanity Project bought a huge amount of garden plants, decorative items, mulch and more — including that birdbath of course. And rocks. Hundreds of Morrow Elementary students then painted the rocks on the theme of respect and incorporated the decorative rocks into their Garden of Respect.

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Just some of the Respect Rocks painted by the students at Morrow Elementary

Everyone at Morrow is so taken with the garden that the school administrators have expanded the plantings beyond the original concept … and decided to keep adding to the garden in the weeks ahead. Already stretching across much of the front of this school, the Garden of Respect will see additional student-painted rocks and more plants soon.

Take a look for yourself at a few more pics. A lovely enduring example of a partnership among a wonderful school, Children's Services Council of Broward County and the Humanity Project. We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help.

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Teaching Young Hearts Through The Arts

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Morrow Elementary students creating posters about respect-for-all

At Morrow Elementary School, in North Lauderdale, Florida, the Humanity Project is teaching every student what respect for others really means. And the means to that meaning, our tool for teaching, is the arts.

That’s always the key to our acclaimed Humanity Project programs — teaching with play, teaching through the arts. As you see in the collage photo above, our kids this week and last week took part in drawing their own posters focused on respect for every person. Grades K - 5 were involved, from very young children to those just about ready for middle school. That art project is only one of many efforts the Humanity Project is heading up this entire school year at Morrow, even as we visit other schools with our Antibullying Through The Arts program. And continue promoting our I Care program as well, of course.

In the forefront of our work at Morrow is the Humanity Club, nine all-girl student leaders who have been part of our afterschool workshops throughout the school year. These fun but informative sessions taught the girls about respect-for-all, diversity and self-worth. Now our young leaders are helping us bring those ideas to their peers through the art project, through a three-week schoolwide respect contest (first prize: an iPad!) and finally through the construction of a Garden of Respect. (Funding for that garden was provided to the Humanity Project generously by Children’s Services Council of Broward County.)

The Humanity Project believes the best way to reach young hearts, and teach lessons that stick, is through the arts. The results over the nearly 14-year life of our nonprofit suggest that it’s a very good approach indeed.

A Focus On Children

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They are one of the Humanity Project's oldest and most loyal partners. Children's Services Council of Broward County. Just as their logo says, their focus is children. And their work helps thousands of kids all over this part of Florida. 

So today we're here to thank CSC Broward for their efforts -- and their loyalty to the Humanity Project. We recently received funding from Children's Services Council of Broward County for a major community event to be held at a local school this year. We'll tell you more about that as the date approaches. But for now, we should mention that this is the 11th consecutive year that our organization has been given important funding by their organization. We are grateful to CSC Broward, as always. The fine folks who run Children's Services Council of Broward County include their President and CEO, Cindy Arenberg Seltzer along with key staff such as Sandra Bernard-Bastien, Chief Communications Officer, and Andrew Leone, Director of Communications and Community Engagement. And too many others to name even a meaningful fraction of them. They are our friends, our partners and our sponsors. You can find them all and learn more about CSC Broward on their website: www.cscbroward.org

Children's Services Council of Broward County assists a wide variety of South Florida agencies, large and small, established and new. With their funding and other assistance, we all work as a team to improve life for the kids of Broward County, Florida. For that we can only again offer a sincere thank you to everyone at CSC Broward. You are good friends indeed -- to the Humanity Project and, more importantly, to the children of Broward County. 

Our Fund (and Our New Friends)

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

This week we very proudly announce a major new sponsor for the Humanity Project. We welcome Our Fund to the distinguished list of community partners that you’ll find on our Sponsor page. Our Fund is a foundation that connects the LGBT community in South Florida. They support organizations that improve the lives for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Our Fund is a foundation that connects the LGBT community in South Florida. They support organizations that improve the lives of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender: Visit the Our Fund website. That includes a $5,000 grant to the Humanity Project because we have a nationally acclaimed anti-bullying program, a website created by Gay-Straight Alliance students for socially isolated teens … and now the Humanity Club, which works with middle school student leaders to create an environment of respect for every kid on campus, making their school into a place that welcomes diversity.

Our Fund check presentation to new winners - May 2016

This type of work is nothing different for the Humanity Project, of course. What’s different is the partnership with Our Fund under their dynamic new leader, David Jobin. David, along with Our Fund’s Grants Committee and Board of Directors, recognizes that the LGBT community benefits enormously from allies such as the Humanity Project, which deliver programs and foster goals that make the world much more welcoming for all. Take our Anti-bullying Through The Arts program, for instance. LGBT students are disproportionately targets of bullying, suffering in large numbers. Eight years of our pre-post testing shows that the Humanity Project program effectively teaches bystander students to help stop school bullying – thereby also reducing the bullying of LGBT students.

The Humanity Project is very proud that we have stood alongside the LGBT community throughout our nearly 11-year history, with or without funding. If you look back at our blogs or social media over that period, you’ll find many posts about the importance of respect for people of all sexual preferences and identities. Even our PeacePage’s introductory animated video mentions this, something we created several years ago: Visit the PeacePage. We were working with Gay-Straight Alliance students for more than a year before winning a large State Farm grant to complete our website for teens, “The Humanity Project 4 Kids”: Visit The Humanity Project 4 Kids.  To the Humanity Project, LGBT equality is the great human rights issue of this era in American history. We are honored to be part of it.

And just as much, we’re honored by Our Fund’s belief in our role within that fight. The LGBT community foundation now joins our other sponsors, including major sponsors, State Farm and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital … along with Children’s Services Council of Broward County; Google; Barry University; Monarch High School; Dr. David Sharaf and Skin and Cancer Associates and the Center for Cosmetic Enhancement; Blue Gallery and First Impression Printing. We thank them all.

And we know each of these amazing, community-minded organizations will welcome Our Fund to the Humanity Project family, as we do today.