Stories From The LGBTQ Community - an event

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The Humanity Project is co-hosting a big event on Sunday, November 14. If you’re in South Florida we hope you’ll join us and our friends from SAVE, co-hosts for “Open Dialogues: Stories from the LGBTQ community.” It will be a special night.

You’ll enjoy an evening of arts and a short documentary that features coming out stories from South Florida, a powerful film you probably won’t have seen anywhere else. The documentary was produced by the Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, in Hollywood, Florida, and directed by Freddy Rodriguez. (Watch a 90-second trailer of the film.) A discussion will follow the film — and then we’ll offer short theater pieces by members of Lesbian Thespians as well as vocal performances. The event is free but donations are welcome. Drinks and snacks will be available for purchase as well. Consistent with many other local theaters, we request that all guests are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (at least two weeks after final dose) and provide proof of vaccination; i.e. original vaccination card, copy of vaccination card, or picture of vaccination card. Masks are required to be worn, covering the mouth and nose, while inside the theater at all times regardless of vaccination status.

The event will coincide with the Humanity Project’s 16th birthday: we were founded on November 5, 2005. Our friends at SAVE have been around even longer, the oldest LGBTQ advocacy organization in South Florida. You can follow our Facebook event page, if you like: Follow us on Facebook. Or you can register for free on Eventbrite to make sure you reserve seats: Our Eventbrite page. Both the Humanity Project and SAVE believe in equality and respect for all human beings. That’s the theme of our November event — and we think you’ll find it both hopeful and inspiring. Join us.

• Sunday, November 14, 6 — 8 p.m. at The Foundry at Wilton Theater Factory, 2306 North Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors, FL 33305

• Free, but donations are welcomed (and will be evenly split between the Humanity Project and SAVE)

Carrying Us Through COVID

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When the COVID-19 crisis began, so did The Great Lockdown. This social isolation instantly made survival a challenge for many individuals, businesses — and nonprofits, including the Humanity Project. Enter Our Fund Foundation. Within days their amazing CEO, David Jobin, had reached out with vital questions to all the agencies they fund: What can we do to help? What do you need most?

Our Fund Foundation supports agencies that work to improve life for the LGBTQ community, with the Humanity Project among them. Of course what we needed was no different than most of those other nonprofits: funding to get through the lockdown.

Not long after, the Humanity Project received word that Our Fund had created a Resilience Fund of $150,000, looking for a donor match of that amount or more. As it turned out the always generous LGBTQ community and allies quickly came through. And the Humanity Project received a check for $5,000 to help us survive the crisis.

We can’t thank Our Fund Foundation enough, along with David Jobin and his great team. They wisely delivered this much-needed funding to us and the other nonprofits with a minimum of conditions or paperwork. Just use the money as needed, they told everyone. We can assure you, that’s just what we’re doing.

We hope you’ll take just a few minutes to watch this lovely brief video that Our Fund Foundation put together to thank those who donated to the Resilience Fund. Like Our Fund itself, these individuals made an important difference. And we are grateful, very grateful. Watch the Our Fund Foundation Resilience Fund video.

Kids Speak For Themselves

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A very brief blog to suggest you spend just two minutes doing something else — watching our new video. It shows young girls offering their honest, unscripted, unprompted opinions of our Humanity Club after being in that Humanity Project program for one full year. Check it out! It’s sure to make you smile … and show you more of what the Humanity Project really does.

This video offers honest and unrehearsed comments from kids who were part of our year-long 2018 to 2019 Humanity Club for all-girl student leaders. We conducted the program at the wonderful Morrow Elementary School in North Lauderdale, Florida, with hand-picked leaders to promote gender equality and spread the concept of respect throughout the school.

A Great Partner: Our Fund

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It’s no secret. Money is the lifeblood of any nonprofit. We wish it weren’t so — but it is. Without money, the Humanity Project can’t work with kids, parents and other adults to inspire respect for the equal value of individuals and the unique value of humanity. We can’t provide our acclaimed antibullying program or our innovative Humanity Club. Our Fund understands this — and recently awarded the Humanity Project and 20 other fine nonprofits generous funding to continue our work.

We are deeply grateful to everyone at Our Fund, including the Board of Directors, the Grant Committee, and the great staff that includes Mark Blaylock and Obed Caballero. But we especially must thank Our Fund’s amazing CEO, David Jobin, who is an admired friend among the South Florida LGBTQ community and beyond. David works tirelessly to make this the most livable place in the United States for the LGBTQ population … and thereby, more enjoyable, more diverse and yes more livable for everyone. Our Fund is the third largest LGBTQ foundation in the country and we thank them for this important recent $10,000 in funding for the Humanity Project’s work.

So let us finish up this online acknowledgement and thank you by showing you something we believe you’ll like. This is a new 2-minute video we recently uploaded to the Humanity Project YouTube channel. It shows unscripted honest thoughts about our Humanity Club by a few of the girls who took part in the program at Morrow Elementary School in North Lauderdale, Florida from September 2018 through June 2019. These girls are future leaders who learned through the Humanity Club about the importance of respect for every human being, regardless of who that person loves, how they dress or anything else. They in turn helped their entire school understand these same lessons … and now will take their knowledge with them to spread among their peers in future years. This is how a community achieves equality. It should make you smile. And should make you appreciate the support of Our Fund all the more. That’s certainly our reaction here at the Humanity Project.

Thank you, Our Fund!! Here’s that video: Watch the new Humanity Project YouTube video!

Goodstock

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You know about Woodstock, of course. Let us introduce you to Goodstock!

Exactly 50 years after the original three-day celebration of peace, love and music in the New York State countryside, the Humanity Project will hold our own festival in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s also a celebration of peace, love, music — and respect for every human being as well as humanity itself. We’re calling it, “Goodstock.” Or to be precise, “The Humanity Project Presents Goodstock.” The event begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 18, serving as an important fundraiser for our acclaimed free programs. If you’ll be in South Florida then, or can make your way here, please join us!

We’ve already got many bands lined up, offering a diverse assortment of musical styles. With more acts coming on board all the time. The cost will be $24 in advance, which is the same price charged for a three-day ticket to the original Woodstock festival in August 1969. We’ll be setting up a page on Eventbrite soon for you to grab your Goodstock tickets. At the door, guests will pay $30. But whether you buy in advance or day-of, you’ll also get a free drink at the delightful Kelly Brothers Irish Pub, which hosts live music regularly on their stage. They are putting on Goodstock at no charge … and we’re deeply appreciative. (Visit the Kelly Brothers website.) Plus, you’ll be able to buy a t-shirt with our cool Goodstock logo, which you see above.

We anticipate a big turnout, with lots of excellent music and warm relaxed fellowship. As one of our Humanity Project organizers for Goodstock wrote in a social media post, “This is going to be epic!” Thanks, David (and Laura, who sits on our Board of Directors). We’re pretty sure you’re right.

Or maybe we should just say, “Right on!”

Yay For Loud Sisters!

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They call it, “Loud Sisters.” We call it … cool!

And we are thrilled to announce a new partnership with this wonderful company, which donates a hefty percentage of sales dollars to charity. Nonprofits that, yes, now include the Humanity Project.

See that design in the pic above? That’s the first original design to benefit us. It’s now available on a wide range of shirts through the Loud Sisters Shop: Click here for the Loud Sisters stardust page. You also can learn more about Loud Sisters and find their many other designs on both Facebook (click to visit the Loud Sisters Facebook page) and Instagram (click to visit the Loud Sisters Instagram page).

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How cool is that? An awesome reminder that everyone is, well, awesome!

Molly Seabrook is the creative and socially conscious entrepreneur who founded and runs Loud Sisters — an amazing woman of many talents who has lived all over the world, including China and Australia. Now based in North Carolina, Molly and her company put out inspiring original designs that promote equal rights. Gender equality is a special concern of Loud Sisters, as it is here at the Humanity Project. Also notice the rainbow cleverly worked into the Loud Sisters stardust design, a nod to the LGBTQ community that the Humanity Project supports actively. We think Loud Sisters and the Humanity Project are a natural partnership. One more thing worth knowing about the new Loud Sisters design above, “We are all stardust inside.” It’s based on an original color illustration created by one member of the Humanity Project’s all-girl student leader team, the Humanity Club. So we must offer a shoutout to Alexis, a very bright 5th grade student who came up with the concept. Our Humanity Club program teaches children that every human being is made mostly of stardust, something science knows to be true. Elements in our bodies such as carbon, iron and oxygen can’t be made any other way than during the extreme process of fusion within stars. That fact inspires children to understand every human being is equally valuable.

And now it’s also inspired Loud Sisters to help the Humanity Project help more kids by providing much-needed new funding. A big thank you to Molly and Loud Sisters! We are very grateful …

Our Fund: A Cause For Hope

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Some hope is much needed at the moment. Many days the world can appear in utter chaos. And here at home our nation struggles with deep political divisions: we witness attacks on LGBTQ rights, we watch authorities separating children from immigrant parents, we hear politicians raising serious doubts about news accounts that are highly accurate. And much more. It's easy to wonder if there are as many good people as in the past, the folks who are truly focused on making our society more compassionate and just. 

There are. That's the good news -- and yes, you can believe us.

A case in point is the amazing LGBTQ community foundation, Our Fund. This fine organization works daily to get adequate funding for important causes that benefit the LGBTQ community. These causes include the Humanity Project. Our Antibullying Through The Arts and Humanity Club programs directly help LGBTQ youth by preventing bullying in and out of school. You see, LGBTQ youth are disproportionately bullied, far more as a group than most other populations of kids. And this emotional and physical violence has an enormous effect on those children later in life, as studies repeatedly have shown. 

Our Fund's great CEO, David Jobin, and his talented team are working with the Humanity Project to help change this situation, improving life for many LGBTQ youth. Indeed Our Fund is among the Humanity Project's major sponsors and just renewed its commitment to our kids through a generous new grant. We are deeply grateful! Because we cooperate so closely with Our Fund we know how dedicated this community foundation is to causes that matter, finding significant financial support for those causes from people who care about a better world. We are, as always, honored to be part of the Our Fund family -- a remarkable group of agencies, staffers, volunteers and philanthropists. We hope you may consider joining all of us. Our Fund is, truly, a cause for hope. 

"Humanity Project Goes Hollywood!"

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Looking For Our Closeup

The Humanity Project has gone Hollywood ... Well, let's say "Hollywood," as in kinda sorta. The truth is we created a new video that's just like a polished Hollywood-style trailer you'd see at the movies. In a clever way, it advertises the Humanity Project's work and our three core values that are part of every program we offer: respect, diversity, self-worth. Click on the linked pic just below to check it out. 

We've also posted another cool video on our YouTube channel, which you can find here: 

More and more folks are getting lots of their information and entertainment from videos. The trend seems to be accelerating. So the Humanity Project is embracing this new reality by stepping up our game. As you can see on our YouTube channel, or the Videos page here on our website, we've always gone big for videos. They can communicate with new audiences in new ways. But now -- oh definitely, you can expect to find more videos by us in the coming months, smart and engaging pieces that take our positive message to even higher heights. 

Respect, Pride and Beyond

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The Humanity Project at Westwood Heights Elementary as our Anti-bullying Through The Arts program begins ...

The Humanity Project is tackling the largest, most ambitious campaign in our 12-year history. And we've already begun ... Through at least the full 2017-18 school year, and perhaps longer, our nonprofit will work intensively at Westwood Heights Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In the very recent past, Westwood Heights was an F-grade school, rising now to a C-grade school through the efforts of their amazing principal, Jodi Washington, and her fine staff. But Mrs. Washington tells us much remains to be done in the school and in the neighborhood. 

Bullying is a major problem, affecting many students including LGBTQ children and others who may stand out as potential targets of hostility. Most of the school's kids struggle with inadequate food when not in school for free meals. Even school supplies such as backpacks are scarce. And the surrounding neighborhood is impoverished, rundown and struggling with crime and other problems. The school itself is sometimes a victim of these crimes. The Humanity Project hopes to change things. 

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The Humanity Project delivers 315 backpacks to Westwood Heights Elementary, August 24, 2017 

We began by arranging a major donation of nearly 400 backpacks. More than 300 of these came from a generous contribution by our friends at Costco, others came through Trinity Lutheran Church, the New River Orchestra and members of the Humanity Project Board of Directors and Leadership Council. So far this year, every child who's needed a backpack has received one. Then we presented our acclaimed Anti-bullying Through The Arts program to the entire student population, grades K - 5. It went well. Next week, we begin our Humanity Club at Westwood Heights, teaching several handpicked all-girl student leaders about our Humanity Project core values of respect, diversity and self-worth ... then helping them create and present their own program about these values to the entire school. Every student will be asked to sign a pledge to treat all other students with respect for the full academic year, in and out of school. We'll follow up with contests, games, art projects, a planned Garden of Respect and much more. 

This is where our campaign will far exceed any previous work by the Humanity Project: We plan to hold parent workshops to teach good parenting skills and involve parents in their child's education. We will also approach local community leaders, including gang members, to bring them into our efforts with the goal of making Westwood Heights a focal point of neighborhood pride. We'll need lots of help from everyone at Westwood Heights and our South Florida friends, including additional funding from sponsors. As always, our programs are free to the schools. But we're already fortunate to have partners such as Our Fund, Lucky's Market, New River Orchestra, Children's Services Council of Broward County and others helping us in this sweeping project. As the year goes along, we'll keep you updated on our progress. And of course, we'll continue providing our anti-bullying, Humanity Club and unique I Care teen driver safety programs to the community at the same time. All for free. 

As we said, it's an ambitious campaign. But we are confident that with lots of committed assistance by our friends and colleagues, we can make a significant difference in both this school and in this community.