Of Kindness and Kids

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

I was struck by a remark from President Barack Obama just the other evening. And I found it very relevant to the work we’re doing here at the Humanity Project. In a town hall meeting, the president asked a question: “How do we make sure kids are treated with kindness?”

The Humanity Project is one of the many fine organizations worldwide that work to answer this important question.

The Humanity Project is one of the many fine organizations worldwide that work to answer this important question. Our Anti-bullying Through The Arts program and our website for socially isolated teens at www.thp4kids.com, our Humanity Club program for middle school children … these are among the key ways our Florida-based nonprofit helps kids to teach respect among their peers. The Humanity Project builds an environment in and out of school that offers more kindness, less abuse. We help kids to help other kids stop bullying. We offer special peer-created guidance for LGBT teens at that thp4kids website. We work with middle school student leaders in our Humanity Club to help fellow students understand the importance of diversity, self-value and respect among everyone in the school.

And of course, this translates to an atmosphere of greater understanding … and kindness.

We applaud President Obama’s interest in the future of our children. He has many times shown during his tenure that he cares about creating a nation and a world of healthier kids – young people who are healthier psychologically as well as physically. At the Humanity Project, we will continue to do all we can month in and month out to assist in this profound effort.

We Are Proud Of Them

Posted By  Bob Knotts

Yes, the Humanity Project is proud that two of our older student volunteers have been busy in the community during the past week. One of them was honored with an award. Another visited a school to lend his expertise to other kids. Both of these fine young people have been deeply involved with our acclaimed teen driver safety program, I Care. 

Lat Sunday, Rina Matarasso was honored at a lovely event after being selected as a Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital All Star for helping us advance the I Care program for teens and create an addition to that program for parents. We have worked very closely with Rina for some time now — and she is among the most remarkable students who have assisted the Humanity Project. Congratulations to Rina. And as she heads off to college, we wish her the best of luck!

On Friday, Jarret Voorhies visited Crooms Academy in Sanford, Florida, a magnet school known for issuing laptops to every student. Jarret is a professional race car driver and an extraordinary young man who loves speaking out to help fellow students stop distracted driving. He wrote a section of our booklet for parents of teen drivers and has created a video for the Humanity Project.

We hope to continue working with him in the future. Jarret got a rousing reception from the Crooms students — and gave them an inspiring PowerPoint presentation about the importance of paying attention on the roads.

Our thanks to both these great young folks … and to all the many, many students who allow the Humanity Project to live up to our motto: “Helping kids to help kids!”

I Care 3.0

Posted By  Bob Knotts 

The Humanity Project today announces a major expansion of our acclaimed teen driver safety program, I Care: Just Let Me Drive. We’re only now in the throes of creating important new additions to that part of the program aimed at educating parents of teen drivers. And at least for the moment, we’ve called that expansion I Care 3.0!

Over the next few months, the Humanity Project will be working with both parents and teens to take I Care to the next level. One key to this will be offering live seminars for groups of parents, where we can teach I Care’s important lessons in person — lessons that focus on the central influence parents have in helping their children drive safely. Research has shown consistently that parents are the major role models for their teen drivers, whether the adults know this or not. If kids see their folks texting or eating or checking sports scores while driving, those young drivers are much more likely to do the same. We also will look for new ways to get our core I Care books to more teens and more parents and we’ll explore other opportunities to discourage distracted teen (and parent) driving through I Care. Those books include the teen-created comic book and other fun materials for parents, something we call I Care: Just Help Them Drive.

None of this would be possible without the generous support of State Farm, our very good neighbors indeed. State Farm helped us create I Care from the ground up in 2012, with funding to work with teams of student writers, illustrators and photographers. This public-minded company also has continued to support I Care financially each year since then — funding that includes their latest grant to the Humanity Project.

We’re proud to tell you that State Farm has just given us $15,000 for I Care in 2016 and we are deeply grateful. This will allow us the resources and time to bring I Care to more people in more ways. We also must mention that I Care is supported with grants from our wonderful friends at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and Children’s Services Council of Broward County. These partners help us to help kids … and to help parents to help their kids as well. We are very, very appreciative to each of these fine organizations.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress of I Care 3.0. Please feel free to check out our existing free I Care resources on this website, which you can find by clicking on this link: I Care: Just Let Me Drive. Meanwhile, we want to thank State Farm again for making possible the latest expansion of our I Care program — with a special nod to Jose Soto, State Farm’s amazing Public Affairs Community Specialist for Florida. Jose and his colleagues at State Farm along with our other community partners are making a valuable contribution to society: helping to prevent accidents, injuries and deaths on the highways.