blogs about humanity

Our 20th Year

Yesterday, November 3 2024, the Humanity Project turned 19-years-old. And today, we begin our 20th year serving the community. We are proud of that. Let us give you a very abbreviated history as we look forward to expanding and celebrating in the consequential 12 months ahead:

  • Incorporated in Florida on November 3, 2005.

  • Began Humanity Project Podcast in March 2006.

  • Won IRS federal tax exemption in September 2006.

  • Organized and led the nation’s first mass children’s march against bullying: November 2008.

  • Began Antibullying Through The Arts program in March 2009.

  • Created original antibullying books given free to all teachers in schools that received our antibullying program: Summer 2010.

  • Antibullying book and other program materials given free to schools nationwide after Time Magazine for Kids published an article celebrating the Humanity Project: October 2010.

  • Created I Care program to teach respectful driving to teens and parents: February - June 2012.

  • Created thp4kids.com website for LGBTQ teens and other youth seeking guidance and self-worth: October 2012 - May 2013.

  • Created new materials for the I Care program, including a new component for parents: I Care: Just Help Them Drive: 2013-2016.

  • Created Humanity Club as a live version of the thp4kids.com website, teaching middle school student leaders to create an atmosphere where all students feel valued and welcome: Fall 2015 - Spring 2016.

  • Received federally registered trademark for the name, “The Humanity Project”: February 2018.

  • Expanded Humanity Club to elementary schools: Fall 2018.

  • Created “Humanity Gardens” at schools, libraries and parks: Spring 2019 - present.

  • Revised mission statement and wrote new trademarked logo: “Equality for each, respect for all”: Summer 2019.

  • Held “Goodstock,” an all-day fundraising concert with multiple bands and dancers on the 50th anniversary of Woodstock: August 2019.

  • Organized and led virtual library meetings that brought together diverse segments of the community during the pandemic to seek mutual understanding: Fall 2020 - Spring 2021.

  • Expanded Humanity Club to more schools: Fall 2022 - present.

  • Organized and led effort to rename Oakwood Park as “Humanity Park”: Fall 2022 - Spring 2024.

  • Won renaming of “Humanity Park” in collaboration with Hollywood LGBTQ Council: May 2024.

Humanity Project Board of Directors at Humanity Park

The list above is just a small fraction of our achievements in the past 19 years. During that time we have taught the value of self-worth, equality and respect-for-all to tens of thousands of students from grades K - 12. And even to some groups of college students. We have reduced traffic crashes and prevented injuries and perhaps even some deaths thanks to our unique I Care program, sponsored by State Farm. We have created numerous original and innovative videos, musical works, blogs, podcasts, fables and other writings, sharing them worldwide at no cost through our sponsor, Google. We have carried our uplifting ideas to local audiences through live talks and to more than 11,000 followers around the globe through our social media on Instagram, Facebook, X, Threads and Tumblr. And more, much more.

We hope you take pride in supporting the Humanity Project, an organization dedicated to spreading a positive message about the goodness and inherent value of every human being. And as we begin our 20th year, we thank you for that vital support, whether it comes through donations or volunteer work or simply by following us here and on the internet. We believe in you. We are grateful that you also believe in us.

Hope For A Better Future

Many of us worry about our troubled world. As adults, we look around and fret, confronted by obstacles along humanity’s path that often appear overwhelming. The climate has changed undeniably in frightening ways. Right wing dictators and hope-to-be despots have sprouted in the United States as well as in many other nations. News reports are pocked with violent images, day after week after month. Political ideologies divide neighbors, friends and families. Where can we look for hope?

At the Humanity Project, we find hope for the future in drawings like the one above — a lovely painting created for our Humanity Club by a fifth grade student in a public school. And we discover hope in our discussions with children these days: their eagerness to help others, their refusal to succumb to racist stereotypes, their openness to new ideas, their belief that the decades ahead can be better than the decades into which they were born.

You may have heard similarly hopeful comments from others who work with today’s children. The kids truly are different than we were in significant respects, perhaps in part because many have been forced to grow up so much faster than the children of our early years. The internet and social media, school gun violence, parenting styles and more surely have contributed to the greater maturity of modern kids. They tend to be much more informed about things such as sexuality and drugs, politics and race. Young people also are taken much more seriously than during our childhood, some of them seizing opportunities to influence national and international affairs. Think of Malala on education equality, for instance, or Greta on climate challenges. We read about important innovations and inventions by middle school students. That kind of impact was virtually unattainable to the youth of previous eras.

So yes, we find hope in our kids. Not because they are young but because they are aware and determined. Many many of them want to be part of the solutions to our problems — we see this attitude all the time among our Humanity Club kids. We look at their enthusiasm, we listen to their wisdom. And we are inspired — and hopeful. For one more example from our Humanity Project students, check out the short poem below by an elementary school student. Maybe it can help some of us to worry less than we do about the future. The kids of our world? Hey, they’ve got this.

Humanity Club

See that photo, a fifth grade student helping a younger child? This is one example of the Humanity Project’s acclaimed “Humanity Club” program. And so we offer you this latest peek into the program as a way of saying “Thank you” to every person and organization that supports the Humanity Project in any way. You make it possible for us to give away this program for free to schools in our community.

Humanity Club is about inspiring feelings of confidence and self-worth in youngsters. We handpick fifth grade student leaders, then help them to recognize their own value and the value they can share with others. This is accomplished through discussions, stories, videos, music, games, roleplaying and more. Once our kids have a firm grasp of their own worth, they find ways to teach younger kids at their school about self-worth as well as equality and respect for all human beings. We’ve been offering this program for more than 12 years now — and it works. You don’t have to believe us about the Humanity Club’s success. Just check out some of our many testimonials. As one school principal wrote to us: “Students have learned how to identify bullying, how to prevent bullying, and how to build positive relationships through interactive events led by the Humanity Club student leaders. Since the induction of the program, we have seen a reduction in behavioral incidents, particularly in 4th and 5th grades, by 47%.” We call that measurable success. And, again, it’s possible only through your support for the Humanity Project — whether that’s through direct donations, volunteering, sponsoring a child or simply following us on social media. It all helps. “Equality for each, respect for all.” That’s the Humanity Project.

An Inspiring Example

We want to offer a big Humanity Project “thank you” to our new friends in Toronto, Canada — Wow Digital Inc. In a recent Instagram post on their popular IG page, Wow Digital created a lovely (and unsolicited) nine-page post about our organization. We’ve reposted and also sent the link to some friends. The response has been very positive indeed.

This is just part of what those media-savvy folks told their Instagram visitors: “The Humanity Project sets an inspiring example of how non-profits can communicate their values and mission clearly, openly, and consistently… an organization that integrates technology into the communities they serve… They are transparent in their beliefs and accomplishments throughout their content. And don’t miss their epic video content!”

We’re very grateful to Wow Digital for their generous interest in the Humanity Project — and our efforts to promote “equality for each, respect for all.” And when the time comes that we need their expertise to keep us on the right track, we’ll be sure to connect with these experts. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to value their friendship and collaboration in our mutual efforts to make this planet a wiser, healthier, more respectful place for all of us to live. Thanks, Wow Digital!


A Valued Addition

Celia Negron Marino

The Humanity Project is very pleased to welcome Celia Negron Marino to our distinguished Board of Directors. She brings to us her extensive experience with educating both adults and children — and a passion for improving the lives of individuals.

An educator for more than 30 years, Celia has taught students at many levels – from elementary school to high school to adult education. Her focus has been both on teaching ESOL classes (English as a second language) and training other ESOL educators. After developing and teaching adult education at a Long Island community school and at York College Queens in New York City, she began her long career in Broward County, Florida schools. Celia has served as Broward ESOL Council president, ESOL trainer for the district’s Cross Cultural Course and as New Teacher Mentor & Coordinator. A curriculum specialist, she has worked extensively in elementary schools coaching and training regular education and ESOL teachers.

The addition of Celia Negron Marino also helps our efforts to make our Board of Directors as diverse as possible. Not only do we have more women than men among our directors, we also boast diversity in sexual orientation, ethnic background and professional experience. Celia is originally from Puerto Rico, strengthening our ties to the Hispanic community that’s so well represented in our South Florida home base. We believe she will make important contributions to the ongoing work of the Humanity Project to promote “equality for each, respect for all.” Welcome aboard, Celia! We look forward to working with you.

Humanity Park

Humanity Park

The Humanity Project is very proud to make a major announcement: We now can welcome you to “Humanity Park”!

After more than one and a half years of effort, Oakwood Hills Park in Hollywood, Florida has been officially renamed Humanity Park. We’ve done this in close partnership with our good friends at the Hollywood LGBTQ Council — with big thanks to Todd Delmay, Lisa Tumminello and Jeff Oliverio of the Council. We also are very grateful to Commissioner Anderson and the entire Hollywood City Commission for their unanimous support of this name change.

As Humanity Project Founder and President, Bob Knotts, told the commission before their vote: "Humanity Park will invite you, invite anyone, to feel at home. Humanity Park will offer peace and community because it will very clearly tell you that peace and community live there, among the soft grass and the stately old tree limbs. We can make it a place for renewed hope in our own humanity and the humanity of others precisely by making those ideas central and unmistakable throughout the park. Humanity Park can become a symbol of a welcoming and changed Hollywood..."

In his remarks to the commission, Todd Delmay had this to say: "The Hollywood LGBTQ Council has been partners with The Humanity Project almost since we began. When they came to us with the idea for renaming and re-imagining this park we were excited to get on board. We feel the idea of a Humanity Park is also consistent with our mission, and that of Hollywood’s Founder Joseph Young, for Hollywood to be a place for everyone. Special thanks to Commissioner Anderson and our friends at the Liberia Civic Association for their support. We look forward to approval of the name change and joining you all at the re-opening."

We are very excited to involve the local community in our new project — to explore ideas and enlist volunteers to help us transform this pretty but ordinary park into something truly unique and special for everyone who visits. Nothing has been decided yet, of course, but among possibilities for changes to Humanity Park are, perhaps, to paint sidewalks and benches in bright colors; create a dog park; add a free book exchange; create a water feature or Zen garden. Or anything else the community would like to see there. We can’t wait to get to work … and then to hold a grand re-opening. Stay tuned. You’ll be hearing a lot about our new Humanity Park in the months ahead. Just one more way we promote “Equality For Each, Respect For All!”



Nonprofit Integrity

We are less than one month into 2024, as this blog is written. But the Humanity Project already has earned a 2024 Candid Gold Seal of Transparency from GuideStar, the highly respected national nonprofit information service. This means the Humanity Project is open about our practices and our finances. It means our organization operates with integrity. And it means you can have confidence when donating to our work to “inspire greater respect for the goodness and inherent value of humanity”… our mission. The Humanity Project is now in our 19th year, founded in 2005. During this entire period we’ve taken pride in maintaining high ethical standards. We use the money from our wonderful sponsors and individual donors in ways that further our mission. That’s one reason we get funding from important organizations such as State Farm and The Our Fund Foundation, among others. A big thank you, then, to GuideStar for this 2024 demonstration of support for the Humanity Project. We will do our best to justify their opinion of our nonprofit and the vital work we do. “Equality for each, respect for all.”

Welcome 2024

Yes… A hearty welcome indeed to 2024. (Can it really be we’re nearly a quarter century into this millennium?) The Humanity Project enters our new year hopeful. And excited on many fronts.

You’ll be hearing in the coming months about some of our latest efforts, which include bold new additions to our State Farm-sponsored I Care program. We’ll unveil those changes early in 2024. Then there’s our planned Humanity Park. We’ve been working on this project for several months in partnership with our good friends at the Hollywood LGBTQ Council. Since it’s not a done deal quite yet, we’ll save most of the details for later. But we now have very strong support from key officials and neighbors in Hollywood, Florida … and we expect to receive final approvals for our renamed city park within a few weeks. We’ll keep you posted. For now, just know that we plan to transform a large city park into something very special for all residents and visitors alike — a welcoming, warm, safe refuge from our troubled world for everyone who enters Humanity Park.

Our Humanity Club and Antibullying Through The Arts programs have expanded in the 2023-24 school year with vital support from the Our Fund Foundation and Floatarama, among others. Those programs resume as soon as the kids return to classes. And we’ll be out and about in the community more in 2024 as well, with speaking engagements, event appearances and other outreach efforts. These are only some of the reasons we’re hopeful and excited as 2024 begins. Please join our work to promote “equality for each, respect for all” by signing our Pledge for Humanity on this website. May this new year bring all of us more peace, more health, more compassion and more hope.

Beyond Human Color

This is another in a series of blogs written for our website by Humanity Project Founder, Bob Knotts, a playwright, poet and author of the book “Beyond Me: Dissecting Ego To Find The Innate Love At Humanity’s Core.” These blogs offer a more personal perspective on ideas that lay at the foundation of the Humanity Project’s work.

“America, of all the Western nations, has been best placed to prove the uselessness and the obsolescence of the concept of color.”

James Baldwin, “The Fire Next Time”

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What does color mean?

Like everything engaged by the human mind, color acquires significance through our experience with it. And our experience with color begins at our earliest ages. Think about common perceptions of colors picked up by children. Even infants soon learn about sunny optimistic yellow, or dynamic and daring red. Or earthy ordinary brown. They also understand colors through a vast array of personal experiences. The approach of black forbidding storm clouds, followed by the relief of puffy welcoming white cloudshapes. Children focus their imaginations on those white clouds, this one shaped like a camel, that like a clown. Black storm clouds are never seen as suitable for youthful daydreams.

The meaning of colors also comes through stories. Cliches, of course, from cowboys in their white and black hats to shining knights on white steeds and cartoon villains with black capes and curly black moustaches. To every kid, to everyone throughout our lives, those colors mean something real. They’ve gained powerful and unshakable connotations of which we’re almost entirely unaware. Whether we know it or consciously agree, things in this world that are colored white carry positive meanings for most of us. And things colored black? Not as much. Too often our mental associations with black, and even brown, are unpleasant, frightening or hostile. Yellow and red are somewhat more complicated. Naturally, there are exceptions: Many of us believe black clothing, for instance, appears more flattering than white attire. But these exceptions prove the rule. Black clothes also are more provocative, sexier. They have become cool precisely because of their otherwise negative connotations.

Enter humanity.

The white man and black man and brown man, the yellow woman and red woman. How nice that more enlightened folks often portray our species as a pretty palette of colors, a happy rainbow of equality. Except that we’re not. As a society, we don’t view the white man and black man and brown man as equals, the yellow and red women. Far from it. We remain a divided humanity, in no small part thanks to our insistence on labeling each other by color.

And this is my point.

We need to understand the problems inherent with color-coded references to other human beings. There is no getting away from the meaning of black storm clouds and white unthreatening cloudshapes. But there is an escape from attaching such meanings to our neighbors, friends and family.

I am, by common standards, a white man. Why should anyone associate positive feelings with me more than with my Black colleagues? They shouldn’t. But they do, unavoidably.

So I’m suggesting that we explore alternatives. We do need basic descriptions of one another: If I’m sending a handyman to work on your kitchen, you’ll want to know who to expect at your door. Skin tone and so-called “racial characteristics” are important parts of our appearance. But we can describe people without the distorted connotations of color.

How might we accomplish that? Allow me to outline one simple idea offered with all humility – and in full recognition of my own social categorization by whiteness. I understand these are highly sensitive topics for many, especially many people of color, as this group is typically described today. Yet as a writer of whatever hue, I believe my job includes both pinpointing problems and proposing solutions. With this notion in mind, I make the following suggestion.

Perhaps we should use references to our regional origins, much as we do now when avoiding skin-color descriptions. But instead of the awkward “African American” and “Asian American,” “Latin American” and “Native American” we might simply refer to the Black person as “African.” We can eliminate the loaded word “Black” while providing key information about that individual. For the white woman or man, we might be identified as “European.” “Latin” and “Asian” and “Native” may suffice for the conventional brown, yellow and red peoples. That’s all the racial description that seems necessary. In the everyday world, we only require broad information about a person’s looks. You’ll recognize the recommended handyman without color coding. (If our handyman is a white person from South Africa, “European” offers the necessary physical specifics. Nationality is something else. Any confusion about regional identification is easily resolved, as we already do with “Asian.” Are we referring only to physical characteristics or to region of birth? We simply clarify with a few words: “She’s Asian, born in Peru.” The identifiers I suggest could become associated primarily with a person’s appearance.)

Humanity should eliminate color from our descriptions of individuals. It’s not necessary. And it’s demonstrably inaccurate: My skin is nothing like white. Nor is my Asian girlfriend remotely yellow nor are my African American friends actually black. Ask a talented artist. She’ll explain that skin tones require a careful mix of colors. That’s the colorful truth of our humanity – every one of us is a vibrant blend.

The simple description “African” may offer a clear concise replacement for “Black” when referring to people. Along with those other regional descriptions, African at least carries more sensible meaning than attaching color to our humanity. Colors convey relatively simplistic meanings in our minds. Human beings should not suffer from those misleading concepts.

Back To School

It’s nearly that time. Another school year is just ahead, hard as that may be to believe. The summer has raced by, it seems. But as the 2023-24 term begins, we want to ask for your help: Please spread the word about the Humanity Project to any school counselors, administrators or teachers you may know. Our programs are free, proven effective … and fun for the students.

On our own, we can’t connect with all the schools that need our help to prevent bullying and instill stronger feelings in students about values such as respect, equality and self-worth. Broward County alone is home to the nation’s sixth largest school district — and we don’t have the resources to call or visit every school. So we’re looking for your assistance, please.

Here’s how you can make sure more kids get our Humanity Project positive message:

  • Call, email or visit your local elementary school.

  • (We have programs for older students too but need help with elementary schools only.)

  • Give the elementary school this information:

  • Email: info@thehumanityproject.com

  • Phone: 954-205-2722

  • Contact: Bob Knotts, President & Founder

  • Website: www.thehumanityproject.com

That’s it. Just copy and paste those four bullet points and share them however you can. After they contact us, we’ll do the rest.

And if you’d like to volunteer for the Humanity Project this school year, please let us know. We’d love to talk with you. Thank you so much! With your help, we will reach more students than ever this year with our core message: “Equality For Each, Respect For All.” It’s needed now more than ever.

The Humanity Project

www.thehumanityproject.com

In Defense Of Human Dignity

On April 20, 2023, the Humanity Project Board of Directors posted a public statement in defense of human dignity. The statement was unanimously approved by all ten directors as a direct response to attacks on educational freedoms as well as against the right of individuals to live as they believe best.

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On Human Dignity: Public Statement by the Humanity Project Board of Directors

April 20, 2023

As a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting “equality for each, respect for all,” the Humanity Project is deeply disturbed by the many recent attacks on human dignity in Florida and around the country. Our home state, Florida, has passed several legislative actions that limit what and how teachers can teach. We believe this infringes on educators’ ability to effectively apply their training and experience. We also believe efforts to ban lessons on gender diversity, sexual orientation and racial issues are antithetical to promoting a more just and peaceful world. Thoughtful, age-appropriate information allows young people to better understand themselves and to form compassionate bonds with others. Beyond these attacks on education, politicians in Florida and elsewhere continue to vilify our rich cultural heritage and gender non-conforming art, enacting laws that criminalize drag performance. History shows us that drag is a unique art form, long a staple of the theatrical world. We deplore the misrepresentation of drag performers as unhealthy influences on our society. And we stand by our friends in the drag entertainment community. Equally disturbing to us are efforts to restrict the reproductive freedom of Florida women. We believe that denying people control over their own bodies and health amounts to government bullying. The Humanity Project cannot idly witness the bullying of any human beings who ask only the opportunity to be who they are. Nor can we accept the undermining of school curricula in ways that diminish a realistic understanding of our world. By law, the Humanity Project is a non-political, non-religious organization. Our mission remains “instilling greater respect for the goodness and inherent value of humanity.” We hope this statement of support for our schools and our fellow community members may contribute to that goal.

The statement also is available as a video read by Humanity Project Board members: Watch the video

Finding Unity In Humanity

Today we officially welcome the talented Silvana Sanchez to our Humanity Project team. She is an award-winning graphic and web designer who lives in Costa Rica, working for an American design company based in Minnesota. Silvana and her colleagues just won a prestigious World Brand Design Society competition for their “Not on My Watch” campaign, which was launched to educate people about defunding the police following the murder of George Floyd.

Recently Silvana contacted the Humanity Project to offer us her services. “I LOVE what you are doing!” she wrote in her first email. Silvana also discovered something that had eluded us during our entire 17+ year existence: the letters for the word “unity” are included in the word “humanity.” Her original design for the Humanity Project below shows how cleverly and effectively she used that observation.

Silvana stresses that she wants no payment for helping the Humanity Project. With nearly all our funds going toward program-related expenses, we greatly appreciate her enthusiastic volunteer spirit. And we look forward to an ongoing and exciting creative relationship with Silvana Sanchez. We think our partnership can inspire more people to work for a world with “equality for each, respect for all.” Thank you, Silvana … and welcome aboard!

This website and all materials on it are copyrighted by the Humanity Project®.

(Fables and some music are copyrighted by the author, Robert Spencer Knotts.)

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