respect

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.

Our Dear Friend

Shaikh Shafayat Mohamed

by Bob Knotts, Founder & President

A Personal Reflection

I have lost a valued friend. The Humanity Project has lost a valued Board director. And our community as well as the world at large have lost an important voice for respect among all people. I am profoundly saddened to announce the death of Shaikh Shafayat Mohamed, the result of an unexpected sudden illness that began only short days ago.

Shafayat was the Imam of a busy South Florida mosque as well as a highly regarded Muslim scholar who spoke all over the world, in person and through his TV program that was seen by millions. The Humanity Project twice was featured on that show. Everywhere he went, Shafayat spoke up for interfaith understanding and compassion — and he represented what it means to apply the Humanity Project’s core values in daily life: The need for self-worth within every individual. The importance of equality and respect at every level of society. The celebration of human diversity. As he said in a recent public forum: “Christians, Jews, Muslims, we need all sides to educate one another about each other.” Shaikh Shafayat Mohamed believed this to his core. And he lived it in his work and his day-to-day life.

I am writing this blog under my byline for a reason. The passing of this extraordinary man requires the expression of loss in terms more personal than a mere announcement by the nonprofit organization he served. I had many many conversations with Shafayat over the past few years, chats that usually began with the words, “Hello, my friend!” Every word I ever heard from him and each action I witnessed reaffirmed for me his deep and genuine commitment to universal respect among all people. He was a wise and compassionate human being. And I cared for him a lot, as I always will.

In closing, I feel it’s perhaps appropriate to share a musical composition I finished only about a month or so ago — with no thought whatsoever that it might be used in this way, of course. At this link, you’ll find a simple video to accompany the brief work I titled, “Of Fond Remembrance.” It’s a classical composition for flute and harp that tries to convey the bittersweet feelings of both gratitude and sadness at the memory of someone lost to us in one way or another. Listen to the music.

To the fine family of my friend, Shafayat, I and everyone at the Humanity Project offer our most sincere and deepest condolences on your loss. We know you will make every effort to continue his work — just as we at the Humanity Project will redouble our own fight to promote self-worth, equality and respect in our troubled world.

Kids Comment On The Humanity Project

See those comments just above, obviously written by a child? They are only two of the end-of-year remarks offered by our fifth grade Humanity Club kids — anonymously. They could say anything they wanted … or nothing at all. But they each chose to say quite a lot.

After 25 Humanity Club sessions that began early in the school year, these smart kids clearly got a great deal from their time with the Humanity Project: “It has helped me by reminding me that I am important and that I should stay confident.” Or another that says, “It has helped everyone learn to be kind and respectful.” Or … here’s another:

Yes, some of our kids mention bullying. Two students specifically told us their Humanity Project experience improved their “mental health.”

These student leaders were selected to help us spread our positive message throughout their school. “Equality For Each, Respect For All!” And, importantly, to gain feelings of self-worth along the way. They understood those ideas and passed them on to their peers. We’re proud of each of our kids… and we’ll miss them. But we’ll be working with many more bright caring students in 2024-25, of course. We can’t wait.

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!”



Self-worth Is The Goal

January 28 2024: Talking about the Humanity Project’s emphasis on self-worth

The Humanity Project was founded in 2005 with one central focus: to promote individual self-worth. Despite our many changes in all those years, that goal remains our focus. Briefly, we’d like to explain why this is true.

Our stated mission is “instilling greater respect for the goodness and inherent value of humanity.” And our trademarked motto is “Equality for Each, Respect for All!” How, then, is self-worth the focus of the Humanity Project’s work? Those statements sound as if our efforts involve social change more than individual change.

But here’s the connection, which some folks may not realize when looking over our programs: We promote social changes that result in the individual improvements we seek — that is, greater self-worth. For example, research has shown for decades that school bullying damages student psyches, lowering a child’s sense of value as a human being. Other kids are making fun of them, afterall, or even harming them physically. Obviously, this often makes bullying victims feel bad about themselves. So our acclaimed, nationally known antibullying programs help to stop the bullying, which is the immediate goal. But the true underlying intent of our programs is to prevent individual students from suffering psychological scars that may diminish their self-worth for a lifetime.

This underlying goal is also the reason the Humanity Project works as close allies of organizations in the LGBTQ community, whose individuals are disproportionately bullied and attacked, verbally and physically. And for the same reason the Humanity Project does whatever we can to promote the value of religious and racial minorities as well as all genders. By laboring for equality and respect-for-all, we’re really working to ensure that more people have the opportunity to feel good about who they are. That effort, that goal, is the fundamental “project” in our name — to create greater self-worth among our fellow humans. Or as many of us as we can reach, anyway.

Yes, equality for each, respect for all. Yes indeed, greater respect for the goodness and inherent value of humanity. These are just lovely ways of saying that the Humanity Project wants each person to appreciate their own worth, which in turn allows them to appreciate the worth of other people. We hope to inspire a recognition of our individual humanity … and thereby, the humanity of everyone else. That’s the Humanity Project.

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.

Seasoned With Giving

At a Humanity Project holiday party, some joyful singing

The tradition dates back centuries. During the holidays, well … Perhaps Charles Dickens said it best in his great story, “A Christmas Carol”: "At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, Sir."

Today, of course, the needs are often broader and more complex than in 19th Century London. Our society’s needs include a healthier planet, safer children, equality for every person. And much much more. At the Humanity Project, we promote “equality for each, respect for all.” At the heart of our mission is the need for greater self-worth, which in turn allows individuals to treat other folks with more humanity. As we tell our Humanity Project kids: “It’s only those people who feel bad about themselves that make others feel bad. When you feel like somebody, you treat everyone else like somebody too.” Respect for all begins with respect for self.

If you reflect on your experience, you’ll see that’s true. So our organization is tackling a fundamental social problem through practical programs that work. We strive to be effective, inspiring … and transparent. The respected national nonprofit rating service, Candid/Guidestar, consistently awards the Humanity Project its Gold Seal of Transparency, showing that we are open about our practices and careful with our funds.

We hope in this Season of Giving 2023, you will consider a donation in some form to the Humanity Project. Whether $5 or $500, it helps us do our important work both with children and adults. You can even make a monthly donation through our Sponsor A Child feature. It’s safe, simple and allows you to donate, say, $10 a month to sponsor a better future for one child.

We love the holidays here at the Humanity Project. It is a time when folks come together with affection and generosity. In that spirit, we wish you and yours a very joyful and healthy holiday season! We hope 2024 will bring our world a step or two closer to “equality for each, respect for all.”

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.)

All rights reserved. © 2005 – 2024