Evolution, Not Revolution

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The logo for the Humanity Project’s PeacePage

At the Humanity Project, we believe every nonprofit organization needs to grow, change, expand. Just as all living things must change in order to adapt to new conditions … and to achieve their fullest usefulness. The Humanity Project is about to go through such a change.

This blog, then, is intended to give our friends and supporters some advance word about these very exciting changes. And to reassure everyone that our next phase of growth will be part of the Humanity Project’s evolution, not a revolution where everything goes and change is radical. Not at all. We plan to keep pushing ahead with our acclaimed existing programs such as Antibullying Through the Arts, I Care and Humanity Club.

But in the coming weeks this fall you’ll find us with a new mission statement as well as a new slogan. And soon some new programs that will carry us beyond the boundaries of working exclusively with kids to include parental and adult groups that we believe can benefit from our work. (Actually we’re already doing this as part of our I Care program, a change that came as research increasingly showed that parents were the real problem on our roads much more than the teen drivers themselves. So we created a State-Farm sponsored website just for parents of teen drivers: www.thp4parents.com — “The Humanity Project 4 Parents.”)

As you will soon see, though, we believe our mission now is ready to expand beyond even this effort. For example, we hope to work toward building coalitions within our community and to create dialogue among groups that too often misunderstand each other. This can benefit the LGBTQ population, promote gender and racial equality and more.

In the end, the Humanity Project represents an important idea: that every human being is unique but equally valuable and that all individuals should be treated with greater respect. Back in 2010 we created our PeacePage with this notion already in mind, a photo gallery collected from all seven continents to demonstrate something of the humanity we all share. Visit our PeacePage. During our Board of Directors retreat just a few weeks ago, the Humanity Project decided this basic concept can guide our evolution as we move into our 15th year of existence. Positive growth, meaningful and practical development — evolution, not revolution. That’s what we have in mind. We’re sure you’ll like what you see as we unveil the new improved Humanity Project, with a focus on instilling greater respect for the goodness and inherent value of the humanity we all share.

Join Our Leadership Council

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

I want to extend an invitation to you today through this blog. You won’t need money to accept it. You won’t need to make any sacrifices in your life. You only must commit to helping us help kids (and parents) with whatever time you can spare. Consider joining our new Humanity Project Leadership Council.

Okay, so here’s that invitation I mentioned: Consider joining our new Humanity Project Leadership Council. To do this, you must live where we’re headquartered – in South Florida, ideally in Broward County. And you must be a parent or grandparent, again ideally with your child or grandchild eager to join our work too.

We’re creating this Leadership Council to serve as our in-house panel of expert consultants. Experts in parenting, that is. We want the views and ideas of these smart parents and their kids to help guide our work. And yes, we welcome grandparents as well because so many grandparents are raising children and of course have even longer experience in child-rearing.

The Leadership Council first will tackle our I Care teen driver safety program’s latest expansion, funded by a generous grant from our great partners at State Farm. By joining our team, you will help us to create parent-friendly and grandparent-friendly content for a funny PowerPoint presentation on distracted driving, something we’ll give to parent groups around South Florida. We’re hoping to continue the council after this work is done, with our panel moving on to improve other Humanity Project programs and provide ongoing advice.

The Humanity Project Leadership Council will be made of as many as 16 adults and kids. We want creative folks who would love the chance to contribute to the community in clever, inventive ways. If you’re interested, just drop us an email or call by going through our Contact page.  We’ll tell you more about the kind of thing we have in mind. It’s simply one more way of fulfilling our mission of “helping kids to help kids” … and we could use your assistance.