A Loyal Following

In our last post we talked about the many ways you can read about the Humanity Project’s work of “Helping kids to help kids!”™ This week let me follow up with a bit of news about our loyal group of social media fans – some figures that may encourage you to join them, perhaps, and also might interest our great sponsors and supporters. 

The Humanity Project now has eight social media pages, with the main links available through the icons on this home page. We’re proud that our organization actively used social media very early on, long before many large national and international nonprofits offered pages on sites such as Myspace and Facebook. We don’t post on Myspace anymore, of course, but our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram pages have attracted thousands of folks who like to keep up with the latest Humanity Project efforts.

As of today, the Humanity Project has 7,496 followers on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. And though these numbers may not be quite in the viral category yet, the online world now understands that sheer numbers alone don’t mean much. It’s not really how many followers that matters, it’s how many engaged followers. We believe those people who keep an eye on the Humanity Project’s social media actually care about what we do … and what we have to say about our supporters such as State Farm, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Children’s Services Council of Broward County and all the others you’ll find listed on our “Sponsors” page. Please take a look at that list — these are the organizations that allow us to do our work and then give it away free to those who need it. So today, a big thank you to each of them. We hope you may want to become part of our team one way or another, as a sponsor or member or volunteer. Or an online follower. You’ll find that the Humanity Project can do more than helping kids to help kids. We also can help you to find more of the many hopeful, inspiring things all around us.

Join Our Online Family

Posted by: Bob Knotts

The Humanity Project wants you to join our work — or at least to keep up-to-date with our efforts of “helping kids to help kids.” Of course we’d love you to actually become a member, which gets you our cool t-shirt, member card and useful book about shared value, an empirical philosophy that explains how to live a fuller and healthier life through helping others. To send us your membership, just go to our “Join/Donate” page listed on the menu above.

But even if you don’t want to make that commitment yet, you can sign up for our free email newsletter. We ask only for your email address and we send out a single email newsletter monthly. No solicitations for money, no onslaught of emails. Look to the right-hand column on this home page under the video intro where it says, “Sign up for our Email Newsletter.”

Another way to keep up with the Humanity Project is through our social media. We have eight social media pages, with the main ones linked through the icons on our home page. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr or YouTube. We think you’ll find this a fun way to get frequent doses of inspiration from the Humanity Project’s amazing kids, who work with us to help their peers prevent bullying and distracted driving and social isolation – always as part of improving their fellow students’ feelings of self-value. And please, explore this website as well as the I Care and thp4kids websites, which are linked here on our “Just4Kids” page.

The Humanity Project helps thousands of kids (and their parents) in South Florida and all around the United States. Our programs are free … and we believe you’ll find them uplifting and hopeful when you learn more about us. As you can tell by now, we’ve made that easy for you to do.

Take the Challenge

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

The Humanity Project is always looking for fun, innovative ways to teach young people. We help kids to help kids — and we often find new methods to get across our lessons. Recently we created a simple game that we’re taking to community events as part of the Humanity Project table. And it’s a hit!

At last Sunday’s Tour de Broward for our great partners at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, we offered a fresh, clever challenge to make an important point: No one is good at multitasking! Meaning, distracted driving is never safe. We may think we’re great at texting or chatting or checking sports scores while behind the wheel. But chances are good the driver behind us wouldn’t agree. So along with our entertaining I Care event wheel, with information about distracted driving, the Humanity Project also has the I Care Tootsie Roll Challenge.

Taking the I Care Tootsie Roll Challenge!

Try it yourself, whether you’re young or old. It’s not easy!

As you see in the photo and especially the video at the link below, we asked young visitors to our table to toss a tennis ball in the air with one hand repeatedly while trying to unwrap a Tootsie Roll with the other hand. No fair using their teeth or bodies to help. It’s a small but telling demonstration that proves people are meant to do only one thing at a time. And everyone who tried it agreed with us. They got the message, along with some good laughs at themselves. I Care Tootsie Roll Challenge — watch the video! 

Our I Care teen driver safety program is sponsored by our loyal longtime friends at State Farm along with Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and Children’s Services Council of Broward County. Now we have a new game that helps us reach more people in memorable style. Just one more engaging way the Humanity Project is trying to connect with kids, teaching young drivers and soon-to-be-drivers that texting and driving isn’t as easy as it looks.

Our Kids Tackle The Big Issue

Post by: Bob Knotts

In the previous post, we told you something about our Humanity Club. This time we want to let you know about one of the most exciting things about that new program, which is a live extension of our amazing www.thp4kids.com website – created by teens, for teens.

The Humanity Club, finishing their meeting with meditation

The Humanity Club, finishing their meeting with meditation

The website helps kids feel more connected to each other by teaching them about diversity, sharing and giving, kindness toward themselves and others, compassion.

We now have eight middle school students who have formed our first Humanity Club,  a team of leaders. With Humanity Project guidance, they’re finding innovative ways to take the thp4kids website’s ideas to their entire school, creating a climate of greater understanding and less bullying as a result. A remarkable thing, if you think about it. But here’s what I really wanted to point out to you today. These 6th and 7th grade students from Gulfstream Middle School in Hallandale Beach, Florida are directly tackling arguably the deepest, most meaningful issue in human life: How we see ourselves. Self-value. As Henry David Thoreau famously said, “What a man thinks of himself, that is what determines his fate.” Of course, Thoreau was writing in the 1800s when people used the term “man” to represent everyone. But his meaning is clear – and accurate. The quality of our lives flows from self-image. Our health, our work, our contributions to society, our relationships. Everything revolves around that core of our humanity.

We’re excited that our lessons on this profound topic already seem to be connecting with the Humanity Club members, lessons we’re teaching them through stories and videos and music and games and exercises of all kinds. If they can absorb the basic concept as expressed by Thoreau, we believe they also can discover methods for helping their peers to understand it. We’ll keep telling you how things are going as the club progresses. So far, we’re encouraged … and excited by these bright and engaged young minds. And we’re hopeful they can help us to help all the kids at Gulfstream Middle School to treat themselves and every other student there with greater respect. The Humanity Project, helping kids to help kids!™

“Humanity Club”

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

We’re announcing something new today … the birth of our “Humanity Club” for kids. It’s a program that allows us to teach student leaders about ideas such as self-value, leadership, diversity and compassion. We work with the students to develop creative methods to carry those ideas to their fellow students, showing their peers why every kid at their school should feel like they belong. It’s another example of our Humanity Project slogan in action, “Helping kids to help kids.” It is the Humanity Project leading a small group of kids who will assist many of their fellow students in valuable ways.

First meeting of the new Humanity Club

We’ve already launched our very first Humanity Club, with a little help from our friends. Gulfstream Middle School is part of the nation’s sixth largest school district here in Broward County, Florida, where the Humanity Project is based. The good folks at Gulfstream are giving us the chance to develop this compassionate form of leadership in six of their student leaders — great kids … We are impressed so far with their intelligence and potential to make these ideas stick with their peers all around Gulfstream. In addition to Assistant Principal Christine Moss, we’re getting important help from Jamie Wood at Memorial Healthcare System. Memorial is the parent of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, a longtime Humanity Project sponsor and partner. Our thanks to Christine and Jamie, as well as other folks at Memorial Healthcare who helped us get going including Tim Curtin and Marilyn Camerota. And of course we appreciate the consistent support of Milin Espino and Jennifer Belyeu at Memorial as always.

We’ll be telling you more about our Humanity Club in the coming weeks. What we’re doing, how it’s going. But we can’t finish this blog without a big shoutout to another amazing Humanity Project sponsor and partner of long standing: State Farm. Our Humanity Club is a live version of our innovative www.thp4kids.com website, which was created by teens for their peers over a three-year period. This web project wouldn’t have had the same success without a major national grant from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board. We thank State Farm, their great YAB and our wonderful local State Farm partner, Jose Soto, for supporting our vision: Making a website that serves as an online friend for socially isolated teens, including many LGBT students. The Humanity Club will become an extension of the positive ideas on that site, a live format for connecting with every student about the importance of self-value.

Finally, a big thanks to two of the Humanity Project’s own Board of Directors members, Stephanie Wong who really created the Humanity Club, and Ferial Youakim, who’s contributing to our in-school sessions with the kids at Gulfstream. It is truly a team effort. We believe our Humanity Club can help us to help many kids at Gulfstream Middle School — and beyond. It is an opportunity to create an environment of cooperation among young students, to show them why every kid in their school deserves respect and appreciation.

Humanity’s Elevator

Humanity Project in Action

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

Sometimes it’s hard to find exactly the right words. If someone asks you, “What’s the Humanity Project?” … how would you answer? Well, we have a suggestion today in this brief post.

They call it an “elevator speech.” It’s what folks who run a business create to tell others about their work quickly, something so brief they could say it in the time it takes to ride an elevator with someone. So here’s our suggestion for your Humanity Project elevator speech:

“The Humanity Project helps kids to help kids. They create programs working with talented teams of students, then take those programs to student leaders who teach them to their peers. In this way, they help prevent school bullying and distracted driving and they build feelings of self-worth in a broad range of students, including many LGBT teens.”

That pretty much sums it up – in the time it takes for an elevator ride. Please pass along those words to someone who could benefit from our free programs and materials. Tell them about the Humanity Project and send them the link to this website. You just might help them to, uh, elevate their life …

Welcoming Our New Board VP

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS 

Today we officially welcome Ferial Youakim to the Humanity Project. Our Board of Directors has elected her unanimously as a Board Vice President to join our work of helping kids to help kids. We feel lucky to have her as part of our growing organization — and honored.

Ferial Youakim

Ferial Youakim has founded nonprofit organizations and businesses from Australia to the Middle East to the United States. She created Mums on a Mission in Sydney, Australia, a nonprofit group that was honored with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s National Gold Volunteer Award for Australia. She has been a sought-after image consultant since 1986 on three continents, focusing her work on strengthening the self-value of clients around the U.S., Middle East and Australia. Ferial is the founder and director of ByFERIAL, an international image consulting firm, and an author and motivational speaker. She is the founding president of Image Impact International, past president of the Association of Image Consultants (Sydney and Florida chapters) and the Middle East Ambassador and Arabic Community Liaison for AICI. Ferial also was Goodwill Ambassador for the Touch Of Goodness Foundation and Second Runner Up for Mrs Australia International.

But there’s much more to her story, which is told in her new book, “You Are Beautiful: One Woman’s Journey.” The book isn’t out yet but we’ll let you know when it’s been published. For the moment it’s enough to understand that Ferial Youakim was born in a Lebanese refugee camp before moving to Australia in her youth. She now lives permanently in South Florida with her husband, Nabeel, a top Citrix executive. She endured many hardships as a child, sleeping two to a mattress in that difficult camp – and suffering through the murder of her father because he had helped a neighbor. All this is relevant because it has shaped Ferial, giving her a depth and insight that are rare. We know these and other great qualities will help Ferial to help our kids … who in turn will help other kids, their peers, to overcome bullying, prevent distracted driving and encourage feelings of self-value.

So again, Ferial, welcome to the Humanity Project! We are very glad you’re with us.

Kids Helping Kids

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

You can see the Humanity Project’s trademarked slogan on our home page above: “Helping kids to help kids!” When you think of the Humanity Project, remember this phrase. That’s who we are. We help kids to help kids. So let me begin 2016 by explaining a bit more about why that’s true. Lots of other organizations do important work in the United States and around the world by helping kids. They feed hungry kids, they heal sick kids, they shelter homeless kids. They get kids off the streets or off drugs. All very valuable things, obviously.

But the Humanity Project takes a different approach that’s just as valuable: We work with kids to create programs for their peers. Then we take the programs to those peer groups … who in turn work as our teachers. They teach our programs to other kids. Okay, that may sound confusing. So let me put it in specific terms. If you visit our www.thp4kids.com website, you’ll see an example. We worked for three years with groups of magnet school and LGBT kids to create a website for socially isolated teens. Kids helping kids. (The website was made possible with a very generous grant from State Farm, by the way. It’s an unique and amazing resource for teens. Check it out.) Now we’re also taking the website and its important lessons about self-worth to a group of student leaders in school — and those student leaders will teach the thp4kids.com lessons to their school peers. Again, kids helping kids.

Or look at our acclaimed Anti-bullying Through The Arts program.

Our anti-bullying program at Welleby Elementary School: Jan. 11, 2016

This photo was taken during one of our presentations on Monday, January 11 … But our program doesn’t just involve adults telling kids to stop bullying. We teach kids how they can help other kids who are being bullied. We show young students why they should stop bullying and how to do it when they see someone being bullied. Kids helping kids.

Our I Care: Just Let Me Drive program uses the same model. We created the program by working with groups of bright, engaged teens. Now we take that I Care program to other teens who share it with their best friends, teaching their peers to avoid distracted driving. See what I mean? Kids helping kids.

Even the materials on this website are for older kids to share with their peers and with younger siblings too. (And of course our materials are also intended for educators and parents who can bring them to kids. Parents are very much part of the Humanity Project’s efforts of helping kids to help kids. Parents can use our videos and writings and quotes to offer guidance for their kids, who then can become role models for other kids. Parents are too important for us to ignore in our work.) But the main goal always remains the same. Helping kids to help kids! That’s what we do. That’s who we are. And we look forward to 2016 to do much much more of it for many many more kids of all ages.

Hope For 2016

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

There is so much good reason for hope. There seems so much good reason for despair. As we prepare to begin 2016, I wanted to offer a few thoughts that some may find encouraging. I often feel the need to remind myself about all the uplifting things, the encouraging things … yes, the hopeful things happening around us every day. They can be easy to miss. 

We live in a time of frequent violence, of troubled race relations, of intolerance toward religions, of shallow opinions expressed with open hostility. And because we are fortunate enough to enjoy instant communication and wildly varied media sources, we must cope with the down side of that too: A continual bombardment of bad news and ignorant ideas. The world can appear bleak … if we let it.

But a deeper look at the reality shows us something different really is going on. Just this past October, for instance, the World Bank made a very important announcement — and it got little news or social media attention. The number of people living in extreme poverty is about to fall under 10 percent. For the first time. The organization reported that this is part of a quarter-century of sustained progress, offering a real chance to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. Think about that. Now there’s a good reason for genuine hope.

Many other social markers also are wonderfully encouraging, things like the growing number of people with access to decent water. And nearly 200 nations recently signed a legally binding pact to improve our environment through limits on global warming. There is a long list of such positives if we look for them. In the United States, gay marriage is legal, bullying is recognized as a serious issue, more attention has been focused on the problem of distracted driving. Hope. All of these, good reasons for hope.

And in our own lives, we can find hope as well. I believe that learning to look past our immediate self-interest is one key to living a better life, in 2016 and beyond. If we find ways to share our talents and time and other blessings with people around us through efforts we care about, we can find meaning and purpose even during difficult periods. Helping others is the best way to help ourselves. That’s the lesson we try to teach our kids at the Humanity Project.

And so here at the Humanity Project, we welcome 2016. As we begin our 11th year as a nonprofit group, we are hopeful about our work of helping kids to help kids … and sometimes parents too. And we also are hopeful for a world that continues its slow, painful but real movement toward improved lives for all people.

Happy Holidays!

A Group Hug

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

It’s so nice to have friends. Sometimes those friends are people. Sometimes they are groups … groups such as the Children’s Services Council of Broward County. And so to them during this season of love and friendship, we offer our version of a group hug by way of this blog.

You see, this blog is our thank you to these wonderful folks for their friendship and loyalty to the Humanity Project. They just have renewed their sponsorship of our organization, this time supporting our unique I Care: Just Let Me Drive teen driver safety program. We know it can save lives and we’re always finding new ways to do just that through I Care.

For the past eight consecutive years, the Children’s Services Council of Broward County has sponsored the Humanity Project with a helpful grant — and even more helpful support in other forms. They have referred media and nonprofit organizations to us. They have included us in their own TV and other media efforts. They have allowed us to share our experience with fellow nonprofit staffers by teaching seminars. They have attended our programs for kids. And more.

So yes, our thanks in this holiday season goes to the caring, committed individuals who make up the Children’s Services Council of Broward County. Starting with their wonderful leader, Cindy Arenberg Seltzer, the epitome of a nonprofit CEO who indeed is both caring and committed. And Sandra Bernard-Bastien, Chief Communications Officer, who brings her dynamic energy and wit to the South Florida community. And Andrew Leone, Assistant Director of Community Outreach, who seems indefatigable in his work year in and year out to help both children and parents. And Sue Gallagher, Chief Innovation Officer, who carries her razor-sharp intellect to each project she tackles. And … on and on the list goes. These are good people, working to do good things for others.

We’re proud to be associated with the Children’s Services Council of Broward County. They are our sponsor, our partner. Best of all, they are our friend.

BuyYour Holiday Gifts ... For a Cause

"Romantic Evening" by Isaac Maimon

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

We’ll begin this blog with a link you’ll need: Click here to shop for Humanity Project Holiday gifts. Yes, for the first time in our 10 year history, the Humanity Project is holding an online auction with great gifts at great prices … for a cause. Just look over our many items and place your bids. All the proceeds from the auction will go to help our kids. It’s true. Every penny you spend on these exciting items goes straight to the Humanity Project, where 100% of our money is used for our programs. 

You’ll find some wonderfully unique gifts for sale — things you can’t pick up anywhere else. For excellent prices. Like the gallery quality serigraph on paper called “Romantic Evening” by the artist Isaac Maimon. Retail price is nearly $700. Our Humanity Project Holiday Auction bids for this piece open at only $300. But we also have new handmade jewelry purchased by our founder in remote Pacific islands, some listed for as little as an opening bid of $20. We also have silk scarves hand-loomed and hand-dyed in Bali, gorgeous items bought at the textile shop where they were made. And there’s a charming painting by the North Carolina artist Sondra Lucas, perfect for a child’s room. Take a look for yourself.

You’ll find it’s very easy to bid. And just as easy to buy if your bid wins. The Humanity Project Holiday Auction is being run through eBay’s charity division, with payments going through PayPal’s safe payment system. No need to register with eBay or PayPal if you prefer not to do so. All credit cards are accepted.

Even if you’re not looking for holiday items, you might find something for the upcoming Valentine’s Day or maybe for someone’s birthday or anniversary. Please check out our Humanity Project Holiday Auction, which begins on Monday, December 7 and continues for a week. You’ll be helping our kids to help other kids and getting some very special gifts at the same time. A win-win, for sure.