Me, Them ... and Us

This is just a quick post to let you know about a new podcast. We think it's an important podcast for you to hear. It's about a new way to look at the world -- not being all about "me." But also not being all about "them."

At The Humanity Project, we believe in a different philosophy. We think our lives can and should be lived for "us." We can live, act, think and love in ways that contribute to all of us together. See what we mean by going to our home page at www.thehumanityproject.com and clicking on The Humanity Podcast. Then click on the top podcast, "Me, Them ... and Us." We think you may find it helpful as a way to live your everyday life.

Anti-Bullying Efforts and The Humanity Project

I want to fire off a quick blog to tell you about this website’s latest podcast, which deals with anti-bullying efforts in South Florida. I also want to let you know a little about The Humanity Project’s new anti-bullying program. This work fits nicely with our group’s mission, which is non-religious and science-based. The Humanity Project is all about helping individuals to lead fuller, happier lives through giving. We call this unconditional giving – that is, contributing to society without worrying what’s in it for us. We also promote the idea of a common bond among all individuals. Our program for elementary schools focuses on making bullying socially unacceptable, including the introduction of this idea: “If you hurt someone, you hurt yourself. But if you help someone, you also help yourself!” That message is just one part of the overall program that shows students why bullying is a bad thing for everyone. Our work especially centers on persuading so-called bystanders – those children who aren’t bullies or bullying victims. If we can get all students, along with adults in the schools and parents, to agree that bullying is socially unacceptable, the school culture will slowly change.

The sixth largest school district in the United States is already tackling this issue in a big way. Broward County, Florida is the home of Fort Lauderdale. It’s also a place where a progressive, forward-thinking school board and superintendent have made anti-bullying a priority. Superintendent James F. Notter and the board members have appointed a task force to recommend specific curricula and policies for the coming school year. In charge of that task force are two terrific women: Shelly Heller, an attorney and mother of four, and Aimee Wood, a school prevention specialist. I hope you’ll check out May’s podcast, just posted at www.thehumanityproject.com, featuring an interview with Shelly Heller about all this.

If you want to contact Shelly or anyone in the school system about these anti-bullying efforts, you can do it in a couple of ways. You can email The Humanity Project at rsk@thehumanityproject.com and we’ll forward it. Or you can go to the Broward school district website at www.browardschools.com and look for contact information there. The Humanity Project sits on two of the five subcommittees working to create Broward’s anti-bullying curricula and policies – and we’re proud of that work. We hope to lend our innovative ideas to the anti-bullying efforts in Broward County, Florida for a long time. And we will be happy to share our program with other school districts or organizations anywhere in the world.
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