Major National Attention for The Humanity Project

Rina Matarasso and her parents

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

The Humanity Project is featured in a great new article in State Farm’s national online magazine, Good Neighbors. The story talks about the expansion of our unique and innovative teen driver safety program, I Care: Just Let Me Drive. We hope you’ll want to click on over to read the story — and perhaps post a comment: Read the State Farm Good Neighbors article about the Humanity Project. 

This is how the story begins: “As a new driver, I listen and observe closely what my parents say about safe driving, but sometimes their words don’t match their actions behind the wheel,” says Rina Matarasso.

“I caught myself, a couple of times, mapping on the phone while driving,” says Charlie Matarasso, Rina’s dad. “I take quick glances at my phone to see if I missed a call. I know I shouldn’t do it and I tell my daughter not to, but I still do it sometimes.” A survey conducted by State Farm® in 2011 reported 54 percent of teens have seen their parents using a phone while driving. Parents are one of the most important influences on teen drivers and how they handle themselves behind the wheel creates a powerful example for their teens. …”

Be sure to click on that link to read the rest of the piece. We can’t thank State Farm enough for this new national attention for our very special program — which now offers something just for parents of teen drivers, a fun and funny booklet called, I Care: Just Help Them Drive. You’ll find that booklet available for a free download right here on this website: Read the new Humanity Project booklet for parents of teen drivers. Of course, you already know that State Farm is the major sponsor of the I Care program, joined by other wonderful supporters that include Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and Google. Thanks to them, we can bring the public this program at no cost — and so help thousands of teen drivers stay much safer on the road.

The Humanity Project Turns 10!

On November 3, 2005, the State of Florida incorporated a new nonprofit organization called The Humanity Project.

Bob Knotts

As The Humanity Project’s founder, I paid the state fees out of my own pocket — and paid for just about everything else too for the next few years. Now that this group is turning 10-years-old, I’m proud of what its become. And we hope you’ll help us to celebrate during our two-month, holiday-time 10 year anniversary party, something we’re calling the “10 By 10 Humanity Party.” Meaning, “10 years and 10 dollars” for our cause. That’s all we’re asking you for. Only ten dollars, tax-deductible.

Just go to our Join/Donate page, where you can send us the money through the JustGive donate button or the QR code, which connects your smartphone to our JustGive donation page. It’s very safe and secure. Or you can mail your donation to our office in South Florida, located outside Fort Lauderdale: The Humanity Project, 604 NE 2nd Street, #331, Dania Beach, FL 33004.

There are other ways you can help us during the 10 By 10 Humanity Party. We’d love our supporters to throw their own Humanity Party, asking a few friends to get together for a TV football night or a movie or a dinner, each person contributing their $10 to help our kids. The party organizer then can send us the money through JustGive or by mail. Instead of a holiday party this year, why not hold your own Humanity Party as a way to bring together people to make life better for children? It’s easy and fun. 

We’ll also soon conduct a national online auction through PayPal’s charitable giving arm — and as you can see in the previous blog post, we’ll be offering some quality items for you to pick up. Often at a fraction of the retail cost. Look for more information about our 10 By 10 Humanity Party Auction in this blog very soon.

Yes, as the organization has grown we need more and more of the funding that is the oxygen for any nonprofit. Without money, the Humanity Project can’t do much. I still draw no salary from the Humanity Project, nor does anyone else. All funds go toward our programs, something that’s not changed during our entire 10 years. Sometimes I still pay Humanity Project expenses from my own pocket. That hasn’t changed either. But much is different now than when I founded the group. We organized and led the nation’s first mass children’s march against bullying. We have three major programs that have helped tens of thousands of children around the United States. We created our PeacePage and more than 100 podcasts, plus several hundred blogs, videos, fables and other materials. All of it is free to the public — schools, hospitals, universities, companies, individuals. Anyone or anything can use our work at no cost. We want our positive ideas, programs and materials to help as many people as possible. The Humanity Project grew out of my writing career, an effort to translate my beliefs about how to improve the world from the page to the community. I’m the author of 24 books, five plays and countless poems and articles and blogs. The Humanity Project connects my ideas to the real world through action such as our acclaimed Anti-bullying Through The Arts program, our unique and effective I Care teen driver safety program … and our extraordinarythp4kids.com website for socially isolated youth.

I’m very pleased with all that we’ve accomplished so far. We have a great Board of Directors and many student and adult volunteers to help carry out our work. Please consider joining our efforts in whatever way you can as we move forward into a new decade of “Helping kids to help kids.”

New Sponsor Helps Us Help Kids

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

We’re pleased to announce a new sponsor — and an upcoming online auction they’re helping to make happen. The upscale art gallery, Blue Gallery, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida has donated a wonderful artwork to the Humanity Project’s fundraising efforts this autumn. And in so doing, they help us to help more of the kids who need us. You can visit the gallery in person if you’re in the area or online at http://www.bluefineart.com.

"Romantic Evening" by Isaac Maimon

Blue Gallery’s founder and owner is Rami Rotkopf, who was born into his family’s art business in Israel. The Humanity Project is proud to welcome Blue Gallery to our impressive list of sponsors — and we thank them for the generous donation. You see the artwork there to the right. It’s a piece called “Romantic Evening” by Isaac Maimon, a 13 x 17 inch limited edition serigraph on paper. The artist’s bio is at this link: Read more about Isaac Maimon’s work.

You’ll have a chance in November to bid on this piece as part of our big 10th anniversary celebration that runs from November 1 through the end of the year. We’ll be giving you details in upcoming blogs. For now, though, another big thanks to Blue Gallery … We are grateful for your generosity.

Helping the Community

A collage from the big group read ... 

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

A brief post to share some pictures with you … taken at three of our most recent community events. First, reading to pre-K kids as part of an attempted world record for group reading — I have to admit I never did hear if we all set the record or not.

But I sure enjoyed reading to the charming children at Learn & Smile Preschool this week.

At the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital Halloween bash

Then we attended the big annual Halloween event for Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, a loyal sponsor of the Humanity Project. We talked with lots and lots of kids and parents about bullying and also chatted with older teens and parents about safe driving — of course, the Humanity Project offers unique programs for anti-bullying and safe teen driving. Finally, our Board VP Stephanie Wong used our third major program, thp4kids.com, as a springboard during her session with the National Interschool Brigade Movement of Jamaica.

Fun with the brigade!

She’ll post a blog in this space soon about her enriching experience with those kids. All these events were great fun. And all were part of our growing emphasis on taking our programs into the community even more effectively, person to person. We hope to meet you in person at one of our events soon.

Talk to Your Teen Driver

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

We usually avoid citing lots of numbers in these blogs — statistics can be confusing and, let’s face it, just plain boring. But National Teen Driver Safety Week calls for a few figures to make our point. First, though, a little background. Our great Humanity Project sponsor, State Farm, was one of the major organizations that worked with Congress to designate the third week in October as a national moment to discuss teen driver safety. Of course, State Farm also helped us to create our I Care teen driver safety program, now with a book for teens and another book for parents.

Because of our unique program, we proudly support National Teen Driver Safety Week. Which brings us back to those numbers we alluded to earlier. Here’s a statistic worth sharing, based on a recent study: Only 25% of parents have talked seriously with their teen drivers about how to handle an automobile,  even though auto crashes remain the leading killer of teenagers. That’s shocking, really.

At the same time, the danger is getting worse for many teen drivers. A couple more stats to make our meaning clear: In Florida, where the Humanity Project is based, teen driver fatalities jumped by nearly 25% from 2013 to 2014. That’s according to numbers provided by the Florida Teen Safe Driving Coalition and Florida SADD. As you might expect, teen driver crashes also increased during that same period.

So this blog really is a plea to the adults who visit our website. Parents, grandparents, educators, counselors, nonprofit staffers … and anyone else who lives or works with teenagers of driving age. Please sit down and share your motoring experiences, with a few tips on how to drive more carefully. Obviously, these should include advice about avoiding distractions, looking far down the road, wearing a seat belt, keeping the number of passengers to a minimum. Oh, and you can pass along our I Care web address too:www.thehumanityproject.com/icare. Our program was created by teens, for teens … and for parents.

As with most tough social problems, dangerous teen driving requires many, many of us to work together toward solutions. Not only during National Teen Driver Safety Week, but every week of the year.

Help Us Help Them

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

There’s a brand new way for you to help us to help kids. You can join the Humanity Project for any size donation starting at $10. And now we’ve made it easier than ever. You can simply use your phone to scan the new QR code (which means, “Quick Response” code) on our Join/Donate page. To make it quicker still, we’ll include the code below in this blog post.

The Humanity Project is about to turn 10-years-old. Our 10th anniversary comes next month and you’ll be hearing a lot more about ways to help us celebrate. We need your support in order to keep doing our important work: Helping Kids To Help Kids! 

Just use your smartphone to scan the code and donate to The Humanity Project

Please consider joining our nonprofit group today by making a donation in any amount above $10 — that’s the minimum required by our fundraising service, JustGive. By the way, JustGive is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase charitable giving by connecting people with the charities and causes they most care about. They collect money on behalf of more than 1.5 million other nonprofits, including the American Red Cross and Smithsonian Institution. The secure credit card link protects your information.

Thanks for your help. It means a lot to us — and to our kids.

Major Humanity Project Program Addition

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

We have something important to announce and it pleases us a lot. The new addition to our I Care: Just Let Me Drive teen driver safety program is done. It’s a special booklet just for parents, created by teens as well as our parent consultants and auto safety experts. We think you’ll find it as enjoyable as our original I Care book — fun, funny and memorable. 

The new addition is called, I Care: Just Help Them Drive. This time, teens aren’t giving advice to their peers. They’re helping to give parents a clue through the all-original material, including a smart comic book just for those parent drivers. Research shows that parents have an enormous influence on the behind-the-wheel behavior of their kids. If parents drive while talking on the phone or texting or checking sports scores, their teens are more likely to do the same.

That’s the message of I Care: Just Help Them Drive. And the booklet delivers the point powerfully but without preaching. Read I Care: Just Help Them Drive.

Once again, we must thank our great friends and sponsors at State Farm for making this possible. They provided the funds and the confidence in our original program, we provided the information and creativity. We hope you’ll check it out. And please pass along the link to a parent who still needs to learn more about safe driving. As we all know, there’s no shortage of them on our roads.

Teach Your Children Well

Bullying even comes from adults sometimes — often arrogant adults who try to bully their way to success.

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

A personal view from Humanity Project Founder, Bob Knotts:

Bullying even comes from adults sometimes — often arrogant adults who try to bully their way to success.

Arrogance has been much in the news lately. Especially arrogance by political candidates, along with the usual boasting by some pop stars and athletes. Our culture seems permeated with it. And that got me thinking about the impact that arrogance by public figures has on our kids. Imagine if you were a student in, say, middle school, hearing bits and pieces of the blather from some political candidates — and seeing the apparent admiration this has attracted from a big segment of the voting population. You might easily confuse arrogance with confidence, might believe that being bombastic is just a way of being outgoing. You could begin to get the idea that arrogance is a good thing.

But it’s not. Most of us already understand this if we stop and think. And adults who influence children must stop and think — often. Arrogance is only insecurity cloaked in bluster. It comes from people who feel deeply unsure about themselves in many important ways, and so rely on bragging about one or two qualities they believe they do possess. Arrogance also may lead to lack of sincere effort, which reduces real chances for success. “I’m already great at this so I don’t need to try!” I believe that sort of attitude is a recipe for mediocrity at best … failure at worst. So I’m making the case here for you to cast a skeptical eye on all the arrogance floating through our media these days — and to raise the topic with those kids of yours. What do they think about these people? Where do they think arrogance comes from? Does it really work? How does it make other people feel about themselves? These sorts of questions can help them to cast a skeptical eye on arrogance as well, whether it’s arrogance from public figures or from other adults and kids they know. Critical thinking about this topic can encourage them to form more constructive approaches in their own daily lives, now and in the future.

As I noted in a recent blog, the Humanity Project’s main website here at www.thehumanityproject.com is for adults — programs, materials, ideas and more intended to help you help your kids. You may be a parent, grandparent, teacher, therapist, counselor or any other person in a position to affect the attitudes of children. This organization is all about adults working with kids to create arts-based programs that in turn will help other kids cope with problems such as bullying and distracted driving and social isolation. We help kids to help kids. It’s up to us as adults to make sure our kids get the insight and information they need to grow into healthy, responsible adults. Unfortunately, our culture doesn’t always make that an easy task. With a little extra effort on our part, though, we can nudge those kids in the right direction.

Stopping School Violence

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

This will be a very brief post — for a very good reason. I’m hoping you’ll click on the link at the end of this sentence and spend your Internet time listening to a special podcast rather than reading a longer blog today. Here’s that podcast link: Listen to our podcast, “Stopping School Violence.” 

The half hour program is a chat with Dr. Laura Finley, author of the new book, “School Violence,” published by ABC-CLIO. Dr. Finley also is Vice President of the Humanity Project Board of Directors and an Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Barry University. I interviewed Dr. Finley recently for the podcast, discussing ways to stop school violence before our conversation turned to other topics relevant to her work as an educator and peace activist.

You can buy the book at another link: Buy the book “School Violence.” Those working in fields related to education will discover much valuable information there. And we think you’ll find our latest podcast both entertaining and enlightening. Oh, and please pass along the podcast link to your friends and family. We always appreciate that.

Our Website: A Primer

Our programs reach thousands of kids each year!

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

Just in case there’s any confusion about this website … because, well, I can understand how it could happen. So let me put together a short primer for you. You might come to our website and read our trademarked slogan: “Helping kids to help kids!” And our mission statement: “To create innovative arts-based programs that help youth solve pressing social problems through collaborative efforts that emphasize the value of each individual.” And then, perhaps, you may read a few blogs, maybe listen to a podcast or sift through some of our fables — and you could be forgiven for wondering, “I thought this was for kids!”

You’re right. The Humanity Project is mainly intended to help kids. And so a brief explanation is in order: As the blurb below our mission statement mentions, we’re adults helping kids to help kids. And sometimes helping kids to help parents as well. But this website is for you, the adult reader. If you look through our many pages on this site, you’ll quickly get the idea. We’re providing you with information about programs that we’ve created with the help of kids, for kids. Adults such as you can aid our efforts to reach more children with those programs. We’re also posting much info about those programs and related issues, including our advice for parents on how to handle bullying. (You’ll find that page by clicking here.) Or take another example such as our podcasts, where you will hear intelligent discussions that can help you to bring our work to the kids who need it. Or our PeacePage or those fables I mentioned — we’re very proud of these works and all the other original Humanity Project materials on this website. Each of them is something you may want to share with the kids in your life in some way or other, either now or when they’re a little older. We think those materials can be great ways to teach … and to inspire.

So think of this website as a library full of ways to help kids deal with some tough issues, including bullying, distracted driving and social isolation — areas where our experience and expertise allow us to make a meaningful contribution. This site is also a gateway to our social media pages and our other websites, which were created for kids, by kids. You can learn more about those sites and connect with them through our Just4kids page, which is atthis link. Yes, indeed. “Helping kids to help kids!” That is the Humanity Project. But we need the assistance of adults like you to do that, helping us to spread our materials and programs around as much as possible. Thanks so much for anything you can do to make that happen.

Teaching Kids to Share

The gift on my desk

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

Children must be taught to share. Children of all ages, from infancy through high school. That’s one of the things we do at the Humanity Project — helping kids to help kids by working with them to share their talents and knowledge with peers. We do this by helping them create programs that curb distracted driving, reduce bullying and ease social isolation. We help kids to help kids by teaching them to share.

Sharing is an important lesson for us all to teach. I think about it often. On my desk sits a small bronze figure of Buddha, representing to me the many wise lessons imparted to the world by this insightful man. But it also means something else: friendship. The inexpensive figurine was handed to me spontaneously by a woman at a shop along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. The sales clerk did this as a kindness, I believe, a gesture of good will between us. I already had bought several masks and other art pieces at her store and paid for them. She had nothing to gain except my smile.

As I dusted the Buddha during my weekly housecleaning one day, this thought occurred to me: the gift was given with no knowledge of how I would receive it. I might just as easily have seen this as worthless junk and tossed it in the nearest trash can. Or I might have put it in some jewelry box when I returned home and never glanced at it again. Or. Or … yes, I might have looked at this small gift in the way I do, as an object I genuinely appreciate and use to enhance my life. That thought led me to another. Isn’t the same true of our own gifts, the talent and experience and enthusiasm we can share with others? All we can do is to give these, with no knowledge of how they will be received. Just like the Buddha from my friend in Bangkok. We only have the power to hand out our individual treasures to the world. What the world does with them is entirely up to others to decide. That’s a lesson worth sharing with the kids in our life.

Almost Time for School

Heron Heights Elementary gets the anti-bullying message / (Photo by Andrew Leone, Children's Services Council of Broward County)

POSTED BY: BOB KNOTTS

The new school year fast approaches us — wow, where did the summer go, huh? But we’re excited about it at the Humanity Project. We’ll soon be telling you about some new programs we’re introducing, new ways for us to help your kids. Remember, that’s our thing: “Helping kids to help kids!” It means we work with kids to develop programs for other kids, then implement those programs … for free. So as a reminder, here are our major programs as they stand at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year. Again, we offer these at no cost to you or your school. Give us a shout so we can help you to help your kids!

Anti-bullying Through The Arts — This is the Humanity Project’s all-original anti-bullying program for grades K – 5. This program begins with a live 40-minute assembly that includes a positive rap song, roleplaying, stories and a music video – all created and produced by the Humanity Project. The program continues with follow-up classroom materials and, when requested, classroom visits. It is entertaining, memorable and effective. Pre/post testing since the first program in 2009 consistently has shown Anti-bullying Through The Arts is highly effective.

“I Care!” Teen Driver Safety – “I Care!” was created by talented high school authors working under the guidance of the Humanity Project. They wrote a book called, “I Care/Just Let Me Drive!” and this innovative teen-to-teen creation forms the foundation of our program. “I Care!” uses all-original rap poetry, quizzes, stories, even a comic book as a fun but powerful way to communicate memorable lessons about safe driving. But then the program asks students to share this book with their three best friends (and parents), who all must read the book and pledge to drive more attentively — not out of fear but rather out of friendship. The message is simple: “Don’t drive safely for yourself. Do it for your best friends (or kids), who want to keep you in one piece because they care about you.” The “I Care!” program now also includes a special website created by teens, for teens as well as original videos, Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and Instagram pages and more.

Thp4kids — “The Humanity Project 4 Kids” can be found at thp4kids.com. It is a special, teen-created website made for an equally special group of kids: socially isolated teens, including many in the LGBT community. Like all our programs, the website’s content is all-original from the Humanity Project: videos, music, blogs and poetry, interactive games and quizzes and more. This unique website functions as on online friend and advisor for struggling students who feel disengaged from family and friends in the everyday world.

Please use our Contact page to email us for more information. We look forward to hearing from you!