The Kindness Foundation reaches out into communities, both locally and globally, inspiring each of us to find ways of being more kind in our daily lives, to accept personal responsibility for creating the change we wish to see in our world ... to be that change.

The Kindness Foundation offers Kindness Counts Toolkits that engage individuals, groups and organizations in performing simple acts of kindness; acts resulting in subtle yet powerful ripples of positive energy spreading out in ever widening circles.

The Kindness Foundation offers a host of kindness related resources, such as kindness stories, kindness quotes, links to other kindness sites, and a variety of ‘kind action ideas’ that can be easily implemented by individuals, families, schools, work places and other groups, anyone wanting to make kindness a part of their culture and a way of life.

The Kindness Foundation offers volunteer opportunities for those wanting to help create kinder communities.

The Kindness Foundation offers scholarship/project funding for senior secondary students already engaged in helping make their world a kinder place.

The Kindness Counts @ School Toolkits (lesson plans) were designed as a proactive character building program. We purposely took a positive, proactive approach rather than focusing on anything negative. Our goal is to improve student’s understanding of the power of individual words and actions in the creation of a positive, accepting, safe, and kind school culture. This understanding, like all learning, will reach beyond the school to enrich their lives and the lives of others within the greater community.

The resource includes a series of lessons (toolkit) on each of the following aspects of kindness; Courage, Compassion, Integrity, Self-Awareness, Respect, Generosity, Gratitude, Inclusion, and Optimism. The toolkits were developed with an upper intermediate audience in mind and are aligned with the British Columbia, Prescribed Learning Outcomes for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Health and Career Education. However, the toolkits would be appropriate and easily adapted for use at other grade levels.

The environment for the development of appropriate self-regulation and social responsibility does not exist in the greater community as it has in the past. For most students schools are increasingly important as the community where they learn and practice these important skills so that they can be carried forward as students move on into high school and their adult lives. This learning is one of the most important contributions that schools make toward the creation and maintenance of a civil society and why schools remain important institutions in our society. Schools, therefore, have and must continue to take on more and more of the responsibility for the development of social responsibility in their students.

The toolkits are not intended to be used in any particular order nor is it necessary to present all of the lessons within a particular year or grade level. Our intent was to develop a resource that would offer the most flexibility to teachers and schools as we try to nurture the development of social responsibility within our students. The variety of lessons allows teachers or schools to find some alignment between a school goal, a district initiative, a student leadership program, or an identified need within a school, class, or grade level. We feel that they could become an important part of any school’s or a district’s ‘Erase Strategy’ or other social responsibility initiatives.

It is hoped that by working through any of the lessons in our resource, students will understand, develop and have an opportunity to practice these important components of kindness and witness their posit influence in action.

Ms. C. Chow, a Vancouver Elementary School teacher said, “I was motivated to use the toolkits by the values presented in the lessons. I used several of the toolkits and presented the lessons exactly as laid out in the resource. I found the lessons easy to follow and the activities kept the students engaged and excited about the topics.”

If you would like more information please feel free to contact:

Mike McEwan

Principal, David Lloyd George Elementary School, Vancouver.
Work: 604-713-4841 or email me

Location

Vancouver, BC, Canada