Community of Respect™ Suggested Activities

Each activity must provide an opportunity to LEARN about the issues, DISCUSS the issues and ACT upon the issues.  

Please note that signing the Intent Form and the Resolution of Respect is the first step to becoming a Community of Respect™ Partner and therefore cannot be counted as an activity.

IN YOUR HOME

1. Know your roots and share your pride in your heritage with others.
2. Celebrate holidays with extended family. Use such opportunities to encourage storytelling and share personal experiences across generations.
3. Invite friends from backgrounds different from your own to experience the joy of your traditions and customs.
4. Be mindful of your language; avoid stereotypical remarks and challenge those made by others.
5. Speak out against jokes and slurs that target people or groups. Silence sends a message that you are in agreement. It is not enough to refuse to laugh.
6. Be knowledgeable; provide as much accurate information as possible to reject harmful myths and stereotypes. Discuss as a family the impact of prejudicial attitudes and behavior.
7. Plan family outings to diverse neighborhoods in and around your community and visit local museums, galleries and exhibits that celebrate art forms of different cultures.
8. Visit important landmarks in your area associated with the struggle for human and civil rights such as museums, public libraries and historical sites.
9. Research your family tree and trace your family's involvement in the struggle for civil and human rights or the immigration experience. Identify personal heroes and positive role models.
10. Read and encourage your children to read books that promote understanding of different cultures and abilities as well as those that are written by authors of diverse backgrounds. Visit our website at www.adl.org/bibliography for a list of recommended multicultural and anti-bias books for children.
    

IN YOUR WORKPLACE

1. Make respect for diversity a core value in your company and articulate it as such in the company’s handbook/employee manual.
2. Provide ongoing awareness programs about the value of human diversity for all employees in the organization.
3. Take advantage of diversity consultants and training programs such as the A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute’s A WORKPLACE OF DIFFERENCE™ to assist you with ongoing education.
4. Incorporate diversity as a business goal. Secure a high degree of commitment from all employees.
5. Become aware and respectful of individual work styles.
6. Create an environment conducive to the exploration of diversity.
7. Learn about co-workers' backgrounds and share your own. Ask questions that invite explanation and answer with the same.
8. Create a display area where employees can post notices of events and activities happening in their communities.
9. Publish and distribute to all staff a list of ethnic and/or religious holidays and the meaning of the customs associated with celebrating them.
10. Sponsor a lunchtime "brown-bag" series that features speakers on diversity topics.
11. Sponsor a mentoring program and reach out to students in local high schools and colleges.
12. Provide opportunities to attend local cultural events and exhibits.
13. Brainstorm additional ways to create a Community of Respect™.
14. Do pro-bono-work in minority/ethnically diverse communities.
15. Adopt, mentor and share with another company that is interested in becoming a Community of Respect™ Partner
    

IN YOUR HOUSE OF WORSHIP

1. Urge your leaders to use the pulpit to condemn all forms of bigotry.
2. Encourage friends of other faiths to visit your religious services and share your religious knowledge with them.
3. Invite clergy representing religions different from your own to participate in services and deliver the sermon.
4. Host a tour for elected and appointed city/town officials to learn more about your religion and the programs and activities your religious community offers.
5. Ensure that all faiths are represented accurately in existing library materials and religious school curricula.
6. Reach out to diverse religious communities to co-sponsor festivals and holiday observances that highlight and celebrate our common humanity.
7. Be respectful of everyone who attends your religious services whether they are members of or visitors to your congregation.
8. Turn one bulletin board into a display space where newspaper and magazine clippings depicting current events related to anti-Semitism and other forms of religious persecution, or human rights violations, can be posted for all to read.
9. Organize an interfaith retreat for young people to increase understanding of each other's beliefs and build lasting friendships.
10. Plan an interfaith youth group trip to Holocaust Museum Houston or raise funds to cover travel expenses to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
11. Adopt, mentor and share with another house of worship that is interested in becoming a Community of Respect™ Partner.
    

IN YOUR COMMUNITY

1. Establish a Human Rights Commission and a Community Watch Group in your city/town.
2. Organize a local multicultural committee that serves as an umbrella organization for groups which raise awareness about prejudice and provide support for cultural events, holiday programs or community efforts that promote intergroup harmony.
3. Volunteer to serve on one of these organizations' committees and work to support their initiatives.
4. Provide ongoing awareness programs about the value of human diversity for all city employees and community leaders.
5. Incorporate diversity as a community goal. Secure a high degree of commitment from community leaders.
6. Create a display area or web site where citizens can post notices of events and activities happening in their communities.
7. Sponsor a mentoring program and reach out to students in neighborhood schools.
8. Sponsor a lunchtime "brown-bag" series that features speakers on diversity topics for community members.
9. Establish an event that supports the health and welfare of society.
10. Petition government officials to issue a proclamation making your city/town a prejudice-free zone and a No Place for Hate® community.
11. Plan a community-wide "Walk/Run Against Hate" in which sponsored participants would donate all monies pledged to an anti-bias or other human rights organization.
12. Become aware of your city/town's demographics and compare it to others around the state to better understand the diversity in your community.
13. Hold a community "Human Rights Day."
14. Build a community float that promotes understanding and respect for the diversity of your community and march in local and state parades. Contact parade officials to make sure that groups of all different backgrounds are invited to march.
15. Suggest to your local newspaper that it devote a corner of the editorial page each month to at least one opinion piece relating to anti-prejudice and pro-diversity themes.
16. Meet with school and community librarians and local bookstores to discuss ways to highlight literature that is representative of all cultures.
17. Compile a citizen's directory of the businesses and organizations that exist to support diverse groups in the community.
18. Research your town/community's involvement in struggles for civil and human rights throughout history, e.g. abolition, the civil rights movement etc., and create an exhibit for the local library/town hall.
19. Discuss alternative accessibility routes such as ramps, stairs and elevators in your community and invite speakers into your school and community groups to talk about such initiatives.
20. Make sure your public facilities accommodate the needs of all residents.
21. Collect traditional family recipes from local residents for a community cookbook. Solicit ads to support the cost of reproducing and distributing the book as part of a welcome wagon program.
22. Organize a city-wide "Hoops for Harmony”" basketball tournament with proceeds from ticket sales going to a local non-profit organization that promotes awareness of and respect for diversity.
23. Hold a "Paint-Out Day" to eliminate graffiti that promotes bigotry and culminate the effort with a potluck supper.
24. Create opportunities to learn about neighbors' backgrounds and share your own. Ask questions that invite explanation and answer with the same.
25. Encourage local school districts to create opportunities for schools in their district to become No Place for Hate® sites.
26. Foster respect, sensitivity and understanding by putting together small groups of culturally diverse people and having them interact in informal settings.
27. Plant a community diversity garden that is representative of the various cultures and ethnicities within your community.