Everyone lives in multiple communities within their neighborhoods, schools, religious settings, work and other organized social settings. Unfortunately, these settings are not always nurturing, inclusive, and encouraging. Communities need to be shaped and formed over time to become places of positive impact for both the individual and the group.

The answer to why support Communities of Kindness rests in answering the following questions:

• Do you want your child to be unhappy or happy?
• Do you prefer being happy or unhappy?
• Do you like interacting with unkind or kind individuals?

How to Achieve a Community of Kindness?

1. Institute research-based systematic strategies including the formation and adoption of mutual agreements amongst all community members. Community members discuss, seek and consent to implement agreements that ensure a community of kindness. Making and keeping agreements.

2. Acts of unkindness must be addressed immediately and can not be tolerated. Kindness must receive more attention than unkindness. A simple strategy of teaching teachers the 3:1 rule works wonders; acknowledge the good three times as often as the negative. Learning to encourage and recognize good behavior.

3. Children are taught to observe, contribute, and practice purposeful acts of kindness within their school communities until kindness becomes second nature to them. Being a responsible community member.

4. Schools must teach the art of negotiation and problem solving permeating every facet of education on an ongoing basis rather than an elective. Getting sent to the Principal's Office could become the best thing that ever happened, if it was to hear what you did right and not what you did wrong. Encouraged to negotiate and problem solve.

Community of Kindness is about all relationships...relationships couched in increased tolerance, instruction of positive behavioral strategies and assuring a pervasive climate of kindness for ourselves, for others, for our world. Kindness must no longer be random, it must be a way of life for all of us.

"It’s all about relationships.” – Reva Metzger, Former Program Director, and as always a very kind person