Acts of Kindness

Each day we can act kindly and be the change we want to see in the world. Here are some ideas for kind actions in all areas of life. Visit our friends for Kindness Resources for schools

By myself: small things

1. Smile and say hello to passers by on your walk.
2. When talking on the phone, smile. The smile will come through in your voice.
3. Pay someone a compliment (it’s kind to be sensitive and politically correct!).
4. Open a door for someone.
5. Offer to help someone with their bags.
6. Call your friend or a special family member: Tell them you were thinking of them and love them.
7. Choose to forgive someone you were angry or disappointed with.
8. Drop coins in a parking meter that is about to expire. Why not even leave behind a Kindness Card?
9. Recognise an act of kindness with giving an activated Kindness Card.
10. Give away an unactivated Kindness Card and inspire others to acknowledge Kindness acts.
11. Tweet or Post Kindness messages to your followers and friends.
12. Share your lunch with someone who does not have any.
13. Buy lunch for a homeless person.
14. Keep someone company who may be on their own.
15. Ask someone new to join your conversation, your activity or your play.
16. Stop someone from getting bullied. “We are better than this” “Is this the best we can be?”
17. Remind people, politely, they are gossiping and offer the opportunity to speak directly with the person they are talking about.
18. If the person behind you in the shopping queue only has a few items, consider asking them if they would like to go ahead of you.

 

By myself: substantial things

1. Help someone find a job  or a home.
2. Sponsor a child family or village through a charity.
3. Offer a pet shelter your time.
4. Return a stray dog to its owner.
5. Adopt a stray dog from death row … remember not to lose him.
6. Advertise a different Kindness slogan in the local paper every week for a month (Include a link to www.worldkindnessaustralia.org)
7. Give up smoking and donate money you would otherwise spend on cigarettes to a Cancer foundation. 

 

With others

1. Have a mini 1-hour cleanup of a park or beach with friends.
2. Go as a group to donate blood to the Red Cross Blood Bank.
3. Compile and share a list of 10 things you like about each other.
4. Organise a fundraiser to raise funds for a worthy cause.
5. Form a group of “Kindness Commandos” who commit random acts of kindness to strangers during lunch breaks or communting time.
6. Start a health campaign: Get sponsored to lose weight and donate to famine relief, or get supplements for stress as kratom capsules.

 

 

At work

1. Fetch a cup of tea, coffee or water from for a colleague who needs refreshment.
2. Bring fresh flowers to work and place them where others can enjoy them.
3. Bring excess garden produce to work, put them in the kitchen so others can share the bounty.
4. When you meet someone new, make an effort to remember their name and something kind about them.
5. When phoning someone, ask “Have I phoned at a good time?”. If they are busy, ask when you can call back.
6. Give people the benefit of the doubt.
7. Sponsor Kindness Cards for local school or Charity as part of your company’s CSR
8. Arrange for an intranet page dedicated to Kindness and ways to participate in global Kindness campaign.
9. Collect kindness-at-work stories and share at meetings and in newsletters.
10. Create and promote a Kindness slogan for your company to use internally.

 

At school

1. Get your class to paint a wall of kindness slogans. A “Class Act Of Kindness”!
2. Ask your teacher to invite someone from a charity to talk about their work they do.
3. Get your classmates to make get well cards for sick children.
4. Exchanges stories with your classmates to learn about different cultures and choices.
5. Class Acts Of Kindness. Appoint 2-3 Student Goodwill Ambassadors from a Hat/Box to create a Class Action of Kindness for each Month. Class votes at the end of the year for the best Class Act of Kindness.
6. Help someone with their home work.
7. Write letters to important people asking them to help save the environment.
8. Arrange to work with the RSPCA and local Vet for cruelty-to-animal prevention.
9. Take part in local Council Community Projects – it’s your community too!
10. Rehearse a Kindness anthem with friends (“Put a little Love in your heart”) and sing it to others to cheer them up.

More Resources for Schools

At home

1. Spend a few minutes going through your old photos, and send whatever you can part with to the people in the photos.
2. When your child talks to you, given them your full attention and also take them to the best dentist you can find if you click here.
3. Don’t offer, just wash up after dinner, vacuum the floor, dust the cupboards or wash the dog without being asked.
4. Ponder on the real needs of yourself and your family, and respond to them.
5. Offer to take someone’s dog for a walk … and bring it back.
6. When mowing the nature strip, mow the neighbour’s strip as well.
7. If there is a new neighbour in the street or unit block, knock on their door and introduce yourself. You might also like to make up a list of such things as what night the garbage bin goes out, the phone number of a good electrician and plumber, the service station with the lowest petrol prices, the local volunteer organisations, your name and telephone number, and so on. This will give your new neighbour a pleasant ‘welcome’ message.
8. Be the best role model you can be to your family and your neighbours.
9. Offer to babysit for a family member or friend or maybe a for a family with a new baby or get inexpensive newborn clothes online for them.
10. Send an thoughtful message to a friend or relative you haven’t been in contact with for some time.

 

In the community

1. Write letters of appreciation to groups who are helping the community, the environment, etc.
2. Take an active interest in the young people from your area, and if the area lacks facilities for them, organise a group to do something about it, or approach a group who could do something about it, or write a letter to your council or local paper.
3. Buy Australian made goods
4. Donate books to a community house library or retirement village.
5. Donate pre-loved clothes to organisations that can distribute them to others.
6. Visit local aged care facilities and become a voluntary companion for a lonely patient. Ask the facility if you can use a skill you have.
7. Take up the cause for an underprivileged group in your area with the local, state, or federal government.
8. Visit a children’s ward at a local hospital and hand out toys.
9. Call a charity and volunteer some time.
10. Go to the assistance of anyone who appears to be in trouble – the person who doesn’t seem to have a coin for the parking meter; someone who looks confused, lost or traumatised; a shopper who can’t reach an item on a high shelf; a driver who might need to be guided into a parking spot; someone who is carrying a heavy or unwieldily parcel, and so on.