Gratitude Projects
- In major cities, a gratitude project can be executed through a service organization or through an employer. Individuals and neighborhood associations, as well as not-for-profits organizations, can begin their own gratitude projects. Some ideas include giving backpacks filled with school supplies to school children in neighborhoods-in-need, handing sanitary and health supplies to individuals living on the street and cleaning up a park in need of care.
- In a smaller community, individuals tend to know each other and the needs of the community intimately. However, with this intimacy is also a sense of lost anonymity; in a bigger center it is easy to give away items without knowing who the recipient is, often affording a recipient dignity. Approach this with caution in a smaller community and ensure that recipients of donations have privacy respected: give turkeys and cooked meals during the holidays, but make sure the names of recipients are protected by the donating organization.
- Gratitude projects are also possible in the workplace. Adopt a charity at home or in another part of the world and send books, computer equipment or medical equipment. Ideas for gratitude projects can also be smaller scale and in-house versus within the outside world. Helping fellow coworkers with their workload or adopting a policy that every staff member sends three personalized thank you notes to colleagues they do not know well each month are just some of these simple yet gracious, effective ideas.
- Gratitude projects should also be taught and executed in schools. School children learn leadership skills from service learning -- learning in which they act and learn from the experiencing of leading. Implementing a community project that gives back to others is a prime example of such an initiative. Ideas for school projects include a "thank you" day to seniors in the community for all they teach others or a mural painted by schoolchildren at a local hospital.
