101 Tools for
Tolerance
Simple Ideas for Promoting Equity
and Celebrating Diversity*
Ideas for Your Community
*A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center www.tolerance.org
|
|
101 Tools for
Tolerance Ideas for Your Community *A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center www.tolerance.org |
|
| 1. Frequent minority-owned businesses and get to know the proprietors. | 2. Participate in a blood drive, or clean up a local stream. Identify issues that reach across racial, ethnic and other divisions and forge alliances for tackling them. | 3. Start a monthly "diversity roundtable" to discuss critical issues facing your community. Establish an equity forum. |
| 4. Hold a community-wide yard sale and use the proceeds to improve a park or community center. Celebrate the event with a picnic. | 5. Sponsor a Conflict Resolution Team. | 6. Build a community peace garden. |
| 7. Make copies of the Declaration of Tolerance , encourage others to sign the pledge, and return it to 101 Tools, c/o Tolerance.org, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery AL 36104. | 8. Start a "language bank" of volunteer interpreters for all languages used in your community. | 9. Encourage your local public officials to be tolerance activists. |
| 10. Create a town Web Site. | 11. Host a "multicultural extravaganza" such as a food fair or art, fashion and talent show. | 12. Create a mobile "street library" to make multicultural books and films widely available. |
| 13. Establish an ecumenical alliance. Bring people of diverse faiths together for retreats, workshops or potluck dinners. Be welcoming to agnostics and atheists, too. | 14. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper encouraging stories of all segments of your community, especially stories emphasizing cooperation and tolerance. | 15. Start a campaign to establish a multi-cultural center for the arts. Ask local museums to host exhibits and events reflecting diversity at home and elsewhere. |
| 16. Present a "disabilities awareness" event with the help of a local rehabilitation organization. | 17. Make sure that anti-discrimination protection in your community extends to gay and lesbian people. | 18. Encourage law enforcement agencies to establish diversity training for all officers, to utilize community-based policing and to eliminate the use of inequitable tactics like racial profiling. |
| 19. Give copies of our Intelligence Report to law enforcement agencies in your community. Do officers receive training about hate groups, hate crimes and domestic terrorism? | 20. Ask for a free copy of our publication Ten Ways to Fight Hate and become a community activist against hate groups and hate crimes. |
21. Conduct a "diaper equity" survey of local establishments. Commend managers who provide changing tables in men's as well as women's restrooms. |