Mediate BC Blog

Calling All Conflict Resolution Professionals! What are you doing during the Annual Melee of Kindness?

Posted by Sharon.Sutherland

During COVID-19, the conflict resolution community has been “walking the talk” – collaborating to support each other and people in conflict with immeasurable generosity, empathy, and kindness. 

Amazing people throughout the Pacific Northwest (time zone matters more than nationality in online connections) have offered:

  • Free and open sharing of resources
  • Presentations and webinars for the mediation community itself and for the public
  • Online conversations full of encouragement and kind thoughts with friends old and new
  • Online Communities of Practice and “Lounges

At Mediate BC, our staff team is buoyed by this community energy and has decided to amplify the mood by joining the Annual Melee of Kindness (AMOK) run by Random Acts (a non-profit whose mission is to inspire acts of kindness around the world both big and small). Our staff is committing to carry out and share one act of kindness each day from May 23 to May 31.

Why do we share our acts of kindness? For many, kindness is something to do privately, even secretly. Kindness that is seen can be conflated with acts that are really intended to garner praise or recognition for the doer, rather than benefit the recipient. Unfortunately, when kindness is hidden, and we are bombarded with images of conflict in traditional media and across our social media channels, we can lose sight of just how common kindness truly is. Seeing kindness can contribute to optimism, hope, and the desire to share more kindness; so join us in embracing the opportunity AMOK presents to amplify and normalize the kindnesses we see every day!

The Mediate BC Plan

Our staff thinks it will be fun to share daily kindness “themes” through AMOK. We’ll all be starting with the same inspiration each day, but may very well take things in quite different directions. We would love to have others in the conflict resolution community join us – for one day or all eight!

First, register with Random Acts! Registration is free – it just helps the organization to track and amplify the acts of kindness inspired by its mission.

Then join us in sharing an act of kindness each day between May 23 and May 31. Use the hashtags #AMOKRA20 and #MBCKindness, and tag both @MediateBCSoc and @RandomActsOrg.

Mediate BC is planning to use these themes for AMOK.

  • May 23 –  Acknowledge someone who is important to you. This might be a teacher, mentor, close friend or perhaps it’s a front-line worker, essential service provider, or kind stranger. Write them a letter, send them an email, share a story about them, or otherwise let people know about how important they are.
  • May 24 –  Share recommendations for local businesses providing important services during the state of emergency. Give your favourites a shout out!
  • May 25 – Offer your time to someone new to your field. If you’re a Roster mediator, reach out to an Associate Roster mediator to offer ideas, tips, or just some time to answer questions.
  • May 26 – Call a senior. You may know someone in your family or in your neighbourhood who is isolated and feeling vulnerable. Reach out to them by phone or offer to lend a helping hand with errands. Or register with BC211 to be matched to a senior in need of help.
  • May 27 – Peer support day! Join or host an online get together with one or more colleagues to share ideas for maintaining community support and connection.
  • May 28 – Support a local artist! Watch an online concert and make a donation to a musician, check out an online theatre offering, visit the Social Distancing Festival, commission or buy work by a favourite artist. We’ll post our ideas that day – share your own!
  • May 29 – Self Care Day – Be kind to yourself! And share what you do to inspire others – and give them “permission” to also be kind to themselves.
  • May 30 - Make and share “#GratitudeBots. Check out Gary Hirsch’s wonderful project for sharing gratitude in his community and beyond. Gary makes his bots out of dominoes, but you can make and share tokens of gratitude in many, many forms – painted rocks, jenga blocks, clothespins (which can clip on), or any small items that you have on hand. Share the power of gratitude with someone you appreciate.
  • May 31 - Support a local charity or not-for-profit. And be sure to share your reasons for support!

Join Mediate BC in its first Annual Melee of Kindness!

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Mediate BC tries to provide valuable information to inform the public about effective conflict resolution. This blog is one of the ways we're doing that. See all the blog posts here.

 

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