Kindness Project

“Kindness in the classroom, research lab, and beyond.”

Background

What originally stemmed from complex situations of unkindness in an academic setting at UBC, has blossomed into an initiative to bring more kindness, to the UBC campus as well as other campuses.

The Kindness Project was established in 2019.  This project aims to embed more kindness into academic culture, policies, and structures. It also aims to embed more kindness into the culture at large, and into mentorship of others, including students, staff, and faculty.

Culture change requires multiple interventions, relationships, and supportive networks, which the Kindness Project continually fosters. It also requires dialogue and open communication. Promoting explicit discussions about kindness is an essential strategy.

Vision

The Kindness Project envisions a kinder culture at UBC, in academia, and beyond. We imagine a more compassionate world, that promotes kindness through appreciative inquiry, education, advocacy and conversations for academia and beyond that spur collective community action.

Mission

The mission of the Kindness Project is to foster transdisciplinary culture change by a hub of change-makers who are catalyzing a kinder academic culture and world culture through networking, collaboration, reflective practice, and action-orientated initiatives.

Why Kindness?

Kindness involves compassionate action and caring. Kindness can be to ourselves, others in our immediate community, others in the broader community, and even to other living beings and our planet. Kindness helps makes lives better. It allows us to connect with others and build meaningful relationships.

Working Group

The Kindness Project working group is an interdisciplinary team (e.g. medicine, education, biology, sustainability, etc.) and network of faculty, staff, and students (undergraduate, graduate and alma mater) who are dedicated to making the world kinder, especially with respect to:

(i) conflict resolution
(ii) environmental sustainability, such as plant-based programming (food and botany/nature walks)
(iii) mental health and
(iv) equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Collaborators

While originally at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Kindness Project is now global in scope with collaborators in kindness from other institutions (e.g., University of Victoria, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, University of Notre Dame, University of Manitoba) and also collaborators from non-academic contexts. The Kindness Project is also working in collaboration with UBC’s Conflict Theatre to creatively and kindly explore conflict, as conflict is common in academia and life in general.