There are times, situations and personalities sometimes involved that may not be best suited for an immediate intervention when you hear someone use the R-word. It simply may be best at times to walk away from a situation, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still do good after walking away.
The best way to promote any ‘good’ you want to see happen in your school, community or other part of your life is to constantly reinforce your own positive behavior and attitude, and provide continuing opportunities for education so others can follow your lead. Below are a few ideas. (TIP: Whichever activity best suits your need, be sure to invite that person you heard use the R-word!)
In school, that may mean simply wearing your Spread the Word to End the Word t-shirt a couple of times a month and preparing yourself to answer questions from friends about what the t-shirt promotes.
It could also mean talking to a teacher, coach or administrator about integrating a video, speech, pledge drive or other awareness opportunity into a school assembly, classroom lesson or team activity.
In the community or workplace it could mean talking to leaders, influencers, human resources, business owners or others who can provide elevated platforms of awareness for Spread the Word to End the Word messaging or engagement opportunities.
If you are active online, it could mean writing a blog post, contributing to a newsletter, posting a status update of support on your social networking profiles, or maybe even an email to the person you heard use the word to explain your point of view, share a personal story, and let them know you understand they probably didn't mean to be hurtful and ask them to consider using a different word.
Activation Ideas
- Is there a block party or community meeting coming up in your neighborhood? Ask about setting up a pledge booth, invite a local Special Olympics athlete, Best Buddies participant or self-advocate to come and speak with your neighbors.
- Do you belong to an email listserv? Ask the moderator to include a paragraph to promote the campaign and share a brief paragraph of a personal story on what it means to you and why you want people to pledge.
- Does your office solicit ideas for team building activities or corporate social opportunities? Submit a proposal on why activating around Spread the Word to End the Word would be perfect for your office.
- Does your church have monthly activities or educational themes and need ideas? Use the platform of building communities of respect for all human beings as a natural bridge to activating the congregation around Spread the Word to End the Word.
- Do you have more ideas? Have you successfully held a similar activity that you’d like to share so others can learn from your experience? Tell us about it so we can include it here! Email info@specialolympics.org and share the details!