WHEREAS, Peter Yarrow, of the singing group Peter, Paul and Mary, was struck by the song
Don’t Laugh At Me
,
brought to his attention by his daughter, which chronicles the pain of being made fun of because you are different; and
WHEREAS, Peter Yarrow was so moved by the song, by what he calls “the heart’s connection,” that he founded Operation Respect; and
WHEREAS, Operation Respect is an organization that seeks to combat the inequities that result from bullying, name calling and intolerance; and
WHEREAS, Over the past three years more than 100,000 copies of Operation Respect manuals, videos and CD’s have been read or downloaded for free from their website; and
WHEREAS, The mission of Operation Respect, through
Don’t Laugh At Me
,
is to nurture children’s emotional, social and ethical development through character education, conflict resolution, and teaching tolerance programs; and
WHEREAS, Operation Respect has many components: learning how to express their feelings, what it means to be a caring being, walking in another’s shoes, how to resolve conflict and diversity; and
WHEREAS, The program includes the following units: 1)
Being You, Being Me, Being Us
teaches children how to express their feelings; 2)
I Care, You Care, We Care
focuses on caring, compassion and consideration; 3)
Words That Hurt, Words That Heal
involves resolving conflict creatively; and 4)
Together We Can
is all about celebrating diversity; and
WHEREAS, The program came to Philadelphia after a Mt. Airy resident met Peter Yarrow and brought Operation Respect to the attention of the Mt. Airy Schools committee and other community groups; and
WHEREAS, This year, Operation Respect is a pilot program at seven schools in the Northwest Region:
Henry, AMY-Northwest
and
Houston
are target schools and will receive direct program support and training from Operation Respect. And
Lindgelbach, Day, Emlen
and
Jenks
will receive their program training through the target schools; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That City Council Hereby Recognize, Honor, and Celebrate Operation Respect – for it’s mission of aiding schools’ efforts to nurture children’s emotional, social and ethical development through character education, conflict resolution, and teaching tolerance programs.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Peter Yarrow – Founder of Operation Respect, further evidencing the sincere admiration and gratitude of this legislative body.
End