Recognizing, Honoring, and Celebrating 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.

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