This week, associations, businesses, schools, organisations, institutions and individuals across the UK will celebrate Kindness Day (Friday 13^th November). This joyful celebration aims to increase the value of kindness in society as well as increase the amount of kind acts that take place, making kindness a greater part in our daily life.

 Kindness Day UK is affiliated with the World Kindness Movement (WKM) which is a coalition of like minded organisations containing 18 member nations.

To celebrate Kindness Day UK we have pinpointed some examples of kind acts you can perform but remember that there’s so many more where these came from. Feel free to comment with your suggestions below. 

Environmental

1. Undertake a litter pick in your local area. To get involved with litter picking visit Litter Action 
2. When possible, share travel with those who live near you
3. Walk or cycle to reduce your carbon footprint
4. Volunteer for an environmental charity or organisation. f you have a special skill that can help charity, you can offer your time in the volunteering section on Charity Choice and let charities approach you directly.
5. Make a vegetable patch and grow your own produce
6. Turn off electrical items at the plug socket
7. Buy recycled and recyclable products
8. Choose reusable products rather than disposable
9. Donate clothes to a charity shop or offer them to friends instead of throwing them out
10. Only take or cook as much food as you can eat to avoid wasting it
11. Turn the lights off when you leave a room
12. Take your own bag shopping or buy a ‘bag for life’
13. Make your own cleaning products from everyday ingredients like lemon juice and vinegar
14. Learn how to compost
15. Free-cycle, post anything that you don’t need anymore online, free to collector
16. Buy in bulk and use concentrated products – so that you use less packaging

Community

1. Sign the petition asking the United Nations to make ‘World Kindness Day’ (13th November) a globally recognised day
2. Help an elderly neighbour take the bins out
3. Send an appreciative text to a friend or family member
4. Buy a coffee for the person behind you
5. Call and chat to someone you think might be lonely
6. Offer to look after a friend’s pet while they are on holiday
7. Take a minute to help someone even if you’re in a rush
8. Offer to do a food shop for an elderly neighbour
9. Help a mother carry her pushchair upstairs
10. Take the time to get to know your colleagues
11. Say good morning to everyone on your way into work and good evening on your way home
12. Send a thank you email to a friend or colleague
13. Sign up to the organ donor register
14. Ask people to donate to your chosen charity instead of giving a gift on your birthday
15. Give someone a compliment – it can make their day, week or year!
16. Offer to buy a drink or some food for a homeless person
17. Go through your possessions and donate items you no longer use to charity
18. Support charities and good causes on your social media pages
19. Take the time to really listen to someone
20. Give blood
21. Donate coats and blankets to a homeless shelter particularly in the winter
22. Share positive posts on your social media pages
23. Say thank you more
24. In your spare time, volunteer at a charity shop
25. Pick out good causes on the internet and ‘like’ or ‘follow’ them
26. Put your loose change in a charity box

Nature

1. Adopt a rescued animal as your pet
2. Write a blog about kindness to nature
3. When gardening, plant different types and species to support a range of wildlife
4. Attract bugs and amphibians to your garden by creating a woodpile
5. Feed ducks in the park
6. Try to reduce your meat consumption e.g. have a meat-free day
7. Make a bird house and leave bird seed out, particularly on wintry days
8. Rescue an insect when it is trapped in the bath
9. Take your pet for a walk and give it verbal reinforcements
10. Donate to a nature charity (this can be one focused on animals, sea-life, conservation of natural habitats etc).
11. Make a house for hedgehogs
12. Volunteer for a nature charity
13. In winter; if you have a pond, make sure you check it every day for ice. If a pond freezes over, carefully place a saucepan of hot water on the surface to gently melt a hole in the ice to protect the wildlife
14. Disturb piles of garden rubbish before having a bonfire to check that no animals, like hedgehogs, are hiding there
15. Get involved with recording animals and plants where you live
16. Use pesticides only as a last resort
17. Help search for a missing pet
18. Donate old towels or blankets to an animal shelter
19. Make a bee home and fix it in your garden
20. Put up a nest box up during National Nest Box Week to help increase the number of suitable nesting spaces for birds
21. Take part in a wildlife survey – surveys are essential for assessing the status and needs of wildlife

 Hundreds of further examples can be viewed at the good deeds website www.thegooddeedsorganisation.com