Two years ago ProGroup launched an effort to officially proclaim Celebrate Diversity Month. We obtained corporate supporters and went to Congress asking it to make this an official national month. Our effort has proven to be more challenging than we ever thought. But we aren't giving up.
With feedback from our clients, schools, and communities we are encouraged to persevere. We changed the official month to APRIL to make sure it didn't interfere with other designated months and published it in our Honoring Differences Calendar for 2007. To our delight people have responded very favorably. Events are being planned, we have received requests for information on how to celebrate, and the momentum is starting to build.

It has always been our hope that Celebrate Diversity Month will be an inclusive celebration. Unlike Black History Month or Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, each of which focuses on one identity group, Celebrate Diversity Month brings together all of our uniqueness in ways that allow sharing and greater understanding. It's about appreciating our differences, as well as our commonalities.

So we encourage you to make APRIL your official Celebrate Diversity Month. Sponsor a lunch-and-learn, create table displays, and plan opportunities for your employees to share their experiences through stories, photos, music, or art. Try some foods you have never eaten. It doesn't take much to let people around you know that you are interested in learning more about them. And, don't forget to let them know about you and your uniqueness, too.

Check out www.celebratediversitymonth.org to learn more about the celebration and to get a few more ideas on how to celebrate. Share your ideas on that site as well. Then keep watching for the official designation. We hope we can find a champion in Congress who is willing to focus on something fun and positive and carry our message forward.

Here are two quick ideas to open a Celebrate Diversity Month activity:

1. Pass out colored dots to each of your employees, students, or team members at the beginning of the week. Each person gets one color. Three colors of dots generally work well for most groups. During the week group members must NOT sit with anyone having the same colored dot, unless work requires it or they are instructed to do so.* That means at lunch and on breaks, they will talk to a variety of people, and it is hoped, meet new people. Provide a quick list of questions that they might use to open a conversation with each other, such as:
   • What is your favorite time of year? Why?
   • What is a family tradition that is special for you? Why?
   • What is your favorite comfort food? Why?
   • What life event, wedding, birth, funeral, etc., have you most recently taken part in? What was it like?
   *To make this even more interesting, designate tables in the lunchroom for those with the same colored dots to sit at. Then you might provide conversation sheets or connection cards for discussion. More ideas along this line can be found at http://www.tolerance.org/images/teach/mix_it_up/MIX06_planner.pdf


2. Start a meeting or have lunch buddies open Celebrate Diversity Month conversations with the simple activity "Three Truths and One Lie." Each person tells three true statements about something that makes him or her unique and one false statement. The other person must guess which is the false statement. While very simple, this is a fun way for individuals to learn about each other. It opens the door to more conversation and builds connections. It can also become part of the first activity.