World Kindness Week 2022

World Kindness Week runs from 7 to 13 November 2022, with World Kindness Day falling on 13 November 2022.

The movement was originally set up to highlight and promote kindness in society and in day-to-day life.

Kindness can be defined as being friendly, generous, and considerate towards others. It is the use of your time to improve the lives of others around you with no expectation of repayment, financial or otherwise. Acts of kindness can range from the smallest, a smile to a stranger, a cup of tea to a work colleague, to more tangible acts such as the support of a celebrity to a struggling bookshop (Eastern Daily Press).

What is Ashtons doing?

Ashtons Legal take its corporate responsibility very seriously with the sponsorship of charities such as the Royal Papworth Hospital Charity, The Feed in Norwich, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, and Support After Rape & Sexual Violence Leeds but also sponsoring local grassroots and sporting clubs such as Bury Disability FC and the Norfolk Knights Wheelchair Basketball team.

Following the breakout of war in Ukraine, staff organised and took part in collecting items that could be sent and the Ashtons’ Bury office offered up space as a collection point.

This month, staff are contributing to The Feed to help boost their stock for the winter months for those who are financially vulnerable.

Staff are also offered the opportunity to volunteer to support charities with the Ashtons ‘Give A Day’ scheme. There is no expectation of reward (except for perhaps a cup of tea!) other than to enable Ashtons’ staff to provide support to those who are in a vulnerable position, to allow them to access essential support and the same opportunities that others have.

Kindness in society

During lockdown, kindness came to the fore, with many people volunteering to shop for those who had to self-isolate in order to keep them safe. Kindness, once considered to be a weakness, is now being examined by the academic community as a strength and positive aspect of character.

The BBC article ‘What we do and don’t know about kindness’ discusses why people are kind, the physiological response to being kind, and what barriers there are to being kind. The result of the Kindness Study that the BBC undertook showed:

• kind acts are very common
• the most common kind act is to help people when they ask
• two-thirds of people think the pandemic has made us kinder
• there’s a link between kindness and wellbeing
• we worry about our offers of kindness being misinterpreted
• income makes little difference to how kind people are.

World Kindness Week is an opportunity to be kind to people, your family, friends, colleagues at work, and strangers. Even the simplest gesture can make a difference.

Useful resources:

• The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
• Kindness UK