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Kind things to do in your neighborhood

Within walking distance. Most of these are for people you half-know: the faces you recognize on the same street every week and have never actually spoken to.

Showing 1–30 of 162 ideas

• Leave the accessible toilet alone

  It is not the spare one when there is a queue. For some people it is the only one in the building.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger2 people did this

• Read the form out loud for someone

  Around one in six adults reads below the level most official forms are written at.

  Half an hourFreeA neighbor

• Buy two and leave one

  Suspended coffees, paid-forward meals and school-fund top-ups exist. Most people have never noticed the option.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Wait for someone who stammers

  Finishing the sentence of someone who stammers is meant to help and does the opposite every time.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Keep including the person whose language it is not

  Groups drift back into the majority language within minutes, and the one person left out never says anything.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger1 person did this

• Buy from the list rather than guessing

  Food banks and shelters publish exactly what they are short of. Donations that ignore it create sorting work.

  Half an hourUnder $10A stranger

• Give the good version away, not the worn-out one

  Charity shops and refuges throw away an enormous amount of what is donated because it was not really a gift.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Offer to take another child as well

  You are already doing the trip. One more in the car is the cheapest help a parent can give another parent.

  Half an hourFreeA neighbor1 person did this

• Let a child finish the sentence

  Adults complete children's sentences constantly, and the child learns that their version was not worth waiting for.

  5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this

• Ask something other than where they are from

  For anyone who looks or sounds different, it is the first question of every conversation, forever.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Go to the thing even though it is dull

  The assembly, the match, the recital. Children scan the audience, and they are counting.

  An afternoonFreeA friend

• Say something when the room lets it pass

  A remark lands, everyone pretends not to have heard, and the target learns exactly who is in the room.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Tip in cash where the card tip may not reach them

  Card tips are sometimes pooled, taxed through payroll or partly retained. Cash usually goes to the person.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• Ask what they did before they came here

  A great many people doing low-paid work were engineers, doctors or teachers somewhere their qualifications do not count.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Buy the thing they would never buy themselves

  People under financial pressure cut the small pleasures first, and those are the ones that hold a life together.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Let a child overhear you praising them

  Praise reported to a third party is believed in a way that praise delivered directly is not.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Go to the celebration that is not yours

  Turning up to somebody else's festival, service or national day is a bigger gesture than it costs you.

  An afternoonFreeA neighbor

• Never park across a dropped curb

  A car over a dropped curb can strand a wheelchair user on the wrong side of a road with no other crossing.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Invite the new family twice

  The first invitation is often declined out of uncertainty. The second is the one that establishes it was real.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Know when their important days are

  Everyone knows when Christmas is. Far fewer know when Eid, Diwali or Rosh Hashanah fall, or acknowledge them.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Explain the rule nobody writes down

  Every workplace, school and country runs on conventions that insiders cannot see and newcomers cannot guess.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Ignore the assistance dog

  A working dog that gets distracted can miss a seizure warning or walk its handler into traffic.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Offer to put it in writing

  Spoken instructions vanish. For anyone with hearing loss, dyslexia or brain fog they may not have landed at all.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Warn someone what the phrase actually means

  'We should do this again sometime' means different things in different places, and getting it wrong is painful.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Answer a child as if they could understand

  Children ask real questions and get deflections. A serious answer is memorable precisely because it is so unusual.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Learn to say their name properly

  People with unfamiliar names spend their lives being mispronounced and told it does not matter.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Be a reliable adult for a child who is not yours

  Every resilient childhood account includes at least one adult outside the family who was consistently there.

  OngoingFreeA neighbor

• Say what you are pointing at

  'It's over there' is useless to someone who cannot see you gesturing. Words cost nothing extra.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Put the real details in the invitation

  How long, how far to walk, whether there is seating. Missing details mean somebody has to ring and ask.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Check the venue before you invite someone

  Asking a disabled friend to check whether somewhere works puts the whole job on the person it affects.

  Half an hourFreeA friend