The Mission
Actively Caring for People embodies a large-scale movement that aims to establish a more compassionate, interdependent, and empathic culture within schools, businesses, organizations, and throughout entire communities. By encouraging people to actively care, individuals are inspired to perform intentional acts of kindness as part of their daily routine. The positive exchanges between people, resulting from actively-caring behaviors and its supportive recognition has a mutually reinforcing effect and leads to an actively-caring culture.
The Movement
Actively Caring, coined by Dr. E. Scott Geller, refers to any behavior going above and beyond the call of duty for others. For decades, Dr. Geller, alumni-distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, has applied behavioral science to keep people safe at work and on the road.
In the aftermath of the April 16th, 2007 tragedy, Dr. Geller and his students initiated a culture shift at Virginia Tech—the Actively Caring for People movement. Thousands of green actively-caring wristbands were distributed across the country to individuals performing acts of caring with the instructions to pay it forward, by passing on the wristband, when (s)he observes someone else performing an act of kindness. By using the wristband to recognize helping behavior, a tangible reminder of kindness is associated with the feeling of self- transcendence.
Want to join the movement? Find out how at activelycaringforpeople@gmail.com.
Our Beliefs
- Together, we can change the world with small intentional acts of kindness.
- There are 86,400 seconds in a day and it takes only a few seconds to perform an act of kindness.
- Every act of kindness has a ripple effect with no logical end.
- "People will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." — Maya Angelou
The Vision
Everyone has the ability to care for others; all we need is a proactive approach. Most importantly, caring for others is easy. Little sacrifice or deviation from your typical routine is required. It takes only seconds to do someone a favor, but the contagious nature of such acts is undeniable. Through caring for others, as a community, we collectively possess the ability to make an impressive difference in each other’s lives. I challenge you, next time you step out the door, to make someone’s life a little easier. Bringing a smile to a stranger’s face yields a level of fulfillment that is second to none.
Actively-Caring Research
The Center for Applied Behavior Systems (CABS) at Virginia Tech conducts extensive research on actively caring, empathy, bullying prevention, gossip, pedestrian safety, favoritism, credit-card safety, alcohol abuse, and more. Interested in ways to join our lab or collaborate on make-a-difference research? See CABS.
E. Scott Geller, Ph.D.
E. Scott Geller, Ph.D. is a Senior Partner of Safety Performance Solutions, Inc.—a leading-edge organization specializing in people-based safety training and consulting. Dr. Geller and his partners at Safety Performance Solutions (SPS) have helped companies across the country and around the world address the human dynamics of occupational safety through flexible research-founded principles and industry-proven tools. In addition, for four decades, Professor E. Scott Geller has taught and conducted research as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech. In this capacity, he has authored more than 350 research articles and over 75 books or chapters addressing the development and evaluation of behavior-change interventions to improve quality of life.
His recent books in occupational health and safety include: The Psychology of Safety; Working Safe; Understanding Behavior-Based Safety; Building Successful Safety Teams; Beyond Safety Accountability: How to Increase Personal Responsibility; The Psychology of Safety Handbook; Keys to Behavior-Based Safety from Safety Performance Solutions; The Participation Factor; People-Based Safety: The Source; and People-Based Patient Safety: Enriching your culture to prevent medical error; coauthored by Dave Johnson. His latest book is entitled Leading People-Based Safety: Enriching your culture, and was recently published by Coastal Training Technologies Corporation.
Dr. Geller is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the World Academy of Productivity and Quality Sciences. He is past Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (1989-1992), current Associate Editor of Environment and Behavior (since 1982), and current Consulting Editor for Behavior and Social Issues, the Behavior Analyst Digest, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.
Dr. Geller has written more than 100 articles for Industrial Safety and Hygiene News, a trade magazine disseminated to more than 75,000 companies. He has collaborated with Tel-A-Train Inc. and J.J. Keller and Associates in the development of various training series, which include videotapes, workbooks, and facilitators’ guides. For these innovative and creative works, beginning with a 1995 nationally renowned seminar series—Actively Caring for Safety—the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis honored Dr. Geller with an award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media.
Dr. Geller and his colleagues at SPS have worked with numerous organizations, both public and private, to tailor training and implementation efforts related to the psychology of safety. Past customers include both small and large organizations representing manufacturing, chemical processing, transportation, and service industries, including: Allied Signal, American Standard, ARCO Chemical, AT&T, Bayer, Bechtel, BF Goodrich, BHP Cooper, Cargill, Coca-Cola, Champion International, Chevron, Corning, ExxonMobil, Eli Lilly, Ford, General Motors, Georgia-Pacific, Hercules, Hewlett-Packard, Koch Refining, Leprino Foods, Lockheed, Lucent Technologies, Monsanto, Pacificorp, Power Bar, Rohm and Haas, Solutia, Textron, 3M, Toyota, Union Pacific Railroad, Wal-Mart, Westinghouse, Westvaco, and Weyerhaeuser.
Dr. Geller has been the Principal Investigator for more than 75 research grants involving the application of behavioral science for the benefit of corporations, institutions, government agencies, or communities in general. Both government agencies and corporations have funded his research including: the National Science Foundation; the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the U.S. Department of Energy; the U.S. Department of Transportation; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; General Motors Research Laboratories; the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation; and the Virginia Departments of Energy, Transportation, Litter Control, Agriculture and Commerce, and Welfare and Institutions.
Scott Geller’s dedication, talent, and energy have helped him earn a teaching award in 1982 from the American Psychological Association and every university teaching award offered at Virginia Tech. Moreover, in 2001 Virginia Tech awarded Dr. Geller the University Alumni Award for Excellence in Research. In 2002, the University honored him with the Alumni Outreach Award for his exemplary real-world applications of behavioral science, and in 2003 he received the University Alumni Award or Graduate Student Advising. In 2005, he was awarded the statewide Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education, and Virginia Tech conferred the title of Alumni Distinguished Professor on him.
He has received lifetime achievement awards from the International Organizational Behavior Management Network (in 2008) and the American Psychological Foundation (in 2009). And in 2010 he was honored with the Outstanding Applied Research Award from the American Psychological Association’s Division of Applied Behavior Analysis.