History

  

12 Caring Habits is a non-sectarian, educational non-profit partnership of schools, families, service groups, businesses and community agencies. The official name of the organization is All of Us, Inc.

12 Caring Habits began in the early 1990's when Founder Elaine Parke (Susco), became inspired with the idea to designate each month of the year as a period of time to celebrate one aspect of Golden Rule Living.  At the time, Elaine was the Director of Marketing for a resort near the small town of Somerset, in southwestern Pennsylvania near where Flight #93 crashed on 9/11.  This community was the first town to get together and try out the infant idea. 

A group of community representatives met together each month to work on how to celebrate one different aspect of Golden Rule living each month would work.  The group included the Mayor, the Chief of Police, The Director of the County Welfare Office, The Chairman of the Ministerial Association, The Superintendent of Schools, The Executive Director of the local Chamber of Commerce, the owner of a local printing company, the owner of the local radio station, and students from the local high school plus other residents, neighbors, volunteers and friends. 

For nearly a year the group met monthly to compose the Golden Rule Habits and select which month in which to celebrate each habit.  Caring Habits is the outcome of the spirit and dedication of a group of people who represented every perspective of any community.  It was a pure community endeavor - representing everyone.

We all agreed back then, and you probably do too, that the habits we settled on could have been different. There were many long discussions and much chafing and then bonding of hearts and minds.  Maybe you would have included a Golden Rule Habit that we didn’t or you would have put one in a different month than this system does.   

However, step back and look at the big picture.  If everyone starts practicing these habits every day, each month, all month long, our lives will become more caring like the GOLDEN RULE standard.  It will be kind of like turning around a parade  - if you turn it around at a few strategic points the rest will turn too.  Ultimately it won’t matter exactly which Habit is celebrated in which month as much as it matters that we all agree and share the same experience at the same time.

Later on, in 1998 when Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in Pittsburgh funded the development of a Golden Rule project to help middle school students reduce bullying and violent behaviors, the idea was added to designate a monthly color to improve recognition of each habit.  Today the school program is called, “The Caring Habit of the Month Adventure,”

Our Staff -

Elaine Parke-Susco, CS, CM, NSA 

Founder, Caring Habits, Author, Golden Rule Revolution, International Peace Consultant

Quote- "Together we brighten the world we all share."

Elaine Parke-Susco was only 19 and a marketing student at Northwestern University when she first volunteered to teach reading to Racketeer, Cobra and Vice-Lord gang kids on Chicago’s North Side.  In August 1961, TIME Magazine reported on her work and the frustration she felt about the limits of one-on-one social solutions and that we never seem to reach every child in need.

Back then, Elaine asked herself,  “How do we expand the scope of positive resources and influence to uplift more people and more kids more easily?”  Elaine's first response was to spend twenty-five years fine-tuning her mass-market media skills in top executive marketing positions in corporate America. 

Elaine is the author of, "Join the Golden Rule Revolution, Practice One Habit Each Month of the Year," available through Amazon.com, and Waldenbooks and distributed through Ingram,

Elaine has presented workshops for the Character Education Partnership, Pennsylvania Head Start, Pennsylvania Association of School Boards, the National Association of Conference Centers, the PA Center for Safe Schools, the Business and Women's Professional Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the National Association of Student Assistance Professionals. She is an occasional Guest Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins Universities.

Elaine has also been published and quoted in numerous articles about her media principled strategies for improving human relations. Theoretical writings have appeared in such publications as Communiqué with the National Association of School Psychologists, Schools in the Middle with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the highly respected Educational Digest.  Recent articles have appeared in publications of the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the Educational Digest.

Darlene Patrick, Creative Founder, Caring Habits©.

    Quote- "I am excited to be working on this unique project that inspires mutual respect and more caring between all people."

As the Creative Founder, her energetic style inspired the logo-like identity of each monthly theme for the award-winning Caring Habits©.  She also teamed-up with Mrs. Parke-Susco on the design and production of the nationally distributed book “Join the Golden Rule Revolution.” Of all the projects the artist has worked on in her career, none have been as challenging and fulfilling as working together with Elaine to inspire mutual respect and more caring between all people.

Mrs. Patrick is an honors graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and brings to the drawing table her experience and expertise of working in many business environments such as advertising agencies, art departments of manufacturers and product distributors, as well as her own free-lance studio.

She is currently a design consultant with Caring Media International, has won several print-media and design awards, markets her own original line of greeting cards - “from the Bow-tie Collection” as well as other customized celebration ideas, and considers her three beautiful children her greatest works of art. She volunteers her talents with the Girl Scouts of America, Operation Santa Claus, and The Westmoreland Hospice. Her studio is in her Greensburg, Pennsylvania home that she shares with her husband, Jeff, two daughters and son.

Noreen Masartis, Program Manager, Caring Habits

Quote - "If I could start my career over again I would have chosen social work because I enjoy helping people. Perhaps that is why I feel so strongly about my contribution to Caring Habits."

If I could start my career over again I would have chosen to be a social worker because I enjoy helping people. Perhaps that is why I feel so strongly about Caring Habits. The monthly themes can make a difference.  I care about those students. The ones that are troubled just steal my heart.

I know the Caring Habit posters and habits would help. Just seeing them each day in a window or classroom is a reminder to Do Your Best or Show a Positive Attitude or whatever that particular habit is for the month. I believe in the Caring Habits

and I believe in the students.