Announcement:

Aims of the Institute

• Foster the study and research of human understanding to promote ethical and cultural responses reflective of humanitarian ideals.

• Advance the values of tolerance, compassion and justice among people.

• Promote the search for meaning as a means to alleviate human suffering and enhance the quality of life.

• Develop centers of the Institute of Human Understanding throughout the world.

• Develop publications, consultations, conferences, and outreach programs focused on the promotion of human understanding.

• Engage in dialogue of transformation through understanding in courses and workshops offered by the iihu's Open U.

                     What does the Institute do?

The institute of human understanding attempts to promote the authentic telling of human experiences and events to bring people together in a humanistic way. The institute promotes an ongoing agenda that embraces education, research and services.

The institute has evolved as a response to the alienation and separateness that individuals speak about. It is a response to the conditions of discrimination all too characteristic of much of contemporary society. Through coming to understand, we hope to create meaning through understanding for all of us in our lives.

It seems technology, while it has brought us advantages, has also separated us, so the institute through its efforts tries to bring scholars and people together to establish a sense of community, a human community. A place evolves where we can envision the soul through eyes of caring, the vision of a caring community.

Primarily we provide various forums to give voice to individuals who are experiencing some condition so as to understand this part of our community from the individual's perspective. Letting individuals tell their own stories enlightens and helps us assist each other in achieving our goals. The stories are heard with reverence. They are heard to bring understanding.

Individuals and professionals from all fields and families can only benefit from knowing the various beliefs and values that individuals use to make life meaningful. From various perspectives we learn what it is human beings need and how we can best deliver humanistic and cultural particular care in different types of relations and contexts.

Within our overall mission of promoting human understanding so as to foster tolerance, compassion, and the welfare of all humankind and the environment, the iihu's Open U is dedicated to meeting the educational needs to meet our mission for the citizens of the community of Southeast Florida.

The IIHU encourages the formation of other similar centers throughout this country and the world.  Similarly we encourage others to also start an Open U with the same aim and purposes in towns, cities, countries throughout the world.  If Centers of the IIHU and the Open U were established expontenially, we believe the world would be a more just, compassionate and peaceful place.