Alyssa Milano Partners With LOVE IS LOUDER For Special Valentine's Day Initiative: #LoveIsLouder When We...

Actress and Activist, Alyssa Milano is partnering with Love Is Louder on a special Valentine's Day initiative: #LoveIsLouder When We...

Inspired in part by the vitriol and hate she sees on social media day in and day out, this initiative encourages people to look BEYOND the hate and recognize the good and the love in the world. Alyssa explains, "Every day, we experience posts and video content on social media that depict hateful behavior and vitriol. Sometimes it feels like the stories of humans mistreating each other and angry rhetoric are the only thing we can hear. The fact remains - there is still so much more love than hate in our world."

#LoveisLouder When We... will amplify empathy, compassion and tolerance, and overpower prejudice, insults and online harassment. The initiative encourages people to use their voices, social media platforms and resources to help raise awareness and funds for initiatives like the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance Project" and Love is Louder's online and campus-based programs, to inspire young people to embrace the diversity of our world's cultures and practice tolerance, respect and acceptance in their daily lives - on and offline.

The goals of #LoveIsLouder When We... are to:

Amplify the Good Stuff: Make Valentine's Day about more than romantic love by starting a celebration of love for everyone in our diverse world. Amplify positive voices on and offline, and start conversations that change minds and inspire action.

Spread Love: Encourage people not to just hear these messages of hope, but to spread them to their friends, on their campuses and across their online communities.

Stand Together: Show support for anyone who has been a victim of hate or felt marginalized by negative voices. Particularly to show support for those who have experience racial, ethnic or gendered discrimination or hate.

Create Change: Encourage everyone touched by the campaign to think about ways THEY can make a difference and create change through their own actions, and to raise funds and awareness for programs that are working on-the-ground to nurture tolerance, celebrity diversity and create connectedness.

The online HUB for the #LoveisLouder When We.... campaign is at www.loveislouder.com/valentines and shares simple ways to help overpower these negative voices through acts of kindness, love and support. The page also outlines how people get involved with the Valentine's Day push:

Create a short video (60 seconds max) that finishes the statement "#LoveisLouder when we __________" using a positive story of hope and help that you've seen or experienced.

Post your video to social media with the hashtag #LoveisLouder on Valentine's Day and search the tag to retweet and post other people's stories.

Send digital Valentines to friends, family and your online community that reminds them that that are celebrated, respected and supported.

Make a donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance Project or The Jed Foundation's Love is Louder project.

Order a limited edition Love is Louder shirt that will support both the Teaching Tolerance Project and Love is Louder's programming.

Organizations and companies participating in the initiative include:
Me Too Movement - https://metoomvmt.org
Progressive Congress Action Fund - http://www.progressivecongressactionfund.org
Patriot Not Partisan - patriotnotpartisan.com
National Domestic Workers Alliance - https://www.domesticworkers.org
Presente.org - http://presente.org
The Solutions Project - http://thesolutionsproject.org
Movement Voter Project - https://movementvote.org
Public Citizen - https://www.citizen.org/
Action Together Network - http://www.actiontogethernetwork.org
Harry Potter Alliance - http://www.thehpalliance.org/
BPG Advertising - http://bpgadvertising.com
Spread The Vote - https://www.spreadthevote.org
Movement Strategy Center http://movementstrategy.org
Courage Campaign - https://www.couragecampaign.org/

The Twitter handles for the primary participants are: @Tolerance_Org @SPLCenter @Alyssa_Milano @LoveisLouder

Love is Louder is a project of The Jed Foundation created with Brittany Snow in 2010 to support anyone feeling mistreated, misunderstood and alone. Since then, it's grown into a community of people across the globe working together to create a world where we all feel more connected and supported.

Photo Credit: Dirk Franke