A 10 Year Campaign for Compassionate Cities
Greetings! --
I hope this new discussion finds you well and may this next year be a breakthrough for each of us and the work we're doing together!
Fresh from our "Compassion Labs" comes a new idea that many of us have contributed to in some shape or form. I ask that you read the text below and that you give us your honest, direct feedback on what you think. To simplify this for you, I have also attached the two page backgrounder on this proposed campaign as well as the 2020 Vision and Charter for Compassion. Thank you for sharing!
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Background on Our Approach
We now have the growing will and the ways to bring about large-scale collaborations. The need for social change and the tools for making change are coming together in a results-oriented approach to creating meaningful incentives for change. The power of social networks to provide instant coordination lets citizens connect just enough to bring about the changes that we seek. The 10 Year Campaign for Compassionate Cities will be a model to empower other cities to build upon. Learn more about how rethinking group action is revolutionizing social change at www.thepoint.com.
Objectives of the Campaign for Compassionate Cities
A Compassionate City recognizes compassion as an ethical imperative in its policies affecting how its residents meet their basic human needs. A Compassionate City deepens the quality and the extent to which its residents embrace compassionate action in caring for its own neighbors. The long-term objective of this campaign is to bring the worlds’ cities together over the next ten years to form a network of “Compassionate Cities.” The short-term objective is to complete this local campaign by March 15, 2010 and declare Seattle a Compassionate City.
Proposed Actions
We propose that the Mayor and City Council declare Seattle a City of Compassion and complete the actions outlined below when we have 1,000 residents committed to the campaign (if we don’t reach 1,000 committed members the Mayor and City Council are not required to act).
We ask that Mayor McGinn and the City Council:
• Jointly affirm the Charter for Compassion and declare Seattle a Compassionate City.
• Jointly proclaim April and October as two months each year for the next 10 years in which we deepen our commitment to compassionate action. This annual repeating cycle utilizes April for sowing seeds and October for harvesting outcomes keeping actions informed by our mounting experience.
Campaign Members Commit to:
• Pledge a specific number of hours of community service and/or dollars to local organizations that help Seattle residents meet their basic human needs.
• Join the Compassionate Action Network (www.compassionateactionnetwork.com) to share and find opportunities to volunteer, donate, lend, initiate, sign, attend, join and share the Campaign for Compassionate Cities with others.
Background on the Campaign
In the fall of 1998 a multi racial, multi cultural group of over 172 human service agencies and programs and other advocates working throughout the Seattle/King County area came together to initiate the 2020 Vision Campaign. The intent was to create the shared vision of the community that we are all working together to create. The recent “Call to Caring” grew out of the 2020 Vision campaign and envisions a “community where all human beings have access to the basic necessities and resources for human survival and advancement.”
Seattle has historically been a place of innovative and cooperative thinking e.g. REI, PCC Natural Markets, and Group Health Cooperative. Seattle is globally aware and the hub of global health and global philanthropy. The residents of Seattle are the most educated in the nation yet in recent times we've witnessed tragic, horrific acts of violence against police and hate crimes against neighbors that cannot be tolerated.
In April 2008, Seattle hosted Seeds of Compassion, the largest event in the history of our State featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other global luminaries. Over the course of five days, 150,000 attendees and over 70 million people worldwide learned what it means to nurture kindness and compassion in the world starting with our children and all those who touch their lives.
One of the most important sprouts of that historical Seattle event is the Compassionate Action Network (CAN) www.compassionateactionnetwork.com. CAN is a network of self-organizing groups who share a common vision for a compassionate world and are committed to supporting each other’s activities, events, and expressions in the world, be it public, nonprofit, for-profit or social enterprises.
The Compassionate Action Network offers the Ten Year Campaign for Compassionate Cities as a way to collectively act to multiply our individual power and co-create positive change in our community. We believe that a large-scale, multi-stakeholder campaign can utilize the power of social networks to reweave and strengthen local civic, economic, and political actions. The campaign will strengthen our capacity to “do it ourselves” while building a social-organizing platform. The network that emerges will be a shared resource and source of inspiration and solutions for citizens and cities to learn from and adopt. The end result will be a compassionate world and the creation of a just economy and peaceful global community.
Please join the Campaign for Compassionate Cities here.
I hope this new discussion finds you well and may this next year be a breakthrough for each of us and the work we're doing together!
Fresh from our "Compassion Labs" comes a new idea that many of us have contributed to in some shape or form. I ask that you read the text below and that you give us your honest, direct feedback on what you think. To simplify this for you, I have also attached the two page backgrounder on this proposed campaign as well as the 2020 Vision and Charter for Compassion. Thank you for sharing!
------
Background on Our Approach
We now have the growing will and the ways to bring about large-scale collaborations. The need for social change and the tools for making change are coming together in a results-oriented approach to creating meaningful incentives for change. The power of social networks to provide instant coordination lets citizens connect just enough to bring about the changes that we seek. The 10 Year Campaign for Compassionate Cities will be a model to empower other cities to build upon. Learn more about how rethinking group action is revolutionizing social change at www.thepoint.com.
Objectives of the Campaign for Compassionate Cities
A Compassionate City recognizes compassion as an ethical imperative in its policies affecting how its residents meet their basic human needs. A Compassionate City deepens the quality and the extent to which its residents embrace compassionate action in caring for its own neighbors. The long-term objective of this campaign is to bring the worlds’ cities together over the next ten years to form a network of “Compassionate Cities.” The short-term objective is to complete this local campaign by March 15, 2010 and declare Seattle a Compassionate City.
Proposed Actions
We propose that the Mayor and City Council declare Seattle a City of Compassion and complete the actions outlined below when we have 1,000 residents committed to the campaign (if we don’t reach 1,000 committed members the Mayor and City Council are not required to act).
We ask that Mayor McGinn and the City Council:
• Jointly affirm the Charter for Compassion and declare Seattle a Compassionate City.
• Jointly proclaim April and October as two months each year for the next 10 years in which we deepen our commitment to compassionate action. This annual repeating cycle utilizes April for sowing seeds and October for harvesting outcomes keeping actions informed by our mounting experience.
Campaign Members Commit to:
• Pledge a specific number of hours of community service and/or dollars to local organizations that help Seattle residents meet their basic human needs.
• Join the Compassionate Action Network (www.compassionateactionnetwork.com) to share and find opportunities to volunteer, donate, lend, initiate, sign, attend, join and share the Campaign for Compassionate Cities with others.
Background on the Campaign
In the fall of 1998 a multi racial, multi cultural group of over 172 human service agencies and programs and other advocates working throughout the Seattle/King County area came together to initiate the 2020 Vision Campaign. The intent was to create the shared vision of the community that we are all working together to create. The recent “Call to Caring” grew out of the 2020 Vision campaign and envisions a “community where all human beings have access to the basic necessities and resources for human survival and advancement.”
Seattle has historically been a place of innovative and cooperative thinking e.g. REI, PCC Natural Markets, and Group Health Cooperative. Seattle is globally aware and the hub of global health and global philanthropy. The residents of Seattle are the most educated in the nation yet in recent times we've witnessed tragic, horrific acts of violence against police and hate crimes against neighbors that cannot be tolerated.
In April 2008, Seattle hosted Seeds of Compassion, the largest event in the history of our State featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other global luminaries. Over the course of five days, 150,000 attendees and over 70 million people worldwide learned what it means to nurture kindness and compassion in the world starting with our children and all those who touch their lives.
One of the most important sprouts of that historical Seattle event is the Compassionate Action Network (CAN) www.compassionateactionnetwork.com. CAN is a network of self-organizing groups who share a common vision for a compassionate world and are committed to supporting each other’s activities, events, and expressions in the world, be it public, nonprofit, for-profit or social enterprises.
The Compassionate Action Network offers the Ten Year Campaign for Compassionate Cities as a way to collectively act to multiply our individual power and co-create positive change in our community. We believe that a large-scale, multi-stakeholder campaign can utilize the power of social networks to reweave and strengthen local civic, economic, and political actions. The campaign will strengthen our capacity to “do it ourselves” while building a social-organizing platform. The network that emerges will be a shared resource and source of inspiration and solutions for citizens and cities to learn from and adopt. The end result will be a compassionate world and the creation of a just economy and peaceful global community.
Please join the Campaign for Compassionate Cities here.
Views: 4
- Attachments:
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2020 Vision.pdf, 124 KB -
cfc_dl_english.pdf, 115 KB
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campaignforcompassionatecities12-24 JR.pdf, 184 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Emily Hine on -
Hey Jon, Love it. Will join the campaign now!
As this progresses, it would be great to incorporate specific examples of how we see compassionate action unfolding in schools, businesses and even in our political process. The more tangible we can make it, the easier it is for people to see themselves as part of this movement, especially the political officials whose support we want/need for real systemic change to occur.
Thanks for all you are doing. Emily -
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Permalink Reply by Kristina Tova Ramer on -
You've done amazing work here. I love the campaign graphic and all the background info. Thanks for your dedication and vision friends. I'm in!
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Permalink Reply by PamKM on -
Hi Jon - I read everything above including the attachments and the campaign is wonderful! This feels like a solid, common sense project, plus a great way to focus CAN and sync up with the Charter for Compassion. It's great that you and the other organizers (John Hale? Rev Cheen? Who else deserves credit?) made the 10 year timeframe explicit because it shows a dedicated commitment.
Questions/Comments:
1. Confusion - When I first read the final line of text above "Please join the Campaign for Compassionate Cities here" I didn't see the link. You might want to edit it to read "Please take five minutes to Join the Campaign for Compassionate Cities." Add a link to the words "Join the Campaign for Compassionate Cities" rather than adding a link to the word "here" or "click here" which doesn't usually do well in usability tests.
2. Billboard Review - Do you have a copy of the billboard for the home page that Anne and I can review before you post it?
3. New Group - Do you want to create a Compassionate Cities group?
I'll see you at the Greenlake Library on 12/31 at 1:30PM. Excellent work! -
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Permalink Reply by Jon Ramer on -
Thanks for the good feedback. The backgrounder has taken another step forward, please see the attached 12-30 version here. We are planning to put a billboard on the home page that links directly to the campaign on the point. I will send a draft to Anne and Pam later today for review. I am putting together a few slides that summarize the campaign to be used at tomorrow's launch. The next step is to boil this down to a handout - flyer we can give out a Green Lake. Thanks to everyone for your input!
- Attachments:
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Social Web - Join Us!
Affirm the Charter!
Compassionate Cities
The International Institute for Compassionate Cities supports compassionate initiatives in cities, towns, counties, states and provinces, regions, nations, universities, faith groups,schools, service groups, and other places where human beings gather.
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