Breaking News

Last week we titled our newsletter, "Good News." This week we could rightly call it "Better News," but we won't, let's settle for "Breaking News."  It is amazing how much can happen in a week.  The prospect of four new compassionate initiative in California, thre redirection of two initiatives, the emergence of our Spring schedule for the Charter's Education Institute, a proposal out the door, and very productive meetings with two of our partners, the Bridge Alliance and Breakthrough Communities.  We've also received $2865 towards our challenge grant.  Thank you to all who responded so generously, we are encouraged and we hope you can help us meet the challenge as we work towards reaching $5000 by the end of the month. Any amount you can afford will be very appreciated.  Donate here. By the way, all of the items in this newsletter are timely and require your response.  I hope you will be able to join us on several of the events presented below. 

Compassionate Cities Call

What is a compassionate city initiative?  What are the aspects that might be involved?  This call is an opportunity for people to share and ask questions.  We'll start with hearing from people who feel they have momentum going and are nurturing an initiative.  Then we'll move to people who are stumbling and are not certain what steps to take next.  Then we'll hear from people who want to get started and need some help.  We have also invited Nicholas Carlisle from No Bully to talk about how his organization has ignited a community to begin a compassionate initiative.  Register for March 22 call.  It starts at 7 am PDT.  Local times available at sign up site.

Charter for Compassion Education Institute

How does compassion begin?

What stirs the hearts of millions of people around the world to take care of each other and of the Earth itself? What if all these people, who are earnestly working and yearning for peace in hamlets and villages, towns and cities, republics and kingdoms and countries throughout the globe were able to connect with each other to join hearts and minds for a more compassionate and peaceful world?

At the Charter for Compassion International, it is our dream to connect people from every nation—to share our stories, our perspectives, and our common yearning to create a world of compassion for every being.

One of the ways we are working to make these connections is through our newly established Compassion Education Institute. We successfully launched our first online course in September (with students from six different countries), and we have several exciting courses lined up for Spring, 2016.

Our first few courses deal with how to develop compassion for others, how to learn self-compassion, and how to become a part of the growing compassion movement and the Charter for Compassion International. Eventually, CEI will offer courses that address the work of compassion in many contexts—in communities, healthcare, business, education, religion and interfaith, social services, the arts, restorative justice, environment, and science. We have facilitators lined up from several countries, who are in the process of developing online courses for our growing community.  Learn more about the institute and the Spring Program Offerings.

COURSE # 002: Introduction to the Charter for Compassion International (Instructor: Olivia McIvor)
COURSE # 003: Turn Your Pain into Your Purpose (Instructor: Ronit Gabay)
COURSE # 004: Unlock Yourself (Instructor: Dr. Anna Huysse-Gaytandjieva)
COURSE # 005: Your Balancing Knack – Taking Care of Yourself along the Way (Instructor: Debra Scholten)
COURSE # 006: Past Reality Integration (PRI): The Art of Living and Teaching from our Hearts in Love and Compassion (Facilitators: Gitta van Haagen and Renata Trass, course taught in Dutch)

Global Solutions Festival

Starting March 19th, Join us for this FREE online event as we celebrate a full day of innovation, inspiration and synergistic co-creation with United Earth Festival 2016!

This festival is designed to catalyse a chain of events that United Earth will be hosting throughout 2016 to synergise global change agents and empower greater levels of co-creation and collaboration. United Earth intends to act as a planetary meeting ground and ‘universal docking station’ where individuals and groups can share their diverse wealth of knowledge, ideas, visions, skills, tools and resources on one common platform.

Due to the unprecedented duration of this Global Solutions Festival you are invited to choose which 6-hour period suits your schedule - and we hope you will choose all 3!!
The entire event will be recorded for future viewing and dissemination.

Part One Registration: 4AM PST - 10AM PST
Part Two Registration: 10AM PST - 4PM PST
Part Three Registration: 4PM PST - 10PM PST (Includes Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest Founder Jon Ramer and Phil Lane Jr will be speaking. Plus including Uplift Connect/ UnifyWater Global Meditation)

Partners for this Earth Festival Weekend: Noomap, The Hague Center, Gaia Education, SOSA, Tamera, Hello, I Am Awake, Escola da Natureza Piracangaga, The Four Worlds International Institute.

Amplify this Earth Festival with the next stepts of action for our precious Earth by signing up for Love This Place! Serve The Earth Week Coopetition April 16-24th is a 9 day global challenge to inspire acts of love, service, and compassion toward our Mother Earth and all life!

Nominate a Random Kindness Community Resilience Leader

Our partner, Breakthrough Communities is sponsoring a special recognition award. They are welcoming your nominations for the 2nd Annual Random Kindness Community Resilience Leadership Award. The award will be given to members of a community who embody the principles of Random Kindness and are working actively to develop change at the regional scale. The Random Kindness Community Resilience Award recognizes leaders who embody the vision and values of community-driven planning for climate change adaptation and resilience. We honor those who:

• Strive to ensure that frontline communities, those who are most directly impacted by climate change processes, are engaged in public policy and participatory planning
• Conduct research in partnership with vulnerable communities and listen deeply to embedded community knowledge
• Build bridges across sectors, issues, and social divides to create a true movement for sustainability and justice
• Demonstrate that equity, environment and economy are mutually reinforcing in an interconnected world.

Please send a photo of the person and a picture of him/her in action, a description of what the action is, and why you're nominating him/her in 300 words or less. Submit nominations here and send an email to with the subject line "RK Leadership Award Nomination," the nominee's name and the date you submitted it. Recommendations are due by March 2​7​th. See last year's awardees here for inspiration.

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