The Resources section of the Compassion Transformation Institute is designed to support deep, sustained transformation—beginning with the inner life of individuals and extending outward to civic engagement, institutional change, and the regeneration of communities and cultures.
Transformation does not occur through information alone. It requires resources that engage the whole human being—heart, mind, body, spirit, and relationship—while also equipping people with practical tools to navigate complex social, political, and ecological realities. The resources gathered here are curated to help individuals and groups unlearn harmful narratives, cultivate compassionate capacities, and practice new ways of being and acting together.
At its core, this work is grounded in a growing understanding that the crises of our time—polarization, violence, environmental degradation, inequity, and despair—are not merely technical problems. They are story problems.
As long-time Charter for Compassion friend and mentor David Korten has articulated powerfully in his recent writing and especially in his book Change the Story, Change the Future, the stories we tell about who we are, what matters, and how the world works profoundly shape our systems, institutions, and collective behavior. When the dominant stories prioritize separation, scarcity, domination, and endless growth, they produce systems that erode compassion and undermine the conditions for life. When we change the story—toward interdependence, dignity, belonging, and care—we open the possibility for genuine transformation.
The resources within this Institute are therefore organized around three interconnected domains of change:
1. Personal Transformation
Resources in this domain support inner development and personal capacity-building. These include contemplative practices, compassion-based training, trauma-informed approaches, emotional and spiritual intelligence, storytelling, and reflective inquiry. Personal transformation lays the foundation for resilience, empathy, ethical clarity, and the ability to stay present and engaged in difficult times.
2. Civic Transformation
Civic resources help individuals understand their role as active participants in democracy and public life. These materials explore compassionate leadership, ethical governance, media literacy, nonviolent communication, dialogue across difference, and the responsibilities of citizenship. They are designed to help people move beyond disengagement or reactivity toward constructive participation and collective problem-solving.
3. Community and Systems Transformation
Community-level resources focus on translating compassion into action—within neighborhoods, cities, institutions, and networks. This includes frameworks for compassionate communities, collaborative governance, education reform, healthcare transformation, peacebuilding, ecological regeneration, and economic justice. These resources emphasize relationship-building, co-creation, and replicable models that can be adapted to diverse cultural and geographic contexts.
Across all three domains, the Resources section reflects a core insight echoed throughout David Korten’s work and the Charter for Compassion’s mission:
Lasting change arises when inner values and outer systems are brought into alignment.
The Compassion Transformation Institute exists to make that alignment possible—by offering resources that inform, inspire, and equip people not only to imagine a more compassionate world, but to participate actively in bringing it into being.
