We Can Build the Future
Charter for Compassion News
Orlando, FL, USA has affirmed the Charter for Compassion and Mailbu, CA, USA has begun a new Charter initiative. In addition to the Compassionate Malibu campaign four new cities in the State of Nuevo Leon, Mexico have begun working on their Charter campaigns. They will announce their affirmation of the Charter at the Encuentro Mundial de Valores Conference in Monterrey on October 21-22. If at all possible, please consider joining in this incredible gathering. The Charter will be offering a workshop on how to initiate compassionate cities. It would be wonderful to have folks who are sponsoring campaigns to join in this effort.
There is also news about a new task force that has been formed in the United Kingdom to work on overseeing the growth of compassionate cities and partners. More will be forthcoming on the vision of this new group.
Please review the Participating Communities page on our website. If your city is not listed, shouldn't it be? Let us know of your interest.
Last week I asked if there were people out there who could help with volunteering to assist with our e-mail overload. Not only did we get volunteers to help us take care of correspondence, a volunteer translator came forth and an individual to work on our new women and girls sector. We also need volunteers to assist with two new sectors: Race and Social Justice and Restorative Justice. The work would include being part of the task force for each of these sectors, contacting potential partners, linking partners to city initiatives and overseeing the development of a Compassion Reader for each of these sectors. If you are interested please contact me. We promise we will give you adequate training and stand by you throughout the learning process.
Below is a list of new Charter Partners that have registered since August 18. Click on any one to learn more about their work.
Thank you for all that do for spreading the word of the Charter for Compassion and to so many for contributing to our work. We continue to need your financial support and we are grateful for your contributions. Please donate your time, organizing and if possible, your financial contributions. With much appreciate, Marilyn Turkovich, Charter Director
New from Charter Partners
Choose Love Enrichment Pilot Program
The Jesse Lewis Choose Love will be launching the Choose Love Enrichment Pilot Program just in time for the start of a new school year!
The Choose Love Enrichment Program is a social and emotional (SEL) classroom program teaching children how to choose love in any circumstance. The program focuses on four important character values – courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion – which cultivates optimism, resilience and personal responsibility.
This program was created by Educators for Educators which means we were thinking of you when we developed it, making sure that the program is educator and student friendly.
The Enrichment Pilot created a program that will have a positive impact on you, your students, and the overall classroom climate as it teaches the traits and skills that promote self-confidence, resiliency, optimism, pro-social behavior, healthy connections, and responsible decision-making. Learn more and register. See the video.
No Asylum: The Film
A great treasure trove of history was lost in the mists of time for 70 years, until recently. A volunteer was sorting through boxes of dusty Holocaust manuscripts deep in the archives of YIVO, the Institute for Jewish Research, when she came upon a fragile envelope. She was stunned to find inside lost documents that detailed the desperate efforts of a loving father to save his family from the murderous clutches of the Nazis. They were the letters of Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father, and reveal his heartbreaking failure to find a safe haven for his daughters, Anne and Margot, and his wife Edith.
In No Asylum, Anne’s only surviving family members relate the emotional story of her family’s frantic search for sanctuary – Buddy Elias and Eva Schloss. Buddy, Anne’s cousin and best friend, speaks about their childhood and shares unseen family photographs and letters. He reveals Otto’s last letter before going into hiding, and sheds new light on their struggle for immigration.
Eva Schloss, Anne’s stepsister, recounts the Franks’ riveting personal stories. More than any other Holocaust survivor, her life parallels Anne’s. In 1933 in Germany, when discrimination against the Jews worsened, Otto moved the family to Amsterdam. Eva’s family also moved there to escape persecution against the Jews; she grew up across the street from the Franks, and was friends with Anne. Host the film.
Disturbing the Peace
Disturbing the Peace follows a group of former enemy combatants - Israeli soldiers from the most elite units, and Palestinian fighters, many of whom served years in prison - who have come together to challenge the status quo and say “enough." The film traces their transformational journeys from soldiers committed to armed battle to non-violent peace activists and their founding of Combatants for Peace. While the film is based in the Middle East, it deals with universal themes that are relevant to all of us - regardless of geography. It is a story of the human potential unleashed when we stop participating in a story that no longer serves us, and with the power of our convictions take action to create a new possibility. To learn more about the film, and Reconsider, the film company who made the film.
Reconsider is a nonprofit media production and workshop organization that inspires innovation, encourages creativity, stirs responsibility, and forms community in an effort to make our world more dynamic, connected, and inspiring. Reconsider was involved in the award-winning productions of PLANETARY, directed by Guy Reid, which premiered at SXSW in 2015 and PRESENTING PRINCESS SHAW, directed by Ido Haar, which premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016 and currently in theaters - distributed through Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media. DISTURBING THE PEACE was developed and produced by Reconsider.
The CoEd Foundation: Bringing Compassion into Education and Learning
Publications, manuscript and electronic books are the life blood of the CoED Foundation. Some, like Towards the Compassionate School and Multicultural Mattersare works in progress. Most publications have either been written, co-written or edited by the CEO, Maurice Irfan Coles. Some of these are very current; others are slightly older, but all have a bearing on 'Compassion in Education'.
There is a growing international movement which aims to restore compassion to the world's epicentre. In part inspired by the Charter for Compassion, it argues that the Golden Rule, 'Treat others as you would wish to be treated,' lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions. An increasing number of cities and schools, and one country have signed the charter, declaring their intention to become 'compassionate.' To date, however, little has been written which provides a conceptual, theoretical and practical overview of the education system through the prism of compassion. This innovative and radical book addresses that gap arguing that, unless we can alter the prevailing educational paradigm so that all young people are actively taught collaboration and the value of service, as an antidote to the present dominant acquisitive individualistic norms, then the future looks very bleak.
Although each chapter has been written as a stand-alone, they are interwoven and consistent in their compassionate message. Dr. Keith McGee from Boston University and Baroness Estelle Morris from the UK Parliament provide the fore and afterwords.
Towards the Compassionate School: From Golden Rule to Golden Thread, edited by Maurice Irfan Coles is available through Amazon and other book distributors
