Photo by Kalea Morgan on Unsplash
What is a compassionate city? The real question for us to answer is what does it mean for each of us, as individuals and members of a number of different communities (schools, religious groups, neighborhoods) to live in a city designated as "compassionate"? Is it a city that cares about all of its residents, in all aspects of their lives? A place that looks to the future and the care of the environment? One that values the arts? Sees health care as a natural necessity? Values people of all ages, nationalities and religious affiliations? The questions are endless and certainly reflect the place in which each of us lives.
Becoming a compassionate city, region, or nation, means people are becoming empowered to make real and necessary changes and they are developing a new sense of responsibility, cooperation and team involvement.
This Compassion Cities Reader is being assembled to share ideas that people in various places in the world are achieving by working together. Perhaps some of the ideas in these pages will spark new possibilities for your own compassionate city action plan.
