Chambers of Compassion: How They Work (Step-by-Step Summary--Mother Page; PARTS 1 and 2)

Phase Three of the Speaking Tour--also on Zoom: 

https://natr-peace.blogspot.com/p/phase-three.html

As a project of the Iranian Nonviolence component of 

PATH, please see: Peace-seeking Iranian Veterans 

>>> https://piv-kas.blogspot.com/

LOCATION NOTES

You are here  >>>  https://natr-peace.blogspot.com/p/chambers-of-compassion-how-they-work.html

>>> To go to the main Chambers of Compassion (Intersectional Circles) 

Implementation Process page, click here: 

>>> https://natr-peace.blogspot.com/p/chambers-of-compassion-implementation.html

>>> To go back to the HOME page of PATH (Peace And Truth Heals) initiative 

and its 2-part main Directory, click here >>> https://natr-peace.blogspot.com/

>>> To go to PATH's Summary page (and the mini-bio of the initiative's founder) 

click here >>> https://juustwa.org/speakers-and-presenters/brother-moji-agha/

"IF [we] build it, they will come."

Chambers of Compassion: How They Work

Step-by-Step Procedures  

By: Moji Agha 

Started late 2012 (Gradually developed from early 2013 through 2023); Integrated 

mid-August 2024

Source page: https://natr-peace.blogspot.com/p/chambers-of-compassion-how-they-work.html

CHAMBERS OF COMPASSION MOVEMENT OF MOVEMENTS 

DANCE IN SEVEN MOVES:

Building Critical Mass Intersectionally, Hand-in-Hand

 

OUR PURPOSE IN A CAPSULE

Whereas for-profit corporations and industries have "Chambers of Commerce" (that are called the same everywhere) for the purpose of building systemic collaboration and geographic coordination, the purpose of our strictly not-for-profit "Chambers of Compassion" is to build a similar kind of systemic synergy for the not-for-profit nonviolent civil society of every community, guided by the core value of compassion.   

OUR 7 STEPS IN A CAPSULE

1- Survey, Identify, Assess;  2- Outreach, Re-assure, Invite;  3- Orient, Embrace, Welcome;  4- Evaluate, Partner-with, Integrate;  5- Re-invite, Re-assure, Re-embrace; 6- Re-orient, Respect, Repeat; and finally, 

7- Chambers of Compassion (or Intersectional Circles) THINK, COLLABORATE, and ACT TOGETHER, practically and systemically, especially locally, then regionally, and as possible and appropriate, nationally and globally--similar to how Chambers of Commerce function.

Mission Statement

SUMMARY INTRODUCTION: 

1- Endorsed by the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Prof. Noam Chomsky, and other lights to humanity, the CHAMBERS OF COMPASSION initiative is where integrated nonviolent diversity-preserving community organizing embraces mutually beneficial systemic collaboration across various civil society causes, actions, and movements. 

2- Whereas for-profit corporations and industries have "Chambers of Commerce" (that are called the same everywhere) for the purpose of building systemic collaboration and geographic coordination, the purpose of our strictly not-for-profit "Chambers of Compassion" is to build a similar kind of systemic synergy for the not-for-profit nonviolent civil society of every community, guided by the core value of compassion.  

3- In other words, the Chambers of Compassion (or Intersectional Circles) initiative is a compassionate response to the deeply interconnected social, political, economic, cultural, artistic, religious, technological, and most significantly the ecological issues we are faced with today. 

NOTE

See PARTS THREE TO SEVEN  of this document (linked below) 

for more details, background, and context.

PART ONE

What Chambers of Compassion DO, 

Conceptually, Concretely, and Systemically 

Step by Step Procedural Summary of the Seven Moves 

of our Integrational Movement-Building Dance of Compassion

1- Survey, Identify, Assess:

a) Survey: 

- Choose the Chamber's name and its area of coverage, which should be reasonably sized (not too small or large), with clearly defined geographic boundaries; and 

- Plan an initial meeting, preferably at a public place and begin inviting potentially interested "civil society" actors in the area--beginning with the ones who are most likely to attend. 

b) Identify:

- Begin to identify and prioritize pertinent issues in the community, and concurrently continue the long process of identifying and bringing together the area's "civility actors" in and/or outside the "formal" meetings of the Chamber of Compassion. 

c) Assess:

- Begin the continual process of assessing which issues and actors have the highest potentials to generate initial collaboration-based synergy.  

2- Outreach, Re-assure, Invite:

a) Outreach

- Continue outreach to the community, starting with civil society actors who are most likely to respond favorably. 

b) Re-assure

- Continually re-assure such actors (especially the groups and organizations who have been engaging already in intersectional and empowering community organizing) communicating to them repeatedly and effectively this CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT defining characteristic: 

- Namely, that the area's Chamber of Compassion is NOT there to compete with what they been doing, and will NOT "take away their shine. Quite to the contrary, our defining "DNA" objective is to be the genuinely empowering ally of the pre-existing civil society efforts, by continuously building trust (especially systemically) through intersectional collaboration -- similar to how "Chambers of Commerce" behave with respect to the industries, corporations, and even small businesses they help to organize systemically.     

c) Invite

- The process of outreaching and inviting any given area's nonviolent civil society actors is organic to the systemic functioning of all Chambers of Compassion; so Chamber participants will continually identify, outreach and invite civil society actors (especially diverse ones) to the regularly scheduled meetings of the area's Chamber of Compassion. Such formal and (the more important) informal team-building invitations happen quite organically at the community level.      

3- Orient, Embrace, Welcome: 

a) Orient

- The meetings of any given area's Chamber of Compassion include  many orientation/introduction (large and mostly small) gatherings, including one-to-one informal ones, in person, online, and by phone. The frequency of such meetings depends on the "indigenous" needs and characteristics of the area. These team-building get-togethers (often informal) will help to find and attract the Chamber's initial core participants. 

b) Embrace

- Given the integrational movement-building nature of the not-for-profit Chambers of Compassion, the diverse civil society actors who are invited to the formal and informal meetings of any area's Chamber should be made to feel genuinely embraced, in a similar way that Chambers of Commerce embrace the for-profit corporations and businesses they organize systemically.  

c) Welcome

- This genuine welcoming aspect of our Chambers is vital to what we do. 

4- Evaluate, Partner-with, Integrate: 

a) Evaluate

- A systemic task of any given area's Chamber of Compassion is the continual evaluation of the civil society actors who show interest in the Chamber's mission, as to the manner and the level of their participation and collaboration (minimal to maximal), so that tension and conflict is prevented and the optimum level of diversity-enhancing compassionate integration is achieved.

b) Partner-with

- Our Chambers of Compassion partner-with civil society actors of their area, while not joining or "becoming one" with them, similar to how Chambers of Commerce behave.  

c) Integrate

The integrational objective of building such movement-building partnership bonds is to move the area's Chamber of Compassion toward generating the (below-mentioned) "integra-cumulative" impact, i.e., a systemic co-empowering process, thus goal, that guides all of our Chambers, locally, regionally, nationally, and eventually globally--See the "Socratic Integration" section in Part Four, below.       

5- Re-invite, Re-assure, Re-embrace:

a) Re-invite

- While respecting limitations and boundaries, the participants of any given area's Chamber of Compassion should continually and compassionately invite, re-invite, and again and again, respectfully re-invite the diverse civil society actors in their community, continually trying to find ways of working together, especially "integra-cumulatively." 

b) Re-assure

- As outlined in Section 2-b, above, continuous re-assuring of civil society actors (for the purpose of building deeper and deeper integra-cumulative trust) is a foundational priority of any given area's Chamber of Compassion.

c) Re-embrace

- In this spirit and practice, those civil society actors who have come back to a given area's Chamber of Compassion (even after initially rejecting or being hostile to it) should be warmly re-embraced and welcomed back, in a similar way that Chambers of Commerce never "divorce" any industry or business.    

6- Re-orient, Respect, Repeat:

a) Re-orient

- As outlined in Section 3-a (above), the Chamber of Compassion of any given area needs to hold (as frequently as needed) orientation/introduction meetings as a regular process baked in the "DNA" of its organic functioning--and as a natural first half (or 1/3rd) of its regular formal meetings.  

b) Respect

- Based on the evaluation section (4-a), above, respecting any civil society actor's decision to not participate in what we do is a key element of the Chamber's normal functioning. In part, this is because the free-agent individuals who participate in the activities of any of the area's groups or actions may also wish to work with our Chamber, but perhaps "un-obviously." 

c) Repeat

- And based on all of the above (and especially Parts Five and Seven, below) it is critical that all Chambers of Compassion systemically repeat, as possible and appropriate, the processes and actions that are outlined in the organically collaborative steps (or "dance moves") of the Chambers of Compassion's disciplined and systemic movement-building. 

AND FINALLY,

7- Chambers of Compassion (or Intersectional Circles) THINK, COLLABORATE, and ACT TOGETHER, practically and systemically, especially locally, then regionally, and as possible and appropriate, nationally and globally--similar to how Chambers of Commerce think and behave.    

PART TWO

Specific Movement-building Inherently Collaborative Implementation 

procedures: Initial Action-Oriented Steps 

a) Given that our initiative's foundation is built on nonviolent collaboration, the minimum number to form a Chamber of Compassion in any given area is two persons -- i.e., one person joining the Chamber's "Initial Point Person." 

b) From among the participants of the area's Chamber of Compassion at least two individuals who are interested in undertaking a specific nonviolent project or action (which can be a new one or supporting an on-going project or action that already exists in the civil society of the area) seek the supportive endorsement of the Chamber, by submitting a brief proposal (verbal or written) either in a meeting, or by writing to the Chamber's "Point Person(s)" tasked with receiving such proposals.

c) Then, as soon as it is possible, the participants in the area's Chamber would consider and possibly decide (using consensus-based decision-making--as much as possible) and preferably in the same or in the next meeting of the Chamber endorse supportively (i.e., adopt) the proposed project or action.

d) Upon such an endorsement or adoption, other individual participants in the Chamber would have the option of joining the undertaking, as free-agent volunteers, possibly beginning to collaborate immediately in a "working group" that would be formed for that particular project, campaign, or action.

OURS IS NOT "YET ANOTHER" PROJECT

The Central Objective of the Chambers of Compassions: 

A  REPEATED  STRONG EMPHASIS

1- Whereas for-profit corporations and industries have "Chambers of Commerce" (that are called the same everywhere), their purpose being the building (and maintaining) systemic collaboration and geographic coordination, the central purpose of our strictly not-for-profit "Chambers of Compassion" is to build a similar kind of systemic synergy for the not-for-profit nonviolent civil society of every community, guided by the core value of compassion.  

2- In other words, Chambers of Compassion's strictly not-for-profit purpose is nurturing, systemically and practically, genuine relationships and non-competitive civil society networking, leading to effective nonviolent collaborations among local persons, groups, and organizations that are already engaged in any given area's peace, justice, interfaith dialogue/cooperation, safeguarding Mother Earth, etc. projects and actions.

3- Thus, due to this inherently facilitative "DNA" of our Chambers of Compassion, our mission statement emphasizes that as a "non-partisan horizontal META-organization” we are NOT yet another project or group to add to (and unintentionally compete with) already existing civil society efforts. 

4- Hence, by systemically facilitating mutual co-empowerment, our movement of movements' process aims to retain and indeed cherish (as an ally) the unique and needed roles of all participating actors (persons or organizations) within the civil society in each community, eventually resulting in systemic synergistic "integra-cumulative" impact.

Continued in this "background and description" page (Parts 3 to 7) here: 

https://natr-peace.blogspot.com/p/chambers-of-compassion-how-they-work_19.html

"IF [we] build it, they will come."