STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT

Goal 8: Initiate Compassionate Support for Children and Families

While the discussion from this group is broad it forces us to zero-in on what can the Charter for Compassion do to support children and families. To a certain extent this Goal affords for us to explore the question, are we a service provider or a networker, or are we both?

Highlights of Discussion

• The hand that rocks the cradle rules the works (understands destiny). The mother understands where the ark is headed

• If you educate the mother you raise the quality of life of the whole family

• Women in many places of the world remain 2nd class citizens; economically, maternal & child mortality, the right to be educated; the right to decide whether or not you want to have a baby, etc.

• Parents learn how to parent for better or worse, from the parenting they had.

• We are missing a compassion circle. Building communities requires taking responsibility (Self, family, community, world)

• We do not support families as a concept, but if we are not supporting families, we are not supporting (Rick Hansen Project). We need training in what it means to be a father, a mother, a parent, part of a family)

• We need to create a safety net for families and articulate the need for such things as family leave and parental training; “Compassion, a safety net for families”

• Many live and grow up in a world of trauma.

• 0-5 year olds are the big push in Pomona, CA. community, whose Mayor has jumped on board.

• History in the USA that the family is “private”

• No child left behind has pushed politicians into the culture of families

• In earlier times parents did not have time to “reflect” they had to focus on surviving.

• We need more community health workers who can support families right from the start.

• How do we market things that might help change the status quo?

• Early childhood trauma, how do we change that culture? We build safety nets for families

• It takes a village to raise a family

• We need to understand the different cultures and cultural beliefs

• Children are born loving and compassionate and then they get conditioned, indoctrinated, culturally conditioned which leads to many of the world's problems. How can we heal this divide? We need to remove fear

• The most important question ever in the universe is …Do we live in a friendly universe?

• Diverse beliefs on the fundamental nature of children; good or evil.

• Simultaneous equation. Biological needs and spiritual needs both need to be simultaneously attended to.

Recommendations

• We need to build safety nets for families into our communities.

• Compassion, the safety net for families.

• Stop control of such things as economics, war.

• We must first change ourselves.

• Change our thinking from the fundamental unit from and individual to a community.

• We need another compassion circle.

• We need a better awareness of other cultures/cultural beliefs.

• We meed educational programs to be developed that focus on family units as part of a community.

• We need to develop a better understanding of the lifelong impact of early childhood trauma (“What happened to you?” As opposed to what is the matter with you?” What is wrong with you?”

Resources Required

Program Planner/Developer/Speakers

Implementors

Laura Burgess, Yaffa Maritz, Stephanie Paulmeno, Shawn Perriera, Susan Soleil, and Arun Wakhlu

Measure of Success

(Marilyn’s response) I believe that at the core of supporting families looms in an individual’s understanding of their own perspective and their perceived wisdom. You know what you know but don’t have a clue of what you don’t know. We are victims of our own wisdom. How do we change this perception? I believe it is in Experiencing, Examining and Considering cultures other than one’s own.

There is a need to tie in your discussion points above with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and respond to these SDGs with compassionate action steps. We can then explore what programs meet the criteria that we have explored. Who among our partners are doing the work that we see needs to be done? I believe putting together a menu of possibilities is the work of the Charter NOT creating new programs. There is Yaffa’s program, Mary Gordon’s program, Roots of Empathy, Don Dinkemeyers’ Systematic Training for Effective Parenting, etc.