• Sectors
    Arts
    Business
    Education
    Environment
    Healthcare
    Peace
    Restorative Justice
    Religion, Spirituality & Interfaith
    Science & Research
    Social / Racial Justice
    Social Services
    Women & Girls

    Coming soon:  Each of the 12 Sectors, with their respective Sector Partners. 
    List of Partners

  • Arts

    Many artists and art organizations bring the depths and heights of the human spirit to us in a myriad of art forms. Art has always had the power to connect us to one another. Now, however, more than any other time in history, we have both greater urgency and greater opportunity to connect people, to work together to imagine and to build a global compassionate world.  We invite you to join us -- to weave your compassion with the same heartfelt impulse of both friends and strangers throughout the Earth, and to bring compassion and compassionate action to a worldwide audience that is yearning for a more compassionate and peaceful world.

  • Business

    It is time to think about a concept that is as monumental as any other -- compassion as a commodity in the service of society. Imagine, compassion as a currency! It's not impossible. There is a multitude of research helping us see that when companies help employees actualize their higher level of needs as expressed in Maslow’s Hierarchy, then a sense of ownership is established, and productivity and employee retention are increased. Equally, when companies respect their employees and clients and demonstrate kindness, then loyalty becomes more pronounced.

  • Education

    More and more schools and educational organizations/groups are creating compassion-filled learning environments. Students and adults alike thrive when their social and emotional needs are met, when they feel a sense of belonging, when they feel their voices are welcomed and heard. Choosing to uphold the principles of compassion is central to a school’s ability to create a caring and inclusive culture and climate, to nurture a strong moral identity among those who walk through its doors, and to invite deep participation and learning.

  • Environment

    The Environment sector of our movement includes individuals and partner organizations that have a passionate -- and compassionate -- concern for the Earth and all life that inhabits and interconnects on our planet.  Whether it’s eco-economy, growing eco-municipalities, climate change, artificial agriculture, food production, political indifference or influence, the treatment of animals, land grabs and mismanagement, exploitation of the Indigenous, the distribution of scarce resources, double standards, abuse of power and authority, the trampling of human and civil rights, they all serve to right the indifference that abdicates human stewardship for the planet and all its sentient life.

  • Healthcare

    A compassionate healthcare system provides holistic care that recognizes the immense importance of healing relationships, and pays attention not only to physical disease and bio-medicine but also to emotional, psychological, social and spiritual wellbeing of patients and their families. Attending to compassion and relationships in healthcare significantly improves quality, outcomes, satisfaction, and experience of care.  Our goal is to create a significant and measurable shift in the understanding of professionals, patients, insurers, and institutions and healthcare systems for how compassion is the linchpin of successful, holistic, and cost-effective healthcare from individual examining rooms to entire systems.

  • Peace

    Peace Begins in the Human Heart
    The concept of a “golden rule” in which we do to others only what we would want others to do to us, can be found in one form or another as far back as the civilizations of ancient China, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. It has been called an “ethic of reciprocity,” and can be found in all cultures, and in all world religions as well as in the philosophies of humanists and existentialists. It is, in short, an ethical code that most all of humanity can agree on.

    Why then do we find ourselves here in the 21st century inhabiting a world that is dangerously polarized, with a growing imbalance of power and wealth among the ever-increasing number of people on the Earth, with continuing wars that ravage populations and waste resources, with massive genocide and terrorist atrocities that endanger us all? How is it that we find humankind facing the terrifying possibility of environmental catastrophe?

    These questions confront us with a greater urgency than ever, and it is these questions that have led us to the human heart and the human brain mind—the great possibilities of compassion that lie within each human being—to identify a solution.

    Imagine Peace and Act with us
    Hundreds of regional, national, and international organizations with millions of members currently exist in the hope of establishing a more peaceful and non-violent world. Now, however, more than any other time in history, we have both greater urgency and greater opportunity to connect all of these people, to work together to imagine and build a Compassionate California … a Compassionate Planet Earth.

    Imagine a world where everyone is committed to living by the principle of compassion. What could that mean for the more than forty million Californians, for the more than seven billion people that now share the planet?

    Imagine the impact of vast numbers of people “bringing compassion to life” in their own lives, in all their families, in business, in education, in healthcare, in religious and spiritual practices, in the arts, and in an awareness of the environment. That is the vision and commitment of the Charter for Compassion, and of Compassionate California.

    We invite you to join us — to weave your compassion with the same heartfelt impulse of both friends and strangers throughout California … AND the world.


  • Restorative Justice

    Restorative Justice is the practice of addressing the needs of individuals, and the greater community system that holds them, after harm has occurred.  

    Restorative justice is a theory of justice that can be employed both re-actively, in response to conflict and/or crime, and proactively to strengthen community by fostering communication and empathy. Restorative Justice invites everyone impacted by a conflict and/or crime to develop a shared understanding of both the root causes and the effects. Restorative Justice seeks to address the needs of those who have been harmed, while encouraging those who have caused harm to take responsibility.

    Restorative Justice emphasizes the capacity of all people for healing, growth, and transformation and in this way it encourages accountability, self-determination, healing, and interconnection. Restorative Justice has a range of applications within communities, schools, and the justice system. It may also be used to address mass social conflict and/or injustice.
    Restorative justice requires, at minimum, that we address victims’ harms and needs, hold offenders accountable to put right those harms, and involve victims, offenders, and communities in this process.
                                                                                 ~ THE LITTLE BOOK OF Restorative Justice
    by Howard Zehr

  • Science

    Compassionate California partners with major university research projects in the state, such as Stanford University's CCARE (Center for Compassion and Altruism Research & Education), along with the Charter for Compassion International.  We are developing compassion-based interventions that aim to address burnout, compassion fatigue, stress, anxiety and depression. This is a call to all potential collaborators and researchers, across all disciplines, to share and construct a new collaboratory, an opportunity to collaborate for impactful change, and to be recognized for the deep care that brought them to their efforts. ​

  • Social / Racial Justice

    The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.  ~Marcus Garvey

    Social justice is defined as "... promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity.” It exists when "all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources." In conditions of social justice, people are "not to be discriminated against, nor their welfare and well-being constrained or prejudiced on the basis of gender, sexuality, religion, political affiliations, age, race, belief, disability, location, social class, socioeconomic circumstances, or other characteristic of background or group membership" (Toowoomba Catholic Education, 2006).

  • Social Services

    “A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things that renew humanity.” Buddha

    The origin of social services dates back to the fourth century with churches providing for the poor, homeless, ill, and orphans. With the emergence of urbanization and industrialization came more formalized social welfare organizations, followed by a movement to address a multitude of social issues. Today, public service organizations deliver direct services and programs that aim to promote well-being, opportunity, sustainability, as well as build stronger communities.

    The very essence of public service is compassionate action. A compassionate service provider responds to social issues with a compassionate heart and lens. Typically developed around a profound awareness of the suffering in the world, social service organizations aim to alleviate that suffering through support and service provision. A compassionate service agency is culturally competent and promotes tolerance and humane interactions in how one learns another’s story - while integrating ethical policies for a more kind and just world.

    More and more as a society we recognize our interdependence and how assisting the individual in turn has significant impact on the collective good.

    “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Mahatma Gandhi

  • Spirituality

    Recognizing that “the principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religions, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves,” the many world luminaries from a variety of faith traditions who contributed to writing the Charter made a specific call to all men and women:
    • To restore compassion to the center of morality and religion
    • To return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate
    • To ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures
    • To encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity
    • To cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

  • Women & Girls

    Since the beginning of recorded time, we know women sit at the center of our communities. Women are first to gather together when their families and communities are threatened. They are drawn together by a biological innate imperative to heal, nurture, support and protect our environment and preserve our cultures and traditions. Indigenous wisdom reminds us of this and the critical need to collaborate and cooperate, hold one another up and blow in one another’s sails.

    Our Women & Girls Partners are women, in many cases part of women’s groups, women’s networks and women’s networks of networks, who have all said, “Yes” to the concept of making “compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world.” These women have the unprecedented and inalienable power to support, nurture, compliment, learn from, mentor and collaborate with one another. It’s woven into the archetype of who they are as women.