Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.

Without them humanity

cannot survive.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral
qualities of men.
Confucius
A compassionate City is an Uncomfortable City.
- Karen Armstrong
The Human Soul has no gender, race, ethnicity or class a reality that renders all
forms of prejudice intolerable and unacceptable!
- Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr.

2014 NARRATIVE
1. Emergence of Compassionate Seattle
Compassionate Seattle is part of a worldwide emergence of what has become known as
the Compassionate Communities Movement, inspired by two significant events:
the 2008 Seeds of Compassion event in Seattle, which was anchored by the deep
wisdom of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and
the awarding of the 2008 TED Prize to Karen Armstrong, for her wish to create a
Charter for Compassion, which was subsequently developed through the
contributions of thousands across the globe, and unveiled in November 2009.
In 2010, Seattle became the first city in the world to affirm the Charter for Compassion
and commit to becoming a compassionate city. Subsequently, more than 250 other
communities around the world have each pledged to join the Compassionate Communities
movement. Compassionate Seattle was created in 2010 as the holder of this vision for
Seattle, and as the hub of community action needed to make this vision a reality.
2. There Is More Work To Be Done!
Despite being one of the most affluent and progressive areas of the country, there
continue to be many urgent needs throughout the region. Some examples:
15% of all children in Washington State (226,000) are living below the Federal
Poverty Linea $21,000 annual income for a family of four.
Three out of four jobs in Washington State don't pay enough to support a family.
In King County, 9,294 individuals were homeless as of January, 2014.
o Of these, it is estimated that 4 of 10 people are part of homeless families.
o Nearly 6 of 10 of those in homeless families are children.
o Approximately half of these are children younger than six years old.
In King County alone, more than 9,500 nonprofit and faith-based groups, supported by a
variety of govern-mental agencies, have been working for years to resolve these and other

critical social service issues. Yet, not only have sustainable solutions not been found,
many of our greatest needs are getting worse.

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3. Case Study Homelessness in King County

The Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness in King County offered a blueprint for how the
region would work together to confront the issues that cause homelessness, and create
the housing and supportive services needed to end homelessness for thousands of men,
women, and children. The plan was developed by a community-wide coalition, approved
by the Metropolitan King County Council, and endorsed by cities representing 85 percent
of the county's population.
The ten-year anniversary of the Plans full launching in July 2005 will soon be reached. The
disappointing reality is that that while many homeless people have been served, the
homeless population is in fact larger now that when this Plan was initiated.
The reasons are complex, but the following are particularly apparent:
The broad array of advocates and stakeholders never found agreement on a
common goal; instead there has been continual infighting around policy decisions,
and competition for financial resources. This lack of coherence has hampered their
ability to present the public with a message compelling enough to foster the
political will to create and implement the measures required for a sustainable
solution.
A key piece missing from how the public views homelessness is the stories of
homelessness. Not the stories of numbers, but the stories of human survival and
even enterprise. Stories of how people struggle to stay on top of their lives, doing
day labor, while the cards remain stacked against them and there is little hope of
improving their situation.
The voices of the homeless need to be consistently brought to the table to fuel the
conversation and action planning of all those trying to address this problem.
4. Our Call to Action
It is clear that isolated efforts by individuals and organizations have delivered
disappointing outcomes over the last decade. This isolation between those attempting to
help, as well as among the stakeholders and potential beneficiaries has resulted in
efforts often focusing on the symptoms of the problem, rather than the uncomfortable root
causes of hardship and struggle.
Based on many dozens of interviews, group meetings, conferences, and conversations
over the past year, we believe a major contributing factor as to why this has happened is
that to go deeper and look at root causes would require broad engagement with the
other those from different backgrounds based on race, socio-economic class, faith,
culture, and political perspective. Our countrys collective ability to engage with the other
has been severely diminished, leading to silos of effort that alone cannot create the
dynamic change our communities need.
What is called for is radical compassion, an increase in our
communitys awareness and capacity to face the
uncomfortable in its many forms:
the reality of the difficult challenges we are facing;
the lack of understanding and connection we
frequently bring to those who are different from
ourselves; and
the discomfort that may result from potential solutions and their effect on our lives.
We will respond to this call through a combined focus on:
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utilizing a lens of compassionate action to improve our collective capacity to

overcome discomfort and engage the other in collective solutions; and
creating a place to move away from adversarial positions and silos, and to move
toward meaningful dialogue and action, allowing holistic and sustainable solutions
to emerge.

5. How We Operate
Through many decades of social change movements, certain models have emerged as
being most effective for creating sustainable change. Compassionate Seattle has chosen
to adopt the Constellation Governance Model for Social Change, a powerful social tool to
catalyze action for collective impact, with three components:
Constellations self-organizing compassionate action teams made up of
stakeholders representing those affected by a critical community issue (for
example, homelessness);
Backbone Support Organization serving as a convener, connector, and capacity
builder that supports the process of collaboration within, between, and outside the
Constellations; and
Stewardship Council an appointed council of individuals and organizations who
fulfill the function of stewardship by providing a clear vision and strategic plan to
guide the work of the collaboration.

A useful analogy to this model is that of a canoe, with all of the elements of a canoe and
its team that make it successful. Think of the Constellations as the paddlers with their
paddles. The Backbone Support Organization is the canoe itself, the inclusive space that
convenes and holds them together as one. And the Stewardship Council is comprised of
those individuals appointed by the Constellations, or paddlers, to be the rudder, to steer
the canoe in the right direction, which is always headed toward a unified and agreed-upon
vision.
6. 2014 Impacts of Compassionate Seattle initiatives
Compassionate Seattle has achieved the following accomplishments in 2014, positioning
us well to steward the compassion movement next year in our region:

Sustained and expanded the local movement through a series of monthly group
meetings and regional conferences:
o March - Compassionate Cities Conference at St. Marks Cathedral
o April - Connecting the Dots at Seattle University
o August - Education Conference at Cleveland High School
o September - Nawtsamaat Alliance Gathering at Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center

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November - Interspiritual Celebration of Gratitude at St. Patrick Church

Reset the focus of compassion on exploring the fear of the pain and discomfort
associated with acknowledging the suffering around us.

Addressed systemic inequities associated with homelessness and housing, education,

youth at-promise and interfaith, from a holistic perspective through compassionate
action for collective impact.

Clarified the identity, purpose, and accountability structure of the organization through
a collaborative process with a cohort of co-creators who, with a focus on racial equity
and class privilege, are building a sturdy inclusive foundation for the expanded
organizational mission of Compassionate Northwest.

Widened the circle of leadership to include people of color, using circle process to
deepen relationships and expand our capacity to address issues of racial equity and
class privilege.

Increased the commitment and openness to diversity of

leadership styles in the core group as it steps up to carry
the organization forward to a new level of focus and
ownership.

Conducted an intentional outreach initiative through more

than 60 personal meetings with individuals, groups, and
organizations to introduce Compassionate Seattle,
recognizing that it takes time to establish and build new
relationships. Discovered common interests and established partnerships resulting in
over 160 largely new additions to our community circle.

Countered the spread of intolerance, hatred, and violence by creating the Beloved
Community storytelling and mapping project as a neighborhoods initiative. This
project features stories from diverse communities that describe places of safety and
belonging where trust is fostered and compassionate action flourishes. A collaborative
project with Charter for Compassion International, local partnerships include El Centro
de la Raza, CityClub, First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Senior Centers, and
Seattle Festal.

Created relationships with city and county governments regarding human services,
neighborhoods, and budgets.

Was selected as the first partner in the Seattle Human Services Coalitions Agenda for
a Just and Thriving Community, which positions us to connect our constellation work on
inequities directly into the King County budget process.

7. Case Study - Positive Impact on Other Organizations

Compassionate Seattle does not strive to provide direct delivery of services to
beneficiaries. Instead, our primary focus and greatest potential is to support and connect
other organizations that share our vision, enabling their efforts to be radically more
effective. Examples to demonstrate our opportunity for significant positive impact:

We collaborated with Real Change News to support their OutsideIN petition campaign,
pressuring public officials to address the crisis of increasing numbers of unsheltered
people in King County. Through a targeted publicity campaign utilizing our large email
database, we invited our compassionistas to inform themselves and sign the petition.
Compassionate Seattle was credited with having raised public awareness of the issue
and contributed significantly to the success of the campaign. This effort resulted in

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more than $1M being added to the new City and County budgets to help address the
problem of homelessness.

The Youth At-Promise Constellation has for the first time drawn the interest and
involvement of millennials into our compassion circles. Initially, their involvement
focused on hosting breakout sessions in our conferences and participating in our
monthly meetings. However, they have committed to be involved in our Constellation
Model for Social Change, and they are in the process of working with us and their
organizations (Youth N Action and Unleash The Brilliance) to apply the conditions of
Collective Impact through their constellation to address priority needs for youth in the
region.

We recognize the value of presenting a united front within our region for our various
compassion initiatives to thrive in achieving our individual goals while at the same time
promoting Collective Impact to create the culture of compassion in our communities
that will ripple throughout our cities and neighborhoods.
As a result, we have included Youth Ambassadors in our programs and events and look
forward to working more intentionally with them in the design and implementation of
next years programs. We have supported Compassion Games and are laying the
groundwork for closer collaboration on their initiatives, such as Sun-Up Our
Congregations and Love This Place. We have applied the Restorative Circle approach
to two gatherings, and count Restorative Justice as one of our emerging core practices.

8. Why Compassionate Northwest?

Given the nature of this region and the problems we are facing, we believe that our
approach will be most effective by positioning ourselves as a regional hub, going deep in
Seattle/King County while also weaving together efforts in neighboring communities.
Therefore, we are strongly considering rebranding ourselves as Compassionate Northwest,
as we know it will have a significant impact on our strategy and impact for the coming
year. Until this decision is final, we will refer to ourselves as Compassionate
Seattle/Northwest.
As Compassionate Seattle/Northwest, we will be in a unique position to support
sustainable change on a regional, co-creative, multi-stakeholder basis. Recognizing that
change comes from within, Compassionate Seattle/Northwest will utilize the collective
wisdom of regional perspectives, including cultural sensitivities, resulting in a uniquely
Northwest initiative designed to have the most effective impact on our region.
We also benefit from our connection to the Charter for Compassion International. As a
member of a global network of Compassionate Communities, the expanded
Compassionate Seattle/Northwest has access to a growing foundation of best practices
and shared wisdom from successful projects and other regional hubs around the world.
9. What We Intend To Do Moving Forward
We have learned much through our various efforts this past year. As a result, we feel that
Compassionate Seattle/Northwests focus moving forward should be as follows:
Bring together individuals, groups, and organizations with aligned visions, missions,
and goals to create and sustain collaborative action in mutual partnerships to
address particular inequities by employing the Constellation Governance Model for
Social Change and Collective Impact.

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10.

Engage with organizations to improve their capacity to empower and assist people
who are in vulnerable circumstances and who are enduring hardship, to address
their needs and challenges.
Collaborate in the design of programs to work with individuals and communities, not
for them. This allows for self-sufficiency, respect, and assistance in utilizing the
assets each individual, family, or community already has rather than attempting to
help or fix problems, which often creates disempowerment, dependencies, and
misguided solutions.
Improve our website in the areas of information delivery, storytelling, and
community organizing.
Compile a Community Tool Box of resources that will provide innovative and
collaborative solutions Golden Threads to connect our focus areas - through
approaches including Restorative Justice, Peacemaking Circles, Compassionate
Listening, Compassion Games, and Nonviolent Communication.
Join the Non-Profit Anti-Racism Coalition, to take part in community discussions,
trainings, and advocacy for dismantling institutional racism.
Expand backbone support for groups/organizations directly advocating for specific
focus areas of need.
Advocate for the allocation of resources based on the expressed priorities of those
in need, rather than assuming we know what is best for the beneficiaries.
Our Mission

To inspire, promote, connect, and build deep connection around

holistic collective action. To address the challenges in the regional
community that are the root causes of suffering. To co-create
communities where:
women and families have a safe and stable place to live,
adults become economically self-sufficient,
children and youth are educated and trained in the skills
needed to lead responsible and fulfilling lives, and
all people live with dignity and equity, free from racism, discrimination, and
violence.
With great appreciation,
John Hale
Regent Brown

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