THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMPASSION IN EDUCATION NETWORK (NICEN)

Our review of those involved in promoting compassion in education reveals a wide, disparate but increasing range of organisations based predominantly in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. Some have the promotion of compassion as an explicit aim. Others refer to such things as character education, emotional literacy, spiritual literacy and values education. Many are expressly secular; some stress the nature of the sacred. All offer schools practical as well as theoretical advice.

The NICEN list is an informal web-based list of organisations that can provide compassionate support, training and materials. Many provide their own newsletters. NICEN has been complied by the CoED Foundation and is reviewed and updated constantly. The following NICEN extracts have been loosely clustered according to the respective chapter headings. Several, of course, can be placed in a number of different categories. A brief synopsis of their offers precedes the web links.

COMPASSION GENERAL

  • Action for Happiness offer courses and resources to promote happiness and wellbeing:  actionforhappiness.org/
  • Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) based at Stanford, is one of the leading centres for compassionate research and dissemination: http://ccare.stanford.edu.
  • Center for Building a Culture of Empathy aims to a build movement for creating a global worldwide culture of empathy and compassion. They are a portal for resources and information about the values of empathy and compassion. Their site contains a portal for articles, conferences, definitions, experts, history, interviews, organisations, videos, and science: facebook.com/EmpathyCente
  • Charter for Compassion have a  dynamic website  dedicated to all areas of compassion: charterforcompassion.org
  • Empathy and compassion in society are the umbrella group that organises an annual conference that covers all aspects of compassion. Past conference papers and videos are available: compassioninsociety.org/
  • The Fetzer Institute  are a US based international organisation that aims to foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community. Their work is grounded in a conviction that the connection between the inner life of spirit and outer life of service and action in the world holds the key to lasting change. : fetzer.org/about-us
  • Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) is an international network of women and men spiritual and community leaders which places a special emphasis on building interfaith understanding and developing leadership in young community leaders worldwide: facebook.com/GlobalPeaceInitiativeofWomen
  • Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life based at Berkeley, California offer a range of articles, courses and conferences dedicated to the science of compassion: berkeley.edu/
  • St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation based in London offer courses, conferences, performances and consultancies aimed to promote peace and understanding: stethelburgas.org/about-us
  • Wisdom 2.0: compassion and mindfulness in the digital age offers insights into compassion in business : wisdom2summit.com/Videos

COMPASSION THROUGH ACTION

The following organisations provide on-line campaigning and petitions: