CPCS Initiative Summary paper: “Recalibrating Our ‘Moral Compasses’: to resolve unprecedented challenges and discover our collective spiritual destiny” (82 pages; June, 2015)

The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative provides research for critical challenge alerts, and support for collaborative problem solving and community education initiatives which seek to maximize citizen participation, and accelerate solution-oriented activity.

The CPCS Initiative is now making accessible an 82 page paper which summarizes work by its predecessor [The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative (from 2001-2013)]—and work by The CPCS Initiative since its inception in 2013.

The paper is titled "Recalibrating Our 'Moral Compasses': to resolve unprecedented challenges and discover our collective spiritual destiny”. The 82 page summary paper is accessible at the homepage of The CPCS Initiative (at www.cpcs.co ).

Unprecedented Challenges Ahead

Significant evidence is provided in this paper to support the following critical challenge assessment:

1) there are many unprecedented challenges which are now on dangerous trajectories (many danger signs flashing red)
2) there is a high likelihood of significant, already occurring, and ongoing damage to ecological stability and social cohesion
3) there is an urgent need to reach positive tipping points on many of the challenges as soon as possible

Supporting evidence for such an assessment includes:

a) an 11 page arrangement of quoted passages in Section II (72 quoted passages which are drawn from the longer CPCS Initiative critical challenge assessments)
b) a 6 point discussion and commentary of the Section II assessment (in Section III) which provides evidence for viewing the #2 challenge identified in Section II (the Marginalization of the Treasured wisdom of Religious, Spiritual, and Moral Traditions) as a serious blind spot with implications which are far from being fully appreciated

Recommendations for Collaborative Problem Solving and Community Education Initiatives

Section IV includes a 26 Point List of Recommendations for Collaborative Problem Solving and Community Education Initiatives (Part A), and descriptions of 4 key collaborative problem solving and community education initiatives, which are examples of a “constellation of initiatives” which meets the 26 point criteria.

Those 4 collaborative problem solving and community education initiatives are:

1) the Recalibrating Our “Moral Compasses” (ROMC) Project
2) Community Visioning Initiatives
3) Neighborhood Learning Centers
4) the Neighbor to Neighbor Community Education (NTNCE) Project (which advocates for a new section in local newspapers for reader contributions which identify helpful people and valuable resources, and reinforce important community goals)

The 4 point “constellation of initiatives” described in Section IV are one way people at the local community level can learn how to make wise choices about how they use their time, energy, and money… so that all the “little events” in the circumstance of everyday community life have a positive and cumulative effect on the challenges they have identified as priority challenges.

A Key “Building Block” for Establishing the Need for Unprecedented Forms of Collaborative Problem Solving and Community Education

The Recalibrating Our “Moral Compasses” (ROMC) Survey Project advocates for surveys (as in many) of carefully selected people from around the world who are well known in fields of activity associated with creating a peaceful and sustainable world.

The 9 Question Categories are:

1) Critical Challenge Assessment
2) Solution Recommendations [specific to your field(s) of activity]
3) Recommendations for Collaborative Problem Solving Design
4) Degree of Collaborative Problem Solving Needed
5) Towards Working Definitions of “Right Livelihood”
6) Towards Working Definitions of “Moral Compasses”
7) Features Which Define Advanced Societies
8) Recommendations for Other People Who Would be Appropriate as Survey Participants
9) Other comments, suggestions, recommendations, etc not brought forward by Questions 1-8

Here in this introductory post, it is helpful to bring forward details about the Recalibrating Our “Moral Compasses” Survey because much of this 80 page summary paper can be understood as example responses to four of the proposed survey questions: question category 1) by Section II; question categories 2) and 3) by Section IV; and the following part of question category 6) “How might a ‘moral compass’ for a local community—and/or religious, spiritual, or moral tradition—be created and maintained, so that it remains relevant even during times of unprecedented change?”—by Section IV.

One of the many potential positive outcomes of both internationally focused, and local community, ROMC Surveys are the clearinghouse websites, which could be continuously aggregating responses to ROMC Surveys in the areas of critical challenge assessments, field specific solution guides, preferences for collaborative problem solving models, and input on such questions as “How might a ‘moral compass’ for a local community—and/or religious, spiritual, or moral tradition—be created and maintained, so that it remains relevant even during times of unprecedented change?”

Internationally focused ROMC Surveys, the resulting free Ebooks, and locally based ROMC Surveys can help local community residents appreciate the need for local Community Visioning Initiatives (or other collaborative problem solving/stakeholder engagement processes)—and many supporting Neighborhood Learning Centers—and provide key starting points for topics to cover in workshops at Neighborhood Learning Centers.

Project Development Recommendations

Section V in this paper provides five recommendations for the kind of project development necessary to arrive at the most effective ROMC surveys—which this writer believes is the most useful starting point for leading into the “constellations of initiatives” approach described in Section IV.

There are many organizations and initiatives which have made critical contributions, over many decades, in fields associated with creating a peaceful and sustainable world (43 are listed in Section V)—and such organizations and initiatives could be a starting point for seeking out appropriate survey respondents for internationally focused ROMC Surveys… and assist with the development of relevant educational resources and teacher training.

Here is the list of 43 organizations:

Alliance for Peacebuilding; Calvert Foundation; Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Centre for Alternative Technology; Community Indicators Consortium; Coolplanet; Doctors Without Borders; Earth Institute (Columbia University); Earth Policy Institute; Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; Gates Foundation; Gaia Education; Global Ecovillage Network; Global Footprint Network; Global Fund for Women; Global Threats Fund (Skoll Foundation); Green Schools Alliance; Heifer International; The Hunger Project; International Energy Agency; Institute of International Education; International Energy Agency; International Food Policy Research Institute; Investor Network on Climate Risk; Local Governments for Sustainability (formerly ICLEI); Mercy Corps; Save the Children International; Sister Cities International; Teachers Without Borders; Tck Tck Tck; Tides Foundation; UN Environment Programme; UN Habitat; UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network; UN Water; Women’s Funding Network; World Health Organization (WHO); World Learning; World Permaculture Network; Zero Carbon Britain

Educational institutions, and other organizations, could increase their existing efforts, or take up the call, to develop related curriculum and offer classes, workshops, and teacher training, to support the development of Neighborhood Learning Centers. If many colleges and universities assisted with carrying out local Community Visioning Initiatives—with many supporting Neighborhood Learning Centers—the positive multiplier effects would be visible around the world.

Advances may be made in Collaborative Problem Solving and Community Education which make even the Most Profound Goals Achievable

Re-discovering, and re-integrating, the treasured wisdom which has been marginalized (and which is much more far-reaching and profound than any five point description can hope to encompass) into the everyday circumstances of community life, has the potential to accelerate us towards so many positive tipping points that there is a need to give special attention to identifying the kind of workshops which can do the most to--

--contribute to the building of close-knit communities… communities with a healthy appreciation for each other’s strengths, communities with a well-developed capacity to resolve even the most difficult challenges— and communities which demonstrate a high level of compassion for their fellow human beings.

In Section V, this writer provides three suggestions for what kind of workshops—in Neighborhood Learning Centers associated with ongoing Community Visioning Initiatives—can do the most to contribute to building the kind of close-knit communities described above. [Note: If there is sufficient interest in this question, it could also be a question to include in Recalibrating Our “Moral Compasses” (ROMC) surveys, and thus could also result in a clearinghouse website to aggregate survey responses, and other additional input.]

It is in Sections IV and Section V that this writer believes readers will begin to feel something of the “inner current” which has been inspiring this writer’s work. There is much we can do to move beyond “us vs. them” narratives, and to even move beyond reconciliation narratives, to discovery narratives, that has not yet been done.

Discovery narratives will be defined here as collaborative problem solving and community education initiatives which inspire us to discover what we can learn and achieve when we are all on the same side, helping each other. The organizations which are highlighted in Section V only represent a tiny fraction of the collective efforts being made to create a peaceful and sustainable world. And yet… if partnerships and collaboration like those suggested in Section V went forward, there would surely be such accelerated movement towards positive tipping points on unprecedented challenges that many of us could find ourselves feeling that we cannot easily set aside the opportunity to know—one way or the other—whether we can achieve goals which, for the longest time, many of us have dismissed as far beyond our levels of experience—and the leanings of our aspirations… goals like world peace.

Opportunities for Reconciliation

There are many people who have had experiences of reconciliation with people who they once cared about very deeply, but then became separated by beliefs and livelihoods which seemed too different to ever resolve. Most readers will agree that one of the most powerful insights which can come from such reconciliations is that “beneath the multitudes of identities, (and) the differences in culture, language, ritual, and beliefs, we all desire contact that comes in forms of love, community, respect, dignity, recognition, and acknowledgment.”

In this time of unprecedented challenges—and especially in the context of collaborative problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before—there are going to be countless opportunities for reconciliation. There are going to be countless opportunities for arriving at a new appreciation of the personal qualities, skills, and beliefs of our neighbors and fellow citizens—personal qualities, skills, and beliefs which we once might have thought was only be directed towards outcomes with serious negative consequences for many people. And there are going to be countless opportunities for our neighbors and fellow citizens to become part of a system of mutual support and encouragement in our local communities, as we respond to multiple, unprecedented challenges. Many of us have already seen that these opportunities arise during the cooperative efforts needed to recover from massive natural disasters. And yet… many of us could miss out on this potential for reconciliation if the collaborative problem solving processes we are invited to participate in do not try to foster the powerful insight described in the previous paragraph.

Organizers of collaborative problem solving processes who believe that the exponential increase in compassion which needs to happen will happen, and the unprecedented level of problem solving that needs to happen will happen, will be focusing more on building a collaborative problem solving approach which people from every variety of circumstances can trust and believe in… trust and believe will make best use of the knowledge, skills, and resources each one of us has to contribute.