Post by Stefan Pasti on Dec 23, 2013 14:24:55 GMT
[Note: In the discussion categories for the two campaigns discussed here, a similar 3 page message is posted. That 3 page message is a shortened version of this post. This longer overview of the campaigns is posted here to orient visitors to this CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum as a whole. As other campaigns are launched, posts will be made in this section to describe those campaigns.]
Introduction
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative provides research for critical challenge alerts, and support for collaborative problem solving initiatives which seek to maximize citizen participation.
The CPCS Initiative is introducing two new information and advocacy campaigns for 2014: the “Planetary Distress Signal” Campaign and the “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Campaign. The primary goal of these campaigns is to encourage citizens from every variety of circumstances to help create, become involved, contribute to, and participate in one or more of the thousands of Community Visioning Initiatives (or similar stakeholder engagement/collaborative problem solving processes designed to maximize citizen participation) which will be needed to exponentially accelerate solution-oriented activity at this critical time.
[Special Note: All documents and resources at the CPCS Initiative website (at http://www.cpcsc.info) can be accessed for free, and used in any way (with or without attribution) to contribute to the goals of the CPCS Initiative, or the goals of any other organization working along similar lines.]
Why the Sense of Urgency?
To see where the sense of urgency comes from, here is a section from the short Table of Contents of the “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Directors (at http://www.cpcsc.info)” (a key document of the CPCS Initiative, accessible at cpcsc.info/invitation-package/):
IV. Critical Challenges of Our Times
A. Monetary Debt
B. Population, Indiscriminant Consumption, and Resource Depletion—Exponentially Increasing World Population at a time when it is culturally acceptable to encourage indiscriminant consumption (with a special focus on Resource Depletion)
C. More about a time when it is culturally acceptable to encourage indiscriminant consumption (with a special focus on the advertising industry’s and the entertainment industry’s part in what is culturally acceptable)
D. The Threat of Global Warming—and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
V. Marginalization of the Treasured Wisdom of Religious, Spiritual, and Moral Traditions
VI. Large Cities (with a Population of 1 million or more) vs. Villages, Towns, and Small Cities
What is most important about this outline—and readers can see for themselves if they look through the “Long Version Table of Contents” (27 pages) for the “Invitation Package” document —is that saints, sages, spiritual leaders, and sincere practitioners of all religious, spiritual, and moral traditions have (for centuries) demonstrated that it is possible for people to achieve highly advanced forms of wisdom and compassion. And such wisdom and compassion makes it possible for people to 1) sacrifice personal desires for the greater good of the whole and 2) find contentment and quality of life while consuming less material goods and ecological services. But when such traditions are marginalized, so is the wisdom and compassion representatives of those traditions could have transmitted.
And now…it is considered common cultural behavior to participate in a frenzy of indiscriminant consumption. And the result: there are many downside consequences (what some people call social and environmental “externalities”)… such as trillions of dollars in monetary debt ($40 trillion of sovereign debt, according to an article titled “Sovereign Environmental Debt” by Achim Steiner of the UNEP); an exponentially increasing population which currently requires way too much energy produced by carbon intensive processes, and way too many other carbon intensive goods and services; rapidly accelerating aquifer depletion [(“Half the world’s people live in countries where water tables are falling as aquifers are being depleted. And since 70 percent of world water use is for irrigation…” (Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute)]; and global warming— with a significant number of trajectories that continue to move in a dangerous direction (including carbon emissions caused by transportation and deforestation), and a significant number of disastrous results: ocean habitat destruction, extreme weather events, increasingly complex disaster relief challenges, food production instability, the threat of widespread species extinction, etc. And yet... many people are convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that what is needed is more indiscriminant consumption—because how else can there be the revenues to meet monetary debt obligations? We really need to think a little more carefully about these issues.
The “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Proposal
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative advocates for a combination of preliminary surveys, Community Visioning Initiatives, Community Teaching and Learning Centers, “sister community” relationships, job fairs, local currencies, and related community service from local newspapers as a starting point for accelerating solution-oriented activity, and creating more “close-knit” communities…communities with a healthy appreciation for each others 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.
This writer’s interest in Community Visioning Initiatives was inspired instantly when, in 1994, he watched a documentary titled “Chattanooga: A Community With A Vision” (13 minutes). The video documents two very successful Community Visioning Initiatives organized by the non-profit organization
Chattanooga Venture (Chattanooga, Tennessee USA)—one in 1984, and a follow-up in 1993. The 1984
Chattanooga Community Visioning Project (“Vision 2000”) attracted more than 1,700 participants, and produced 40 community goals—which resulted in the implementation of 223 projects and programs, the creation of 1,300 permanent jobs, and a total financial investment of 793 million dollars.
The “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Proposal advocates organizing and implementing Community Visioning Initiatives in 1000 communities (communities—or segments of rural areas, towns, or cities—with populations of 50,000 or less) around the world
1. which are time-intensive, lasting even as much as 1½ years (18 months), so as to give as much importance to developing a close-knit community as it does to
a) accumulating and integrating the knowledge and skill sets necessary for the highest percentage of people to act wisely in response to challenges identified as priority challenges
b) helping people to deliberately channel their time, energy, and money into the creation of “ways of earning a living” which are directly related to resolving high priority challenges
c) assisting with outreach, partnership formation, and development of service capacity for a significant number of already existing (or forming) organizations, businesses, institutions, and government agencies
d) helping to build a high level of consensus for specific action plans, which will help inspire additional support from people, businesses, organizations, institutions, and government agencies with significant resources
2. which expand on the concept of “Community Teaching and Learning Centers” (adapted from a concept used by the “Teachers Without Borders” organization) so that such local community points of entry function as information clearinghouses, meeting locations, education centers for ongoing workshops (on a broad range of topics related to the Community Visioning Initiative process, and building the local knowledge base), practice sites for developing “teacher-leaders”, a location for an ongoing “informal” “Community Journal”, a location for listing employment opportunities—and provide a means of responding quickly (by changing the emphasis of workshop content) to new urgencies as they arise
3. and which suggest—as a way of emphasizing the need for an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings—that communities (with the resources to do so) enter into “sister community” relationships with communities in other countries where there has been well documented calls for assistance with basic human needs.
A Way of Examining Our Options Very Carefully
If communities of people were to recognize the collaborative problem solving and citizen peacebuilding potential of preliminary surveys, Community Visioning Initiatives, Community Teaching and Learning Centers, and other elements of the “constellations of initiatives” approach detailed in the “Invitation Package” mentioned above--
--then while different communities of people would respond differently to what they perceive are the challenges of our times—such responses would at least represent a most thorough and comprehensive exploration of the critical issues of our times. In other words, it would be because we—meaning a significant majority of people who will be affected by the results—chose to do this or that after we examined our options very carefully.
That’s what Community Visioning Initiatives can offer us at this critical point in the evolution of life on Planet Earth. A way of examining our options very carefully. Widespread awareness that we are at a critical point in the evolution of life on Planet Earth has been slow in coming, because the evidence is not quite “coming through the mist as much as it should be.” But there is more than enough evidence. And the evidence will “come through the mist”. Will we be prepared?
The Specific Goals of Each Campaign
The primary goal of the “Planetary Distress Signal” Campaign is to provide, and encourage the creation of, critical challenge assessment alerts, executive summaries, and longer compilations of evidence—which can be used as resources in the Neighborhood Learning Centers (and other educational contexts).
The primary goal of the “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Campaign is to provide outlines for, encourage the creation of, and assist with carrying out stakeholder engagement/collaborative problem solving processes which are designed to maximize citizen participation—and which citizens from every variety of circumstances (every variety of differences in language, cultural background, economic circumstances, and belief systems) can trust, and believe in… (i.e. trust and believe that such processes will make best use of the knowledge and skills each person has to contribute).
How the Campaigns Will Begin
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative is planning to begin these campaigns with the following outreach efforts:
1) Twitter Outreach
The CPCS Initiative has already been carrying out Twitter Outreach to share ideas, documents, and resources; to share the key document “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors (at http://www.cpcsc.info)”; and to actively seek out people willing to serve on a CPCS Board of Advisors. CPCS Twitter Outreach will now be focusing on sharing ideas, documents, and resources which will advance the above Campaign Goals. People interested in supporting these campaigns can a) follow CPCS at Twitter, and thus allow the Campaign Tweets to reach more people and 2) share ideas, documents, and resources which will advance the campaign goals.
[Special Note: There are many, many organizations and initiatives which have the expertise and the resources to create “Planetary Distress Signal” documents, and to create the local partnerships necessary to carry out Community Visioning Initiatives (or some other similar collaborative problem solving process). Thus, supporting these campaigns does not require anyone to become directly involved with the CPCS Initiative, or support the CPCS Initiative in any way. The primary focus of these campaigns is to exponentially accelerate solution-oriented activity, because there are many critical challenges, and because we will need problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before to overcome those challenges. This is not a time to press for a one size fits all narrative, or one organization which can be an umbrella initiative for the kind of problem solving we need. This is a time for people in communities around the world to learn how to “grow” their own form of collaborative “win-win” narratives in response to the critical challenges of our times (with whatever names participants would like for their initiatives).]
2) Letters, Features, and Other Contributions to Local Newspapers
In this time of unprecedented change, local newspapers can provide many valuable community services.
There are two kinds of articles in particular which local newspapers could bring on, or do more of, which would represent a new and improved social contract with their readers, and provide many valuable community services:
a) articles about “seed” ideas, which may be most helpful to the local community they serve, but which need people support and financial support to realize their potential
b) articles about existing initiatives which are directly related to resolving some of the complex critical challenges of our times—so that residents can learn more about how they can make best use of their time, energy, and financial support.
This writer is going to offer the following documents to local newspapers, and to other appropriate news weeklies:
“An Invitation to Participate in Community Visioning Initiatives-- as a way of carefully examining our options at this critical time” (6 pages) (part personal journey, part critical challenge alert, part advocacy)
“One Page Introduction to the ‘Invitation Package’ Document” [the introduction from the title page of “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors (at www.cpcsc.info )”]
“The Potential of Community Visioning Initiatives (in 500 words)”
“Two New Campaigns from the CPCS Initiative—outreach version” (3 pages) (a short version of this document which also highlights the document “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors”)
People who would like to assist these campaigns are welcome to share the above documents, and any other CPCS Initiative documents, in whatever way they believe will advance the goals of these campaigns.
[Special Note: There is now a CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum (at cpcs.proboards.com/). People who are interested in contributing ideas, documents, and resources to these campaigns—and/or people who are seeking ideas, documents, and resources for what efforts they will make in their local community—can visit the CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum, to share, learn, or both.
3) CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum
The CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum (at cpcs.proboards.com/) offers the following categories for discussion: “Twitter Outreach”, “Letters and Other Contributions to Local Newspapers”, “CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum”, “Documents for Inviting People to Serve on a Board of Advisors”, “Community Visioning Initiatives Clearinghouse, “Neighborhood Learning Centers Clearinghouse”, “Related Crowdsourcing Campaigns”, “Related Crowdfunding Campaigns”. These categories can be added to or modified as the need arises.
4) Documents for Inviting People to Serve on a Board of Advisors
The CPCS Initiative created a large document titled “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors (at www.cpcsc.info )” as a way of demonstrating that there was more than enough evidence to conclude we will need problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before—and more than enough resources to overcome the critical challenges of our times. People interested in forming local initiatives to carry out Community Visioning Initiatives (regardless of whether they are associated with the CPCS Initiative or not) can make use of CPCS Initiative resources in any way that will benefit their efforts. Hopefully, more and more people will come to appreciate the need for Community Visioning Initiatives at this critical time, and more such initiatives will start up. As these initiatives start up, documents which have proven most effective as “Invitation Packages for Board of Advisors” can be shared through the CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum, a Community Visioning Initiatives Clearinghouse website, or through other key websites which work the best for sharing such ideas.
5) Community Visioning Initiatives Clearinghouse/Neighborhood Learning Centers Clearinghouse
The sharing of Community Visioning Initiative experiences and Neighborhood Learning Centers experiences through clearinghouse websites would be a key (if we will use it) to making the most of learning experiences worldwide—and such sharing would surely contribute much to transforming the many challenges ahead into inspiring experiences of collaboration, peacebuilding, and community revitalization. The CPCS Initiative will be encouraging discussion on the priority goals for such clearinghouses at the CPCS Campaign Discussion Forum.
6) Related Crowdsourcing Campaigns
There are now many different kinds of crowdsourcing campaigns. As these CPCS Campaigns progress, there may be a number of crowdsourcing campaigns which are related to creating “Planetary Distress Signal” documents for Neighborhood Learning Centers—and to creating collaborative problem solving processes which maximize citizen participation at the local community level. The CPCS Initiative is planning to start up two crowdsourcing campaigns in association with each of the two campaigns discussed in this paper. The proposals and the outcomes of such campaigns would be valuable resources to share in a CPCS Discussion Forum, or a clearinghouse website.
7) Related Crowdfunding Campaigns
Many local Community Visioning Initiatives and Neighborhood Learning Centers can be created through local crowdfunding campaigns. Again, details of such campaigns would be valuable resources to share in a CPCS Discussion Forum, or a clearinghouse website.
Inviting Ideas, Suggestions, Questions—and Participation
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative is beginning two campaigns—The “Planetary Distress Signal” Campaign and The “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Campaign. Both of these campaigns have the potential to exponentially accelerating solution-orienting activity at this critical time. Realizing such potential will only be possible if there is honest and constructive communication to help bring out the most valuable resources, and if there are widespread efforts to share valuable resources, to maximize the greater good of the whole. Readers of this message are invited to share their thoughts with this writer (and through the above mentioned CPCS Campaigns Discussion Form) on how these campaigns could be improved. Readers are also plainly and simply invited to participate and contribute in any way that seems to them like it might be helpful… in other words, to try, and to experiment—so they can find out what works for them. We are going to need all the resources, knowledge, and skills each one of us has, and we are going to need to make the best efforts we can at working together, if we are going to succeed at resolving the challenges ahead of us. If there are readers who have not yet been invited to become a part of the unprecedented effort that is needed, such readers are in every way encouraged to consider this document as their invitation.
Stefan Pasti, Resource Coordinator
Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative
Rockville, Maryland (US)
www.cpcsc.info
[Note: More information about Stefan Pasti is provided at cpcsc.info/about-stefan-pasti/ ]
Two New Campaigns from the CPCS Initiative (at www.cpcsc.info )
Planetary Distress Signal Campaign
1000 Community Visioning Initiatives Campaign
Planetary Distress Signal Campaign
1000 Community Visioning Initiatives Campaign
Introduction
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative provides research for critical challenge alerts, and support for collaborative problem solving initiatives which seek to maximize citizen participation.
The CPCS Initiative is introducing two new information and advocacy campaigns for 2014: the “Planetary Distress Signal” Campaign and the “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Campaign. The primary goal of these campaigns is to encourage citizens from every variety of circumstances to help create, become involved, contribute to, and participate in one or more of the thousands of Community Visioning Initiatives (or similar stakeholder engagement/collaborative problem solving processes designed to maximize citizen participation) which will be needed to exponentially accelerate solution-oriented activity at this critical time.
[Special Note: All documents and resources at the CPCS Initiative website (at http://www.cpcsc.info) can be accessed for free, and used in any way (with or without attribution) to contribute to the goals of the CPCS Initiative, or the goals of any other organization working along similar lines.]
Why the Sense of Urgency?
To see where the sense of urgency comes from, here is a section from the short Table of Contents of the “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Directors (at http://www.cpcsc.info)” (a key document of the CPCS Initiative, accessible at cpcsc.info/invitation-package/):
IV. Critical Challenges of Our Times
A. Monetary Debt
B. Population, Indiscriminant Consumption, and Resource Depletion—Exponentially Increasing World Population at a time when it is culturally acceptable to encourage indiscriminant consumption (with a special focus on Resource Depletion)
C. More about a time when it is culturally acceptable to encourage indiscriminant consumption (with a special focus on the advertising industry’s and the entertainment industry’s part in what is culturally acceptable)
D. The Threat of Global Warming—and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
V. Marginalization of the Treasured Wisdom of Religious, Spiritual, and Moral Traditions
VI. Large Cities (with a Population of 1 million or more) vs. Villages, Towns, and Small Cities
What is most important about this outline—and readers can see for themselves if they look through the “Long Version Table of Contents” (27 pages) for the “Invitation Package” document —is that saints, sages, spiritual leaders, and sincere practitioners of all religious, spiritual, and moral traditions have (for centuries) demonstrated that it is possible for people to achieve highly advanced forms of wisdom and compassion. And such wisdom and compassion makes it possible for people to 1) sacrifice personal desires for the greater good of the whole and 2) find contentment and quality of life while consuming less material goods and ecological services. But when such traditions are marginalized, so is the wisdom and compassion representatives of those traditions could have transmitted.
And now…it is considered common cultural behavior to participate in a frenzy of indiscriminant consumption. And the result: there are many downside consequences (what some people call social and environmental “externalities”)… such as trillions of dollars in monetary debt ($40 trillion of sovereign debt, according to an article titled “Sovereign Environmental Debt” by Achim Steiner of the UNEP); an exponentially increasing population which currently requires way too much energy produced by carbon intensive processes, and way too many other carbon intensive goods and services; rapidly accelerating aquifer depletion [(“Half the world’s people live in countries where water tables are falling as aquifers are being depleted. And since 70 percent of world water use is for irrigation…” (Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute)]; and global warming— with a significant number of trajectories that continue to move in a dangerous direction (including carbon emissions caused by transportation and deforestation), and a significant number of disastrous results: ocean habitat destruction, extreme weather events, increasingly complex disaster relief challenges, food production instability, the threat of widespread species extinction, etc. And yet... many people are convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that what is needed is more indiscriminant consumption—because how else can there be the revenues to meet monetary debt obligations? We really need to think a little more carefully about these issues.
The “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Proposal
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative advocates for a combination of preliminary surveys, Community Visioning Initiatives, Community Teaching and Learning Centers, “sister community” relationships, job fairs, local currencies, and related community service from local newspapers as a starting point for accelerating solution-oriented activity, and creating more “close-knit” communities…communities with a healthy appreciation for each others 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.
This writer’s interest in Community Visioning Initiatives was inspired instantly when, in 1994, he watched a documentary titled “Chattanooga: A Community With A Vision” (13 minutes). The video documents two very successful Community Visioning Initiatives organized by the non-profit organization
Chattanooga Venture (Chattanooga, Tennessee USA)—one in 1984, and a follow-up in 1993. The 1984
Chattanooga Community Visioning Project (“Vision 2000”) attracted more than 1,700 participants, and produced 40 community goals—which resulted in the implementation of 223 projects and programs, the creation of 1,300 permanent jobs, and a total financial investment of 793 million dollars.
The “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Proposal advocates organizing and implementing Community Visioning Initiatives in 1000 communities (communities—or segments of rural areas, towns, or cities—with populations of 50,000 or less) around the world
1. which are time-intensive, lasting even as much as 1½ years (18 months), so as to give as much importance to developing a close-knit community as it does to
a) accumulating and integrating the knowledge and skill sets necessary for the highest percentage of people to act wisely in response to challenges identified as priority challenges
b) helping people to deliberately channel their time, energy, and money into the creation of “ways of earning a living” which are directly related to resolving high priority challenges
c) assisting with outreach, partnership formation, and development of service capacity for a significant number of already existing (or forming) organizations, businesses, institutions, and government agencies
d) helping to build a high level of consensus for specific action plans, which will help inspire additional support from people, businesses, organizations, institutions, and government agencies with significant resources
2. which expand on the concept of “Community Teaching and Learning Centers” (adapted from a concept used by the “Teachers Without Borders” organization) so that such local community points of entry function as information clearinghouses, meeting locations, education centers for ongoing workshops (on a broad range of topics related to the Community Visioning Initiative process, and building the local knowledge base), practice sites for developing “teacher-leaders”, a location for an ongoing “informal” “Community Journal”, a location for listing employment opportunities—and provide a means of responding quickly (by changing the emphasis of workshop content) to new urgencies as they arise
3. and which suggest—as a way of emphasizing the need for an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings—that communities (with the resources to do so) enter into “sister community” relationships with communities in other countries where there has been well documented calls for assistance with basic human needs.
A Way of Examining Our Options Very Carefully
If communities of people were to recognize the collaborative problem solving and citizen peacebuilding potential of preliminary surveys, Community Visioning Initiatives, Community Teaching and Learning Centers, and other elements of the “constellations of initiatives” approach detailed in the “Invitation Package” mentioned above--
--then while different communities of people would respond differently to what they perceive are the challenges of our times—such responses would at least represent a most thorough and comprehensive exploration of the critical issues of our times. In other words, it would be because we—meaning a significant majority of people who will be affected by the results—chose to do this or that after we examined our options very carefully.
That’s what Community Visioning Initiatives can offer us at this critical point in the evolution of life on Planet Earth. A way of examining our options very carefully. Widespread awareness that we are at a critical point in the evolution of life on Planet Earth has been slow in coming, because the evidence is not quite “coming through the mist as much as it should be.” But there is more than enough evidence. And the evidence will “come through the mist”. Will we be prepared?
The Specific Goals of Each Campaign
The primary goal of the “Planetary Distress Signal” Campaign is to provide, and encourage the creation of, critical challenge assessment alerts, executive summaries, and longer compilations of evidence—which can be used as resources in the Neighborhood Learning Centers (and other educational contexts).
The primary goal of the “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Campaign is to provide outlines for, encourage the creation of, and assist with carrying out stakeholder engagement/collaborative problem solving processes which are designed to maximize citizen participation—and which citizens from every variety of circumstances (every variety of differences in language, cultural background, economic circumstances, and belief systems) can trust, and believe in… (i.e. trust and believe that such processes will make best use of the knowledge and skills each person has to contribute).
How the Campaigns Will Begin
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative is planning to begin these campaigns with the following outreach efforts:
1) Twitter Outreach
The CPCS Initiative has already been carrying out Twitter Outreach to share ideas, documents, and resources; to share the key document “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors (at http://www.cpcsc.info)”; and to actively seek out people willing to serve on a CPCS Board of Advisors. CPCS Twitter Outreach will now be focusing on sharing ideas, documents, and resources which will advance the above Campaign Goals. People interested in supporting these campaigns can a) follow CPCS at Twitter, and thus allow the Campaign Tweets to reach more people and 2) share ideas, documents, and resources which will advance the campaign goals.
[Special Note: There are many, many organizations and initiatives which have the expertise and the resources to create “Planetary Distress Signal” documents, and to create the local partnerships necessary to carry out Community Visioning Initiatives (or some other similar collaborative problem solving process). Thus, supporting these campaigns does not require anyone to become directly involved with the CPCS Initiative, or support the CPCS Initiative in any way. The primary focus of these campaigns is to exponentially accelerate solution-oriented activity, because there are many critical challenges, and because we will need problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before to overcome those challenges. This is not a time to press for a one size fits all narrative, or one organization which can be an umbrella initiative for the kind of problem solving we need. This is a time for people in communities around the world to learn how to “grow” their own form of collaborative “win-win” narratives in response to the critical challenges of our times (with whatever names participants would like for their initiatives).]
2) Letters, Features, and Other Contributions to Local Newspapers
In this time of unprecedented change, local newspapers can provide many valuable community services.
There are two kinds of articles in particular which local newspapers could bring on, or do more of, which would represent a new and improved social contract with their readers, and provide many valuable community services:
a) articles about “seed” ideas, which may be most helpful to the local community they serve, but which need people support and financial support to realize their potential
b) articles about existing initiatives which are directly related to resolving some of the complex critical challenges of our times—so that residents can learn more about how they can make best use of their time, energy, and financial support.
This writer is going to offer the following documents to local newspapers, and to other appropriate news weeklies:
“An Invitation to Participate in Community Visioning Initiatives-- as a way of carefully examining our options at this critical time” (6 pages) (part personal journey, part critical challenge alert, part advocacy)
“One Page Introduction to the ‘Invitation Package’ Document” [the introduction from the title page of “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors (at www.cpcsc.info )”]
“The Potential of Community Visioning Initiatives (in 500 words)”
“Two New Campaigns from the CPCS Initiative—outreach version” (3 pages) (a short version of this document which also highlights the document “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors”)
People who would like to assist these campaigns are welcome to share the above documents, and any other CPCS Initiative documents, in whatever way they believe will advance the goals of these campaigns.
[Special Note: There is now a CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum (at cpcs.proboards.com/). People who are interested in contributing ideas, documents, and resources to these campaigns—and/or people who are seeking ideas, documents, and resources for what efforts they will make in their local community—can visit the CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum, to share, learn, or both.
3) CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum
The CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum (at cpcs.proboards.com/) offers the following categories for discussion: “Twitter Outreach”, “Letters and Other Contributions to Local Newspapers”, “CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum”, “Documents for Inviting People to Serve on a Board of Advisors”, “Community Visioning Initiatives Clearinghouse, “Neighborhood Learning Centers Clearinghouse”, “Related Crowdsourcing Campaigns”, “Related Crowdfunding Campaigns”. These categories can be added to or modified as the need arises.
4) Documents for Inviting People to Serve on a Board of Advisors
The CPCS Initiative created a large document titled “Invitation Package for Possible Board of Advisors (at www.cpcsc.info )” as a way of demonstrating that there was more than enough evidence to conclude we will need problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before—and more than enough resources to overcome the critical challenges of our times. People interested in forming local initiatives to carry out Community Visioning Initiatives (regardless of whether they are associated with the CPCS Initiative or not) can make use of CPCS Initiative resources in any way that will benefit their efforts. Hopefully, more and more people will come to appreciate the need for Community Visioning Initiatives at this critical time, and more such initiatives will start up. As these initiatives start up, documents which have proven most effective as “Invitation Packages for Board of Advisors” can be shared through the CPCS Campaigns Discussion Forum, a Community Visioning Initiatives Clearinghouse website, or through other key websites which work the best for sharing such ideas.
5) Community Visioning Initiatives Clearinghouse/Neighborhood Learning Centers Clearinghouse
The sharing of Community Visioning Initiative experiences and Neighborhood Learning Centers experiences through clearinghouse websites would be a key (if we will use it) to making the most of learning experiences worldwide—and such sharing would surely contribute much to transforming the many challenges ahead into inspiring experiences of collaboration, peacebuilding, and community revitalization. The CPCS Initiative will be encouraging discussion on the priority goals for such clearinghouses at the CPCS Campaign Discussion Forum.
6) Related Crowdsourcing Campaigns
There are now many different kinds of crowdsourcing campaigns. As these CPCS Campaigns progress, there may be a number of crowdsourcing campaigns which are related to creating “Planetary Distress Signal” documents for Neighborhood Learning Centers—and to creating collaborative problem solving processes which maximize citizen participation at the local community level. The CPCS Initiative is planning to start up two crowdsourcing campaigns in association with each of the two campaigns discussed in this paper. The proposals and the outcomes of such campaigns would be valuable resources to share in a CPCS Discussion Forum, or a clearinghouse website.
7) Related Crowdfunding Campaigns
Many local Community Visioning Initiatives and Neighborhood Learning Centers can be created through local crowdfunding campaigns. Again, details of such campaigns would be valuable resources to share in a CPCS Discussion Forum, or a clearinghouse website.
Inviting Ideas, Suggestions, Questions—and Participation
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative is beginning two campaigns—The “Planetary Distress Signal” Campaign and The “1000 Community Visioning Initiatives” Campaign. Both of these campaigns have the potential to exponentially accelerating solution-orienting activity at this critical time. Realizing such potential will only be possible if there is honest and constructive communication to help bring out the most valuable resources, and if there are widespread efforts to share valuable resources, to maximize the greater good of the whole. Readers of this message are invited to share their thoughts with this writer (and through the above mentioned CPCS Campaigns Discussion Form) on how these campaigns could be improved. Readers are also plainly and simply invited to participate and contribute in any way that seems to them like it might be helpful… in other words, to try, and to experiment—so they can find out what works for them. We are going to need all the resources, knowledge, and skills each one of us has, and we are going to need to make the best efforts we can at working together, if we are going to succeed at resolving the challenges ahead of us. If there are readers who have not yet been invited to become a part of the unprecedented effort that is needed, such readers are in every way encouraged to consider this document as their invitation.
Stefan Pasti, Resource Coordinator
Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative
Rockville, Maryland (US)
www.cpcsc.info
[Note: More information about Stefan Pasti is provided at cpcsc.info/about-stefan-pasti/ ]
