The Communicating with Compassion Project was started in 2004 by Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, a co-founder of the Institute for Peaceable Communities. Our mission is to spread the tools and consciousness of NVC throughout the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts and beyond.
The NVC Network is on the edge of exponential growth worldwide. As I write, the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) is shifting its center of energy from a small self-perpetuating Board of Directors to a global network with a council of representatives from around the world. Representing the Institute for Peaceable Communities, I now serve on the NVC Network’s English-speaking North American Coordinating Council, and my particular commitment is to bring an organized presence of NVC to New England. Already, statewide NVC networks have started up in Vermont and Maine. Within the next 9 months I will help found a statewide NVC network in Massachusetts and in each of the other New England states not yet organized and help bring us all together in a New England Network for Compassionate Communication.
What is making this growth possible is a new tool known as sociocracy or dynamic self-governance. Sociocracy is a decision making process and an organization structuring process that matches NVC’s emphasis on the quality of connection that supports getting needs met. Sociocracy is a method that supports “power with” organizing rather than “power over.” I invite you to read the accompanying sheet describing sociocracy and ask me questions about it (or come to a day long workshop in Northampton on February 3 – see the web site).
Regionally, I have given NVC workshops in Falmouth, Arlington, Worcester, Springfield, Shelburne Falls, Great Barrington, Amherst, Northampton and Troy (NY), reaching twice as many people in 2006 (35 workshops, about 600 attendees) as in 2005. Most personally satisfying were two days supporting an NVC program with prison inmates at the Devens Federal Medical Center and a follow up training with an ongoing NVC practice group of inmates eager to learn. Locally, we founded the Amherst Area School NVC Committee, through which I am bringing NVC to parents while others bring NVC to teachers and to students in their classrooms. Before the end of the year, we will have the founding meeting of the Pioneer Valley chapter of NVC, so we can connect and expand the activities of the various NVC learners, activists and teachers locally. And then our local chapter will be linking with the emerging Massachusetts and New England NVC networks.
Well, I am excited! I would like to report even more success in 2007 and I invite your financial support to make that possible. The Communicating with Compassion Project is primarily supported by fees for service – people giving money in return for a workshop experience or a book. But all of the organizing work is done by volunteers. I need financial support to free my time to help bring NVC within reach of all New Englanders.
Remember: the goal of Nonviolent Communication is to create a quality of connection among people that supports getting needs met by natural giving. And by natural giving we mean giving by choice, from the heart, because it meets your needs for contribution and connection and not out of obligation or duty. In that spirit I invite you to consider this request for financial support.
Here are the goals for 2007 that your donations would support:
These activities fit into a context of a five year vision set in 2005 that includes:
Can we do this? With your help, yes! The Communicating with Compassion Project is primarily supported by fees for service – people giving money in return for a workshop experience or a book. To truly grow we need to stretch out the other two financial legs of a nonprofit: donations and grants.The goal of Nonviolent Communication is to create a quality of connection among people that supports getting needs met by natural giving. And by natural giving we mean giving by choice, from the heart, because it meets your needs for contribution and connection and not out of obligation or duty. In that spirit I invite you to consider supporting the Communicating with Compassion project by organizing a workshop, making a donation, or volunteering your time.
Donations to the Institute for Peaceable Communities are tax deductible. Send donations to the address below. And give me a call if you would like to support this work in other ways! We always need help in web site and database development and in outreach to local communities!
With eagerness and passion,
Jerry Koch-Gonzalez