The IPCR Community Journal #2

"The IPCR Workshop Primer": An Introduction to the Potential of The IPCR Initiative

2010-02-25T17:26:00.001-08:00

This message is an introduction to a new document from The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative titled “The IPCR Workshop Primer” (425 pages).

“The IPCR Workshop Primer” is meant to be a resource guide for facilitators of IPCR Workshops, and a resource guide for participants in IPCR Workshops. The word “Primer” is used indicate that this resource is meant to be an energizer—it is meant to cause workshops to happen; and it is a storehouse of ideas for making workshops useful and inspiring. “The IPCR Workshop Primer” is also an introduction to the potential of The IPCR Initiative. “The IPCR Workshop Primer” is accessible for free (as a pdf file) from the IPCR website homepage (http://www.ipcri.net/ ). [Note: All IPCR documents are accessible for free.]

“The IPCR Workshop Primer” was written and compiled by this writer (Stefan Pasti), who is the founder and outreach coordinator for The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative.

One Way of Describing The IPCR Initiative

[Note: There is a section in “The IPCR Workshop Primer” titled “48 Different Ways of Describing The IPCR Initiative.]

The IPCR Initiative is aware of an urgent need to build bridges and increase collaboration between diverse communities of people; both as a response to the implications of global warming, ecological footprint analysis, and the “peaking” of our finite supplies of oil—and to be proactive about individual spiritual formation, interfaith peacebuilding, and the creation of ecologically sustainable communities.

The IPCR Initiative understands that the complexity associated with building bridges and increasing collaboration between diverse communities of people, the urgent need for resolutions to a significant number of critical issues in the near future—and the seemingly chronic nature of many of the challenges of our times—suggests a need for problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before.

In one of the “Keynote Documents” of The IPCR Initiative (“1000Communities2”), this writer advocates for Community Visioning Initiatives, "Community Teaching and Learning Centers" with ongoing workshops, and "sister community" relationships as a way of generating an exponential increase in our collective capacity to overcome the challenges of our times.

Community Visioning Initiatives can be described as a series of community meetings designed to facilitate the process of brainstorming ideas, organizing the ideas into goals, prioritizing the goals, and identifying doable steps. Many Community Visioning Initiatives require steering committees, preliminary surveys or assessments, workshops, task forces, and collaboration between many organizations, government agencies, businesses, and educational institutions—and seek to build up consensus in the community for specific goals and action plans by encouraging a high level of participation by all residents.

One of the main goals of Community Visioning Initiatives is to maximize citizen participation in identifying challenges, and in solution-oriented activity. In 1984, the non-profit organization Chattanooga Venture [Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA)] organized a Community Visioning Initiative that 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.

Countless Numbers of Things People Can Do

Everyone is involved when it comes to determining the markets which supply the “ways of earning a living”. All of us have important responsibilities associated with resolving a significant number of very serious challenges in the months and years ahead.

There are countless numbers of “things people can do in the everyday circumstances of their lives” which will contribute to peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecological sustainability efforts, in their own communities and regions—and in other parts of the world. [See Appendix 1 (of “The IPCR Workshop Primer”) Parts B and C on “117 Related Fields of Activity”, for some examples of the countless number of things people can do.]

People can, one by one, decide to deliberately focus the way they spend their time, energy, and money so that their actions have positive repercussions on many or all of the action plans which emerge from Community Visioning Initiatives.

The result can be that there are countless ‘ways to earn a living’ which contribute to the peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecological sustainability efforts necessary to overcome the challenges of our times.

[Special Note: The job fairs which come at the end of the Community Visioning Initiative process provide opportunities for all key stakeholders in the community (businesses, organizations, institutions, government, etc.) to demonstrate their upgraded awareness—and their interest in the welfare of the community—by offering and facilitating new employment opportunities… and thus helping with a just transition from patterns of investment which in only limited ways represent solutions to prioritized challenges to patterns of investment which in many ways represent solutions to prioritized challenges.]

Helping to make community building processes most effective, and relevant to the greater good of the whole

“The IPCR Workshop Primer” encourages the creation of a “constellation” of initiatives, which can bring to light the many truly inspiring contributions of genuine goodwill in your community and region, and contribute much to the building of “close-knit” communities of people… 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.

“The IPCR Workshop Primer” is an effort to provide many pieces of a “big picture” view in one place, so that there is both understanding of why there is a need for Community Visioning Initiatives, “Community Teaching and Learning Centers”, “sister community” relationships, and a variety of affordable workshops at the local community and neighborhood level—and understanding of the kind of tools and resources which can help make such community building processes most effective, and relevant to the greater good of the whole.

“The IPCR Workshop Primer” has 21 sections and 3 Appendices. The 21 sections include: “An Assessment of the Most Difficult Challenges of Our Times”, “Brief Descriptions of The Eight IPCR Concepts”, “A 15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative”, “Community Teaching and Learning Centers”, “39 Suggestions for Preliminary Survey Questions”, and “36 Problems That May Arise”. The 3 Appendices include “Starting Point Links for Learning More About ‘117 Related Fields of Activity’”, “48 Different Ways of Describing the IPCR Initiative”, and “The Twilight of One Era, and the Dawning of Another” (a 21 page summary paper, with a 14 page “Notes and Source References” section).

“The IPCR Workshop Primer” also includes a short story by this writer titled “The Spirit of the Sacred Hoop”. The first version of this 9 page short story was written in 1984. The story was revised to its current form in 2006. The story is about a tribe of people who are experiencing great challenges, a young woman’s vision of a bird who conveys a message of great importance to the tribe, and a great journey undertaken by the tribe to find the tree at the center of the sacred hoop. The story has influenced this writer’s thinking in many ways over the years. In particular, this writer believes that it (the story) contains one line—one sentence—which encapsulates the advantages of having many different paths by which we, as humans, can access the wisdom associated with religious, spiritual, and moral traditions (the wisdom associated with love, virtue, sacrifice, forgiveness, peace, etc.). Here this writer offers readers the opportunity to see if they can find that one line.

This writer encourages readers who explore this new resource to offer any comments, suggestions, recommendations, etc. Also, if readers have any questions, he encourages them to ask the questions. We need our public discourse to be as honest, responsible, and transparent as possible, so we can identify, nurture, support, and sustain ways to build a collective force greater than the challenges we are now facing. There is much which leaders could be asking from the people who respect their leadership, both as a matter of civic duty, and as a matter of necessity; and there are many people who will be very appreciative when they find that they have an important role to play in the work ahead. Leaders should guide citizens so that they can discover how they can do their part to contribute to the greater good of the whole.

With Kind Regards,

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The IPCR Initiative

New IPCR Documents, More Coming

2010-01-12T17:10:00.000-08:00

The year 2009 was a year of research, contemplation, and writing, and there were few posts at this "IPCR Community Journal #2".

One major work-in-progress has been underway, and is nearing completion. It will be an update to "The IPCR Workshop Primer". Some of the new pieces which will go into that document have been posted at my worldpulse.com journal (at http://www.worldpulse.com/user/1111 ).

There are four outcomes of the work-in-progess process which are "stand by themselves documents", and worth noting here:

1) "The Twilight of One Era, and the Dawning of Another" (at http://ipcri.net/images/The-Twilight-of-One-Era-and-the-Dawning-of-Another.pdf )

2) "Call for Papers": Requesting Assistance with Creating an "Introduction Section" for Document "Calling 'the better angels of our nature': How Community Visioning Initiatives and Spiritual Wisdom Can Increase the Likelihood of Solution-Oriented Activity in Times of Great Challenges" (at http://ipcri.net/images/Call-for-Papers-complete-text.pdf )

3) A new, very comprehensive "Links" section for the IPCR Initiative website (at http://ipcri.net/images/117-Starting-Points-Links.pdf )

4) A revised and updated version of a core IPCR document "Brief Descriptions of The Eight IPCR Concepts" (with many relevant footnotes) (at http://ipcri.net/images/1-Brief-Descriptions-of-The-Eight-IPCR-Concepts.pdf )

Also worth including here is an excerpt from the "Contact" section of the IPCR Initiative website, which references posts I've made at my Facebook page:

"Special Note (dated August 16, 2009): As a way of providing more information about myself (Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator for The IPCR Initiative), I have made series of posts on my Facebook page. These posts include excerpts from earlier writings, reflections on rare family keepsakes, a more detailed autobiographical sketch, etc.) A journal entry listing the titles in that series of posts is accessible at my worldpulse.com journal (see "Sharing of a More Personal Nature...." at http://www.worldpulse.com/node/12372 )."

This post is a brief update on the IPCR Initiative.

I invite readers to contribute comments here in the way of descriptions of resources, links, blogs, etc. which they believe would be relevant and helpful people with interests that are similar to those expressed in the above mentioned documents and web pages.

With Kind Regards,

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The IPCR Initiative

Community Visioning Initiatives "For the Duration of the Emergency"

2009-02-22T06:19:00.000-08:00

(or: how to sort through all this, and arrive on the same side, so we can help each other)

We now live in very complex times, with challenges ahead which will certainly require unprecedented solutions. The challenges ahead will require unprecedented solutions because these challenges include, but are not limited to: the economic crises, global warming, peak oil, resource depletion, an ever increasing world population, global inequities, cultures of greed, corruption, and overindulgence, a marginalization of the wisdom associated with religious, spiritual, and moral traditions, and insufficient understandings of which basic elements of community life and cultural traditions lead to enduring peace and which do not.

Given the nature of complex societies, it is understandable that many of us would like to believe there are experts “somewhere” who understand how we got into this, and must therefore know how we can get out of it. However, this writer very sincerely hopes that more and more people are coming to the realization that the difficult challenges ahead are not something that the experts will resolve while the rest of us are doing something else…. Everyone is involved when it comes to determining the markets that supply the “ways of earning a living”; and given the unprecedented nature of the challenges ahead, all of us have important responsibilities in the coming months and years ahead.

Unfortunately, sorting out what our responsibilities are—or sorting out what the real challenges are, and what are sound and practical solutions—is becoming more and more difficult, as there is now, in many parts of the world, a multitude of ideas of all kinds coming to the fore in personal, family, community, and cultural life—all at the same time.

Somehow or other, we need to sort through all this, and we need to do so in a way that helps us to realize how much we need to be learning so that we can be part of the solutions… and how much we really need to be on the same side, helping each other.

One suggestion which could assist in bringing many solutions to light at the local community level is a 161 page proposal by this writer titled “1000Communities2”. “1000Communities2” (“1000CommunitiesSquared”) advocates for Community Visioning Initiatives, “Community Teaching and Learning Centers” with ongoing workshops, and “sister community” relationships, as a way of generating an exponential increase in our collective capacity to overcome the challenges of our times.

For readers who would like to explore this idea further, this writer has created more than 5 different introductions to the “1000Communities2” approach. Three of these “introductions” are included in the Fall, 2008 issue of The IPCR Journal/Newsletter (http://ipcri.net/images/The-IPCR-Journal-Newsletter-Fall-2008-B.pdf ). One of those introductions is titled “A Greater Force than the Challenges We Are Now Facing” (http://ipcri.net/images/A-Greater-Force-than-the-Challenges-We-Are-Now-Fac.pdf ). Another one of those three “introductions” is titled “The ‘1000Communities2’ Proposal: Creating a Multiplier Effect of a Positive Nature”. This “introduction” is also part of an “Educational Materials Outreach Package”, which is accessible for free, and which is located at the bottom of the homepage of The IPCR Initiative (at http://www.ipcri.net/ ). The most comprehensive introduction to the “1000Communities2” proposal was written in December, 2008 and is titled “Transitioning from Less Solution-Oriented Employment to More Solution-Oriented Employment”(http://ipcri.net/images/Transitioning-from-Less-Solution-Oriented-Employment.pdf ).

We are in need of innovative and imaginative solutions.

In 1984, the non-profit organization Chattanooga Venture [Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA)] organized a Community Visioning Initiative (“Vision 2000”) that 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. (for source references, see p. 9 of the “1000Communities2” proposal, at http://ipcri.net/images/1000Communities2.pdf )

If even a few of the kind of Community Visioning Initiatives described in the “1000Communities2” proposal generated results similar to those achieved by the Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA) Visioning Initiative, people in all parts of the world—keenly attuned when it comes to resolving challenges which require urgent solutions at all levels of society— could be inspired to carry out similar Community Visioning Initiatives. And if many communities carried out similar initiatives, and also achieved significant results, our collective capacity to resolve the challenges of our times would surely begin to accumulate at an accelerating rate.

There is much which leaders could be asking from the people who respect their leadership, both as a matter of civic duty, and as a matter of necessity; and there are many people who will be very appreciative when they find that they have an important role to play in the work ahead. Leaders should guide citizens so that they can discover how they can do their part to contribute to the greater good of the whole.

Even now, as you are reading this, truly inspiring contributions of genuine goodwill are being generated in a variety of ways—and in a variety of circumstances—by countless numbers of people in communities around the world. A combination of Community Visioning Initiatives, “Community Teaching and Learning Centers” and “sister community” relationships can bring to light the many truly inspiring contributions of genuine goodwill in your community and region, and contribute much to the building of “close-knit” communities of people… 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.

[Note: In light of the urgent need to increase collaboration between diverse communities of people, anyone may access all IPCR documents (including the above mentioned 161 page “1000Communities2” proposal) for free, at the website of The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative (at http://www.ipcri.net/ )].

With Kind Regards,

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative

New Links Section for IPCR Website

2008-01-31T16:35:00.000-08:00

The IPCR Initiative has added a new 30 page “Links” pdf document to the IPCR Website (see the “top of page” navigation, at www.ipcri.net).

There are 24 categories of links included in the document. There is also information, often from the “About Us” section of the “links” website, which may help readers appreciate the “link” as a useful resource. Hopefully, the categories chosen, and the more-than-brief introductory information provided about the links listed, will help readers see more of the connections between different elements which are part of the same “big picture”.

People who would like to make suggestions for links to add to this list are encouraged to do so. Please direct such suggestions to Stefan Pasti [at stefanpasti@ipcri.net (or by way of information provided in the contact section of the IPCR website at www.ipcri.net)].

With Kind Regards,

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The IPCR Initiative

I welcome any comments....

2008-01-20T13:13:00.000-08:00

I welcome any comments, recommendations, suggestions, etc. which will help The IPCR Initiative-- so that it can be a most useful resource in these challenging times.

With Kind Regards,

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The IPCR Initiative