Ballarat Council Signs Charter for Compassion
October 2, 2019

On Wednesday night, 2rd October, the Ballarat City Council signed the global Charter for Compassion to recognise the role compassion plays in a rapidly growing regional city, facing many social challenges.

In Ballarat a high-level Steering Group was developed to oversee the process of putting the Charter in front of Ballarat's City Council, working at both a community events level and at a strategic policy level. Today, it is driving a number of initiatives to continually develop and nurture the city’s social and community connections.

In welcoming the City’s signing, Ben Kelly, Chair of the Compassionate Ballarat Steering Group, recognised the compassionate work already being done in Ballarat, and added that the formal signing by Council will bring global resources to the work at a local level, enabling a resourced focus of compassion.

Research shows that as a motivation, compassion can harness and strengthen the positive qualities of our minds. Superintendent Jenny Wilson, a member of the Steering Group, sees firsthand the devastating impact of suffering in Ballarat and says that she is acutely aware of the need for compassion, not just for and from first responders but also from the wider community.
 ‘We can all choose to be courageous when we see human suffering and take action to alleviate it; in essence, be compassionate’ , she said.

The aims of compassionate Ballarat are to raise awareness of the evidence base of compassion for application across Ballarat by:

• Enabling and resourcing people in Ballarat to see, notice and take compassionate action;
• Engaging the city’s leaders in applying and evaluating the application of compassion science throughout their organisations;
• Contributing to the global charter outcomes by piloting and testing international compassionate city measures;
• Providing a framework and resources for residents wanting to participate in creating Compassionate Ballarat;
• Distributing and giving prominence to that participation to inspire others to be involved;
• Creating a continuous feedback cycle for the City Council to participate and make a significant contribution to the global work of the Charter for Compassion.

The Ballarat Steering Group shares resources:

--Read Compassionate Ballarat's latest "Healing Colllective Trauma - June 2022". This report explores the emerging issue of collective trauma and provides a range of recommendations for local governments. A downloadable PDF copy is available here.

--Read Compassionate Ballarat's excellent "Report to Ballarat City Council - August 2019". This outlines some outstanding reasons and language for declaring a community compassionate. A downloadable PDF copy is available here.

--Read the "Executive Summary" for the Project. A downloadable PDF copy is available here.

--Read Compassionate Ballarat's excellent "Designing Compassionate Spaces" report. The team has kindly provided a downloadable PDF copy here.

--Read Compassionate Ballarat's "Report on Celebrating Compassion Week", December, 2019. Click here for a downloadable PDF copy.

--Ballarat in the news: Ballarat Remembers.