Foundation Certificate – Compassionate City Charter

The Compassionate City Charter is relevant to all size of place including village, region, town and online communities

The programme consists of a 7-week online course. Sessions 1-6 last for 90 minutes with the final session being 2 hours. You can either take the course without the certificate OR complete the online activities and receive a certificate, subject to final assessment. The certificate has an assessment fee of £50.

The programme has 2 main areas of focus

• Understanding of the major components to the implementation of the Compassionate City Charter This includes understanding what a compassionate community is, the biological basis for it, the practice methods and how to understand power relationships in relation to communities.
• Development of an implementation team with the aim, by the end of the programme, of having an action plan. Team relationships and identity, and the understanding of basic principles are key to successful implementation. Group dynamics will play an important role. The process of developing an action plan will be iterative, suited to local circumstances and priorities. The emphasis will be on understanding what these local priorities are. The group will develop the plan, which will include a structural component of building and sense checking of priorities with local communities. A clear focus will be placed on making sure that these priorities are determined by the communities themselves, rather than assumptions made by formal services as to what they think the priorities should be.

TOPICS COVERED 

1. What are compassionate communities? 
2. The biology of compassion
3. Are we compassionate, what matters most? Circles of care 
4. Power relationships, services, health, harms of service delivery and third sector
5. Maps of misery and treasure maps – community development
6. Evaluation methods and approaches to change
7. First draft of the charter self-assessment and action planning