“Constellations of Initiatives” Approach
to maximizing participation and accelerating solution-oriented activity
Triggering Positive Social, Environmental, Economic, and Cultural Tipping Points
1) There are thousands of positive tipping point organizations and institutions, which are--
a) making significant contributions in their fields (especially Climate Mitigation and Sustainable Biodiversity, but also many other fields)
b) well known in their fields for the integrity and reliability of their work.
[Note: I have listed 616 positive tipping point organizations and institutions (with Twitter profiles) in 30 categories in Appendix 10 of my 157 page paper “Brainstorming Zero Carbon ASAP Campaign” ; created a sample list of 231 such organizations and institutions document; and provided easy access to the list of 231 on a webpage at www.cpcsi.org (https://www.cpcsi.org/231-positive-tipping-point-orgs-and-insti )].
As a way to exponentially accelerate solution activity on many key positive tipping points at the same time, The CPCS Initiative advocates for accumulating 5-10 page overviews on how to achieve Zero Carbon ASAP (in small cities, towns, and villages; see “Large Cities are Not Sustainable--and will not help us get to Zero Carbon ASAP”)--and also how their field of activity can contribute to resolving other critical challenges--from thousands of such positive tipping point organizations and institutions (overviews which will be updated as needed, for the duration of the emergency)--and making such overviews accessible for free on a number of clearinghouse websites.
2) Such 5-10 page overviews, organized for easy access on clearinghouse websites, can--
a) provide a clear visualization of transformations needed in every aspect of our lives--since different organizations will focus on priorities in their fields of activity (food systems; water scarcity; migration, housing; land rights; biodiversity; civic engagement; peacebuilding; emergency assistance, etc.)
b) provide the equivalent of a needs assessment for local communities, of the kind which precedes local Community Visioning (many overviews of visioning best practices; excellent example of visioning in 13 minute documentary) [Note: Community Visioning Initiatives can be described as a series of community meetings designed to maximize citizen participation in identifying challenges, and in solution-oriented activity.]
c) provide focus and urgency for local surveys of key leaders (prior to Visioning)--surveys which identify local-specific challenges and local-specific solutions)--the responses to which can demonstrate the need for Community Visioning, and many Neighborhood Learning Centers
d) open up many new lines of discussion on how people can work through differences, get on the same side, and help each other
e) build awareness that everyone’s investments of time, energy, and money (“votes” which are made much more frequently than election votes) can have a positive and cumulative effect on the solutions-investment-training-employment sequence--and create countless solution-oriented jobs
f) be a great asset to the “over 2120+ local governments that have declared a Climate Emergency” (as of September 8, 2022)
[Note: This writer’s interest in Community Visioning Initiatives was inspired instantly when, in 1994, he watched a video documentary titled “Chattanooga: A Community With A Vision” (13 minutes) (highly recommended). The video includes many interviews and how-to details, and 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. Additional note: (online stakeholder engagement and collaborative problem solving can be accomplished with features such as described at https://engagementhub.com.au/software-features/ )]
3) Thousands of local Community Visioning Initiatives, in communities around the world, can activate the most possible human participation (by way of 6-12 months of workshops, meetings, brainstorming, and prioritizing challenges and solutions) (with the process repeated periodically in the future), and help build a high level of consensus for specific action plans in the shortest amount of time, with support from--
a) Universities, colleges, and thousands of positive tipping point related organizations and institutions creating related curriculum--and offering resources, classes, workshops, and teacher training to maximize the identification of challenges and solutions during the Community Visioning process
b) Neighborhood Learning Centers helping to create the necessary knowledge base and skill sets by providing accessible space for workshops, discussion, information sharing, mutual support, encouragement, fellowship, and friendship
c) Local newspapers supporting this multi-faceted solution-oriented path with ongoing coverage--and a new section for reader contributions which identify helpful people and valuable resources, and reinforce important community goals [see 5) below]
d) Residents (especially those who are unemployed) volunteering time and energy to assist with Community Visioning and Neighborhood Learning Centers, and to advance resulting action plans--who then could receive, as compensation, local currency (which, because it can only be spent in local community businesses, helps support the local economy)
e) Job fairs at the end of the Community Visioning Initiative process, which 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.
f) Local leaders of religious/spiritual traditions stepping up on every frontline possible to help people understand the urgent need to
i) sacrifice personal desires for the greater good
ii) choose forgiveness, reconciliation--and abstaining from violent conflict resolution--as a way of bringing cycles of violence to an end
iii) create community life and cultural traditions which “… bring to the fore how many good people there are, how many ways there are to
do good, and how much happiness comes to those who extend help, as well as to those who receive it”
4) Creating the knowledge base and skill sets necessary to resolve the challenges of our times will require encouraging as much formal and informal meetings as possible between neighbors—and people living in the same local community. Carrying out local Community Visioning, and creating many Neighborhood Learning Centers can provide places--in local neighborhoods--for discussion, information sharing, mutual support and encouragement, fellowship and friendship—so that the exchanging of information and resources will also include the building of a close-knit community of people with a healthy appreciation for each other’s strengths.
Educational institutions, and other organizations, could increase their existing efforts, or take up the call, to develop related curriculum and offer classes, workshops, and teacher training, to support the development of Neighborhood Learning Centers. If many colleges and universities assisted with carrying out local Community Visioning Initiatives—with many supporting Neighborhood Learning Centers—the positive multiplier effects would be visible around the world.
Through workshops and other informal education (and associated local learning networks), citizens can gain greater awareness of how all the “little events” in everyday community life have a positive and cumulative effect on the challenges-solutions-investment-training-employment sequence… and thus how all the investments of time, energy, and money (the “votes”) each of us make in our everyday circumstances become the larger economy. People from every variety of circumstances can learn how to wisely cast such “votes”. Wisely directed, such “votes” can result in countless ways of earning a living which contribute to the peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecological sustainability efforts necessary to drastically reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and minimize other related challenges. As the ancient Chinese proverb says: “Many hands make much work light.”
5) The Neighbor to Neighbor Community Education (NTNCE) Project, which advocates for a new section in local newspapers. The new section (NTNCE section) would be used to highlight and accumulate stories, personal experiences, and other forms of reader contributions which identify helpful people and valuable resources, and reinforce important community goals.
The NTNCE Project is an example of community service work which can be done by local newspapers, which:
a) highlights what is valuable and important in everyday community life
b) encourages positive neighbor to neighbor relations
c) provides records of community life which can be used by future historians
d) helps increase consensus for local specific, commonly agreed upon definitions of “the greater good”.
6) Interfaith Prayer Vigils
One possible goal for an Interfaith Prayer Vigil would be for all the different faith traditions in a local community to have at least one person participating in the Prayer Vigil at all times designated for the Prayer Vigil (in such time intervals as they choose).
With an emphasis on silence, participants could silently pray for a compassionate response to all forms of suffering; forgiveness, reconciliation and abstaining from violent conflict as a way of bringing cycles of violence to an end; pathways for attaining wisdom and compassion which are accessible to all--and/or bring into being any kind of silent practice or silent spiritual discipline which is relevant and appropriate for
--a sacred space dedicated to appealing to a Spiritual Entity higher than ourselves when we are
at one of the most critical crossroads humanity has faced since the dawn of civilization.
[Note: There is a webpage at The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability website titled “Interfaith Prayer Vigils”, which provides more detail about this facet of the “constellation of initiatives” (see https://www.cpcsi.org/interfaith-prayer-vigils )]
Confidence will be dimmed by a lack of clarity until there is truthful public discourse on the full dimensions of the critical challenges ahead.
Confidence will be built up when people believe that the efforts of everyone working together is a greater force than the challenges they are facing.
What Livelihoods and Habitats Are Appropriate for the Problem Solving We Must Accomplish?
One of the keys to achieving the unprecedented cultural transformation to Zero Carbon ASAP is for a significant majority of the people who have “way too much” to understand that they can get by “with much less”, and still have high quality of life.
For example, how many of us--who are aware of how urgently and quickly we need to achieve Zero Carbon--would be really most appreciative to arrive in the year 2050, and find out we are living in places which have--
--A clean and beautiful environment
--Adequate provision of clean drinking water
--Adequate provision for safe sanitation
--Minimal supplies of clothing
--Adequate and balanced nutrition
--Simple housing
--Basic health care
--Basic communication facilities
--A minimal supply of energy
--Holistic education
--Satisfaction of intellectual and cultural needs
[Above list of 11 items is from an overview of the development model of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement (at https://www.sarvodaya.org/the-development-model/ )]
One of the dangers for “developed” countries, in trying to reach Zero Carbon, is the irrational insistence on trying to maintain energy intensive lifestyles which are wholly inappropriate for the problem solving we must accomplish to achieve Zero Carbon ASAP (and further--encouraging “less developed” countries to become as “advanced” as we are).
We now live in the most complex cultural landscapes ever created on Earth--where collaboration at many levels of society has created awe inspiring innovations in energy production and transmission (oil wells, power plants, electric power transmission); engineering and construction (large cities); communication (Internet, cell phones); transportation (both private and public); medical treatments (critical medical advances for diseases, conditions, and surgery, is becoming more and more accessible); etc.
We just need that kind of collaboration and innovation to create livelihoods and habitats which have the highest probability of supporting Zero Carbon Resilience; Sustainable BioDiversity; gender equity and socio-cultural equity (Ex: carbon footprints, eco-footprints and water footprints equity); equal justice; requisite emergency aid; and peace.
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The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative (www.cpcsi.org ) provides research and analysis for critical challenge alerts, and research and support for collaborative problem solving, community education, and citizen peacebuilding initiatives which seek to maximize citizen participation, and accelerate solution-oriented activity.
and
The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative is an effort to apply the accumulated wisdom now accessible to us towards the general goal of integrating spiritual wisdom into the everyday circumstances of community life--and towards the specific goal of generating practical responses to the challenges of our times.
Stefan Pasti is the founder and resource coordinator for The Community Peacebuilding and Cultural Sustainability (CPCS) Initiative (www.cpcsi.org ). Mr. Pasti has found spiritual inspiration from many sources and traditions; however, the most important influence in his life has been the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011) (which he first learned about in 1991). In 1997, Mr. Pasti completed a compilation of quotations from the discourses of Sri Sathya Sai Baba--"An Arrangement of Quotations from 'Sathya Sai Speaks' (Vol. 1-15)" (301 pages; September, 1996--February, 1997; revised 2006).
[Note: the paper “Growing Wisdom and Compassion in Small Communities (13 Steps)” (78 pages; May, 2017--cumulative paper drawing on earlier work) offers 13 approaches which are particularly relevant achieving Zero Carbon and Sustainable BioDiversity, and recalibrating our moral compasses--so that we may better recognize and apply the accumulated wisdom now accessible to us
The 13 Steps: Community Good News Networks; Community Faith Mentoring Networks; Spiritual Friendships; Interfaith Peace Vigils; Recalibrating Our Moral Compasses (ROMC) Surveys; Community Visioning Initiatives; Neighborhood Learning Centers; Spiritually Responsible Investing; Ecological Sustainability /Permaculture /Ecovillages; Appropriate Technology; Food Sovereignty/Food Waste/Local Food Councils/Community Supported Agriculture; Local Currency; and Neighbor to Neighbor Community Education Projects in Local Newspapers.]