As an example of the above mentioned need, here is Challenge #1, from the section "A Ten Point Assessment of the Most Difficult Challenges of Our Times" (in the document "An Assessment of the Most Difficult Challenges of Our Times):

"1) Community building associated with energy descent (see Challenges 4, 5, and 6) (as a result of either wise decisions, key supply shortages, or lack of other options) may or may not be accompanied by an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings. Without such an exponential increase, an increase in the need for emergency assistance to people with basic human needs [as a result of migrations from areas where carrying capacity has been exceeded (areas such as mega-cities), for example (see Challenge 8)] may coincide with a decrease in our capacity to respond to such emergencies." (link to "Ten Point Assessment...")

There are many important initiatives which are critical to overcoming the challenges of our times, but which are not quite "coming through the mist as much as they should be". The IPCR Initiative can be very helpful in exactly these kinds of circumstances, as it encourages and facilitates a "constellation" of initiatives, by which the best (in view of the participants using these processes) associated with individual spiritual formation, interfaith peacebuilding, community revitalization, ecological sustainability, etc. can bubble up to the surface, be recognized as priorities, and therefore be brought forward as appropriate recipients of peoples' time, energy, and money.... As the ancient Chinese proverb says: "Many hands make much work light".

Peacebuilding in its most compassionate form is not a competitive field of activity. Viewed in this light, the most valuable forms of peacebuilding will nurture, support, and sustain the development of an infinite variety of other forms of peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecologically sustainability initiatives. The IPCR Initiative is an effort to nurture, support, and sustain peacebuilding in its most compassionate form.

Highlights from "The IPCR Community Journal" at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ipcri/ will be posted here.

Spring 2007

Winter 2006-2007

Spring 2005

1. The IPCR Community Journal
2. Other Community Journals and Discussion Journals

3. The IPCR Community Journal #2 (link to blog)

(with many resource links)

Links

Welcome to the website
of The IPCR Initiative

The IPCR Initiative is an accumulation of documents, resources, and observations brought together to support the propositions that we-- collectively-- have both the need, and the potential, to be

a) much more organized and deliberate about "... bringing to the fore what is often hidden: 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."

b) much more multi-faceted and participation-friendly in our approaches to peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecological sustainability

c) much more resourceful in the use of the storehouses of accumulated wisdom and "embodied energy" which are now accessible to us

The keynote document of The IPCR Initiative is "1000Communities²", a 161 page proposal advocating 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.

All IPCR Documents

1. "1000Communities²"
2. "An Assessment of the Most Difficult Challenges of Our Times"
3. "Peacebuilding in its Most Compassionate Form"
4. "Brief Descriptions of The Eight IPCR Concepts"
5. "The IPCR Workshop Primer"
6. "The IPCR 'Building Caring Communities' Questionnaire"
7. "23 Different Ways of Describing The IPCR Initiative"
8. "Inspiring Role Models and Service-Oriented Initiatives"
9. "Spiritually Responsible Investing: Integrating Spiritual Wisdom into the Everyday Circumstances of Community Life"
10. "Spiritual Peacebuilding: 47 Quotes and Proverbs"
11. "An Arrangement of Quotations from 'Sathya Sai Speaks (Vol. 1-15)'"
12. "The Spirit of the Sacred Hoop"

June, 2008

1. Introducing "1000Communities²" ("1000CommunitiesSquared")