What is for dinner? How are you doing? What is on your mind. If you are new to Street Prophets please introduce yourself below in a comment. This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome. For today's suggested topic lets consider “Building a Culture of Empathy.”
Below is a picture of the Empathy Center educational retreat. The campus was previously St. Mary’s seminary and was auctioned off. The Empathy Center bought the property to provide a physical headquarters for the movement. See this article about the property posted in a local Santa Barbara news blog by Erik Torkells: Who Bought the Former St. Mary’s Seminary—and Why?
Our Vision — A world where mutual empathy guides human interactions, fostering understanding, connection and care, leading to a more innovative and prosperous society for all.
Our Mission — Fostering a more empathic culture through education, awareness and community building initiatives, in order to bridge divides and create a more caring, creative and innovative society for all.
Our Values — Our values are a positive spiral of values that starts with Empathy, Mutuality, Openness and Care. Leading to trust, connection, community, creativity, innovation…
Jump the fold for more on “Building a Culture of Empathy.”
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I started out with the Empathy Center by signing up with the online Facilitator Training class over one and half years ago. When I started I had no knowledge that behind the scenes there were plans to buy the old Saint Mary’s seminary and set up a educational retreat.
In my first year I completed the five courses required to become a certified online trainer for the online classes. And in the upcoming July 6, 2024 course I will be one of the instructors.
The training course offered for free only has one prerequisite of attending a few Empathy Circles before starting. This can be achieved by stopping by our Thursday evening Empathy Circle Café on Zoom. Or, one can attend other Empathy Circles that can be found on the Empathy Circle Schedule.
The Empathy Circle Café is a “drop in” event and no prior experience is needed to attend. It is hosted by myself and the lead instructor of our training program.
What makes the Empathy Circle unique is the custom of how topics are selected for each and every Empathy Circle. Each facilitator at the beginning of the circle, during the introduction explaining the process, announces the general or advertised topic and also invites each individual to talk about, “what ever is on your mind.”
The general topic I pick for the Café is how do we build a culture of empathy. It is an open invitation an often the attendees are new and the topic is how circles work and can be improved.
As I explained in last weeks Street Prophets diary, Empathy Circle Values, a topic for a circle can be unexpectedly generated by an individual attending the circle. These often result in a uplifting shared group experience.
The Santa Barbara Empathy Center, pictured above, will be hosting an in person two day Facilitator Training session live, August 17th & 18th at our Las Canoas Rd. campus.
Over the last year the Santa Barbara Empathy Center has opened its doors to the Santa Barbara community as space that can be rented for training or hosting events. And the center itself is hosting training courses on empathy. Below is a picture of a workshop on facing fear with empathy and mindfulness.
And below is a neat drone video of a in person training from last year.
Regards,
Jonathan