The 11 Days for Compassion is a series of events that will take place from May 1-11, 2012 in the Carbondale community to explore the idea of compassion. Inspired by the Charter for Compassion and Karen Armstrong's book, 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life. Nonviolent Carbondale has partnered with the Carbondale Public Library to organize eleven days of events hosted by various community groups and agencies. 

View the schedule of events here.
Learn more about hosting an event here.
Watch videos about the Charter for Compassion here.

The Carbondale Public Library, in partnership with the Carbondale Human Relations Commission and Nonviolent Carbondale, was awarded a grant: Building Common Ground: Discussions of Community, Civility and Compassion,  from the American Library Association and the Fetzer Institute to provide funding for the 11 Days for Compassion. 

The 11 Days For Compassion was originally inspired by a student art exhibit featuring masks in Quigley Hall at SIU. This was in the fall of 2011 when the Faculty Association was on strike and Occupy Carbondale was camped out on campus. Both events evoked a wide range of passionate commentary. Meanwhile, as conflict played out on campus, the mask exhibit in Quigley Hall showed a diverse community of faces. Walking through the exhibit required the viewer to dodge sideways at times, to confront and negotiate with the sea of faces, to view the individual masks, and the community of faces as a whole. The relevance to the current situation seemed both subtle and obvious. We thought: What if we use art and dialog to face each other; face ourselves; and face our future as a more compassionate and civil community? Like the Roman Janus mask, our purpose is not only to look back, but to look forward. We do not wish to limit this project to an examination of one point in time in one location. We want to examine how our entire community can face one another with compassion, even in situations where we disagree. Thus, the 11 Days For Compassion will feature a variety of programs and events: book discussions... videos...developing a plan to officially become a Compassionate City...and there will be mask displays, and many opportunities for mask-making.

Commencing with a community observance of the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, a
number of community groups sponsored various peace-related events throughout the city of Carbondale for eleven days starting September 11 and culminating on September 21, the International Day of Peace. Nonviolent Carbondale facilitated planning meetings for this "11 Days for Peace," which included over 25 events hosted by various individuals, groups, and agencies and attended by over 1,000 community members.

View the 11 Days for Peace brochure with event listings: Page 1 and Page 2.

In collaboration with the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois, Nonviolent Carbondale promoted a message of peace accompanied by 540 signatures that was published in area newspapers. View the full-page ad below or here.