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Who We Are
Compassionate St. Louis Network is a welcoming community of caring people. We are advocates for compassion. We are witnesses to compassion. We share an unflinching resolve to make compassion a clear, luminous, and dynamic force to alleviate suffering and promote the common good.
Our Vision
St. Louis is an inclusive community of visible, experienced, consistent compassion where each person can confidently say, “I know you care about me.”
Our Goal
To help rebuild St. Louis by 2030 as the true compassionate heartland of the US where you would want to live.
We will work with our communities and local organizations to ensure St. Louis is known as a region where people really care about people. This means the St. Louis region shines in the Compassionate Cities Index, which includes metrics for Psychological Well-Being, Community Disparities, Community Vitality, Health, Governance, Ecological Resilience. Educational Attainment, Compassionate Business, and Standards of Living. (Realtors.com, Forbes Business Journal)
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Our Strategy
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Ignite a movement of compassion-minded people networked throughout the region by grassroots and organizational contacts.
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Build the case for compassion for individuals and organizations in the community by seeking their endorsement.
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Promote those in our communities who are working to develop peace, love, and compassion in their communities.
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Shine a positive spotlight on people in the region
who are witnessing compassion to others by frequent public 'Shout Outs.'
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Our Purpose
Our purpose is to speak for compassion, act with compassion, and nurture an ever-more compassionate St. Louis region.
Our Principles
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Compassion honors the dignity and nobility of every human being.
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Compassion sustains and challenges our St. Louis region and the world.
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Compassion breaks through barriers and breaks down unjust systems.
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Compassion promotes the path to equity and justice.
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Compassion fosters an abundance mentality rather than a scarcity mentality.
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Compassion unites people to relieve the suffering of others.
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Compassion weaves through and illuminates every human endeavor: art, business. communications, education, entertainment, family, government, health care, housing, legal and justice system, media, religion, science, social services, and sports.
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Click HERE to download The Charter for Compassion.
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Click HERE to visit
The 'Charter for Compassion' homepage.
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Our Timeline
2007-2013
Karen Armstrong meets with six Interfaith leaders to discuss violence in the world religions; they write the four-paragraph Charter for Compassion. Karen takes the Charter to the TED talks and wins the TED prize ($100,000) in 2008. She takes the Charter to the Parliament of World Religions in 2009, where Dr. David Oughton and Carla Mae Streeter, OP of St. Louis learn of it for the first time. Interfaith Partnership discusses the possibility of St. Louis becoming a Compassionate City, with outreach to the entire St. Louis Region.
2013- 2018
In 2013 Interfaith Partnership of St. Louis receives full support to pursue bringing St. Louis into the Compassionate City process. A visit is made to Louisville, Kentucky to observe that city’s process, and Louisville becomes the mentor for St. Louis in 2014. By 2015 a mayoral Proclamation is issued designating January 16 as the day St. Louis formally enters into the process of becoming a Compassionate City. In 2016 an official logo is chosen, and the group begins to focus on being a network to reach out to the civic community. A transitional leadership is chosen.
2018-2020
With the help of strategist Joe Reagan, originally from Louisville, CompassionateSTL enters into a strategic planning process to clarify its focus as it attempts to network with the civic community. A ten-year Strategic Plan is written, with a clear Vision and initial three-year strategy. With Carla Mae Streeter, OP as Convener, the CompassionateSTL network begins to build a grassroots base of Partner organizations and individuals. The Coordinating Circle, consisting now of Core Members who worked out the Strategic Plan and any Partners who choose to attend its meetings, begins to build on Compassionate Stories of actual activities taking place in the Region.​
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