What is a City of Compassion?

Workshop Session led by  Heather Amrhein, Director of Health, United Way of Lane County

• 800 volunteers in  Lane County working on non profits .  

• Compassionate people coming together achieving more in a community partnerships than working individually.       

First question asked of the group (11 people)  “ Is our City a City of Compassion?

A show of hands: only shows one hand go up.  That person felt it was a city of compassion compared to  other places they had lived.

          What is a City of Compassion?  Attendees thoughts;

• Loving others as ourselves

• Christianity at work

• Nobody crossing the street to avoid someone

• All housed

• Networks to help others put their compassion to work

• Caring for each other

• It's “ we” not us and them.  Mutual Caring

• Caring for one another

• Housing

United Way has done a year-long assessment of community needs, identifying issues and solutions.  The following values were developed from the assessment:

COMPASSION- creating a community where all people are treated with dignity and respect 

EQUITY- everyone should have the opportunity to live a healthy life.

• What policies are made at the leadership level for housing?

• How do we take these values and act on them?

• Develop a relationship between non profits and landlords. 

• Trust should be developed.                 

INCLUSION- striving to embrace our differences and treat the whole person.

How many of our parishioners are landowners who could connect to organizations for unhoused to change the world around that issue?

COLLABORATION- commit our collective resources to innovation, coordination, and integration of services.   

Values are the filter through which our actions go.  Take the framework back to your own groups and decide how to turn these values into actions.  How can we feel we are building a community working toward a common goal instead of individual efforts?  

Major Asset of Lane County:    People motivated to solve the issues .

United Way is the backbone to LIVE HEALTHY LANE, looking at social determinants of health;  health, education, economy and access to food.  If we make changes to these things the outcome can improve. Coordination, support and outreach keep goals aligned where all can have healthy wellbeing.