Everyone is welcome to the NVC Community; By Jim Manske

For the last several years, the Center for Nonviolent Communication has been building a new organization and visioning the global NVC Community. I enjoyed working with a team of that included four other certified trainers; Eva Rambala, Mary Mackenzie, Gyano Shaw, Marianne Sikor. One of our tasks was to write a proposed purpose and mission for the NVC Global Community. Eventually, this became a part of a much larger document called the Integrated Plan of the New Future Process, or NF Plan.

Purpose of Community

To live and radiate interdependence and compassion

In his pamphlet Being Me, Loving You, Marshall Rosenberg pointed to three things required to live Nonviolent Communication:  Spiritual Clarity (remembering the purpose of NVC); Practice, Practice, Practice; and a Community of support. The purpose of our global Community is to awaken and remember Spiritual Clarity by offering opportunities to practice NVC and to support one another in living and being NVC in Community.

Spiritual Clarity:

The purpose of NVC is to awaken a quality of connection that creates, sustains and supports compassionate giving and receiving. Our Community calls the membership to radiate that clear intention, transmitting inspiration to our world about what is possible for all in a life-serving community.

Practice, Practice, Practice:

We practice together to support everyone interested in remembering and living the purpose of Nonviolent Communication, to remember natural giving and receiving and to live compassionately.  We remind one another that every moment contains abundant opportunities to more fully embody NVC through self-connection, authenticity and empathy. Every life-serving human endeavor offers the opportunity to apply NVC to meet more needs with less cost.

Community:

We contribute to peace and well-being through living NVC within ourselves in the company of one another, and to model NVC to people who may not identify themselves as members of our community.

All three threads interweave to create a fabric of interdependence and compassion. Acknowledging our interdependence, we move naturally toward compassionate action in the service of universal well-being.

Mission of Community

We are an informal community spread across the world,
dedicated to supporting Members of our Community
and individuals and organisations beyond that Community
in creating a world that works for all.

Larger and more inclusive than the NVC-Organisation emerging from the New Future Process, we celebrate a much broader tapestry of individuals, groups, and communities who share a common interest in learning, living and being NVC.  We also acknowledge that we are an integral part of something even larger than our Community that includes all individuals, cultures, groups and organizations, indeed all living beings. We support all life-serving systems, first surviving, then thriving.

We:

1. CONNECT: by actively reaching out to individuals and organisations and supporting them to learn and integrate NVC principles and practices.

Our community is a connecting point, a global hub that invites and welcomes all who have an interest in discovering how NVC can enhance their lives.

2. SUPPORT: each other through empathic and authentic presence and connection.

We make ourselves available to one another in order to support well-being through the practice of self-connection, honesty and empathy.

3. DEVELOP: principles and invent practices through hands-on work in different contexts and cultures that contribute to the creation of a world that works for all.

We acknowledge that NVC is a living process, always evolving.  By actively seeking feedback, we experiment and innovate to continually develop new practices and enhance what we already experience as supporting connection in the service of compassionate giving and receiving.  With ever-increasing depth and breadth, we continually discover new applications of NVC wherever people connect with one another and with all life.

4. MODEL: Nonviolent Communication principles and practices as individuals, in our interactions with others, and in the groups and organisations that we work in and with.

We understand that living with integrity means embodying NVC with ever-increasing ability, and that how we live NVC in our everyday activities demonstrates our integration more than what we say or what we teach.

5. INSPIRE: others to consider looking at NVC principles and practices as a tool that could enrich their lives.

Our individual and collective actions, and our way of being, act as a beacon, inviting everyone to join with us in our commitment to contribute to universal well-being.

6. INITIATE: and organise events that nourish, celebrate and expand our Community.

We proactively move toward fulfilling our Mission through living our shared values with one another and by inviting all who are interested to learn and practice together.  We commit ourselves to making our Community more easily accessible to everyone who desires to connect with us.

7. PROVIDE: input for the Organisation by harvesting the wisdom and knowledge generated within the Community.

We acknowledge our abiding connection to the Organization by supporting the free flow of information. We celebrate that what we are learning as a Community supports the Organization in more effectively fulfilling its Purpose and Mission and moves us all toward fulfilling our shared Vision.