Join us At Compassionate Houston’s Programs
In addition to special programs and events, organized by Compassionate Houston or co-sponsored in collaboration with our partner organizations, we feature several reoccurring programs as showcased on this page. Join us throughout the year at one of our events, dedicated to growing the compassionate culture of Greater Houston through awareness, education, community, and service.
Compassion Week
Called to compassionate action, our annual week in Fall is dedicated to cultivating compassion in Houston. In collaboration with our partners, we offer a variety of unique experiences. Here’s a taste of past Compassion Weeks:
Weeklong live Charter Readings by 24 diverse compassionate community leaders in addition to daily activities and reflections centered around “Healing Doses of Compassion.” Our keynote was a conversation between James Doty, M.D., Founder of Stanford University’s CCARE, and Sean Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., Executive Director of Jung Center of Houston on “The Revolutionary Power of Empathy and Compassion.”
8 local presenters introduced their wisdom teacher or faith leader’s view on Compassion during live Zoom meetings and engaged the community in joined practices. Our daily doses of wisdom brought to life the various ways of cultivating wisdom, peace, and love in ourselves and those in our midst through the guidance of diverse faith and wisdom teachers of the past and now.
Compassion Week 2022 is scheduled for October and details will be available on this page at a later time.
Compassionate Integrity Training Houston
This 20-hour interactive training course (12 CEs), facilitated by our Board members and Certified CIT facilitators, Pam Lewis and Barbara Homann, is offered twice a year.
The training imparts 10 skills and tools to cultivate compassion at the individual, interpersonal, and organizational/systems levels based on cutting-edge developments in many fields relevant to compassion (e.g. psychology, conflict resolution, peace studies).
The program effectively uses interactive exercises, large- and small-group discussions, contemplative practices, mindful dialogues, reflective journaling, knowledge sharing, and a big portion of self-discovery.
Learn more about the curriculum, watch testimonials, and follow 10 teaser images for an initial introduction to CIT’s 10 modules.
“CIT is endorsed and used by Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion and UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainability.”
Project Kindness
Project Kindness
Click below for a thorough view of the science behind kindness and learn about the project. Would you like to participate?
Beginning with a small pilot in 2020, pairing Houston Community College (HCC) freshman Honors students with 10 elders (aged 65- plus), the project expanded in 2021 with more than double of participating pairs across several HCC Honors campuses and will continue in 2022. The intergenerational pairs meet weekly over 10 weeks to explore kindness, benefiting both pandemic-limited elders and students attending their first semester of college. Compassionate Houston originated the Project Kindness Survey, recruits project elders, and provides a virtual training session on kindness and compassion to honors students participating.
Annual Luncheon
Compassionate Houston’s annual fundraiser luncheon recognizes innovative, compassion-focused individuals and group projects by inviting diverse local compassionate visionaries who share their stories to a large audience.
The annual event provides opportunities for individuals and our partners to network, thereby building bridges and expanding compassion in our city.
We regularly bring internationally known speakers to keynote our annual luncheon, alternating those educational programs with the highlighting of local compassionate innovators.