Bridging the Empathy Gap
Bridging the Empathy Gap - Yes we can!
Bridging the Empathy Gap proposal was submitted by Catherine Cadden, Jori Manske, Kathleen Macferran, Miki Kashtan, Sylvia Haskvitz, Certified Trainers with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, to bring empathy to the attention of the Obama Administration. Empathy can bridge ideological divides and address everyone’s core needs. Tools exist to implement the practice of empathy in the government, country, and world, right now.

"Empathy strikes me as the most important quality that we need in America and around the world...the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us." - President Barack Obama

By making empathy a cornerstone of government, we can:
  • Develop policies to address common human needs (eg. justice, health, peace)
  • Support confidence that citizens' concerns matter
  • Resolve international conflicts peacefully
  • Shift from competition for resources to collaboration for common good
  • Nurture young citizens equipped with peacemaking and alliance-building skills
  • Increase safety in schools and communities
  • Align actions with Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness for All

We propose an inter-departmental office (or a division in a Dept of Peace) for integrating empathy into government and every sector of society using strategies such as:

1. Implement specific methods for making empathy integral to all operations, particularly for decisions about use of economic, natural and human resources

2. Offer coaching, conflict resolution, and training in empathy skills to offices, agencies, and individuals within government

3. Utilize advanced empathic facilitation to support efficiency and productivity in all branches of government

4. Create public dialogues between people across political, religious, ideological, racial, class, or other differences for bridging divides in our nation

5. Propose curricula based on Nonviolent Communication (www.cnvc.org) to all schools for conflict resolution and violence prevention

6. Create an Empathy Corps, trained volunteers who respond to conflict domestically and internationally through empathic connection and shared understanding


 
 

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