Newcomers to this IPCR Discussion Forum are invited to provide some information about themselves, what their interests are, and what they hope to find here. People who are already participants here are encouraged to kindly and courteously welcome newcomers.

Here newcomers can find a brief overview of the goals of this IPCR Discussion Forum, and why the administrator (s) believe that the discussion sections below will are relevant to achieving those goals.

The IPCR Initiative webpage for “IPCR Outreach 2012” is at http://www.ipcri.net/IPCR-Outreach-2012.html All documents which are a part of “IPCR Outreach 2012” postmailings are accessible for free (in pdf format) at http://www.ipcri.net/IPCR-Outreach-2012.html

Special Note: The efforts of Stefan Pasti, the founder and outreach coordinator of The IPCR Initiative, have now shifted to outreach and advocacy for two new companion websites:

1) Community Visioning Initiatives Clearinghouse (at www.cviclearinghouse.net )
2) Community Teaching and Learning Centers Clearinghouse (at www.ctlcclearinghouse.net )

There is more of an introduction to this new approach to collaborative problem solving and citizen peacebuilding at those websites—and in the Open Discussion topic “New Approach to Collaborative Problem Solving” (below).

This section is for comments, suggestions, discussion, etc. on the IPCR “Critical Challenges…” project. There are currently ten critical challenges identified by this "Critical Challenges Assessment" project. Participants are invited to contribute statistics, observations, commentary, etc which concur with the observations, modify the observations, or suggest other challenges as more critical. UPDATE NOTICE (AUGUST, 2012): A “second edition”/update of "Calling 'the better angels of our nature: A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises" (398 pages, January 2012) is now available. The updated version is now titled “IPCR CRITICAL CHALLENGES ASSESSMENT 2011-2012: SUMMARY REPORT" (439 pages, August 2012), and is accessible from the homepage of The IPCR Initiative (www.ipcri.net ). The title page of the new document provides information about the additions which were made to the original “Multi-Angle” document. This "second edition"/update is also accessible from the webpage for the "IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012" project, (at http://www.ipcri.net/Critical-Challenges-Assessment.html , see Section #6)] (Note: All IPCR Initiative documents and resources are accessible for free.)

The challenges of our times are such that it is now critical for us to access the storehouses of wisdom and compassion which have accumulated over the many centuries of human experience, and which have been confirmed again and again as essential to individual well-being and social harmony by the saints, sages, spiritual leaders, and sincere practitioners of all religious, spiritual, and moral traditions.

Hopefully emphasizing an Open Discussion category will help visitors and members to feel that their contributions—regardless of whether they are directly related to IPCR documents or ideas—are essential to the “organic process” of creating a Discussion Forum which is a lively, inspiring, and respectful exchange of ideas and resources.

Community Visioning Initiatives (CVIs) can be described as a series of community meetings designed to facilitate the process of brainstorming ideas, organizing the ideas into goals, prioritizing the goals, and identifying doable steps. There can be much very useful public discourse on how to create effective local Community Visioning Initiatives, of the kind which can succeed in turning polarizing circumstances into collaborative efforts (and thus make best use of the knowledge and skills each one of us has), and which can create, develop, and accelerate a full array of solution-oriented activity.

In times when people are trying to resolve multiple crises, it will be most helpful to make ongoing re-evaluations of education systems, to see if they are serving communities as well as they can. It will also be most helpful if a majority of the residents in a particular community or region understand how many different ways education occurs in our complex world—as once this is understood, efforts can be made to make better use of such pathways.

“Community Teaching and Learning Centers” is a concept created by the “Teachers Without Borders” organization, and expanded by The IPCR Initiative, so that such local community points of entry function as information clearinghouses, meeting locations, educational centers for ongoing workshops (on a broad range of topics related to the Community Visioning process, and building the local knowledge base), practice sites for developing “teacher-leaders”, etc. The “15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative” document includes much detail about what would happen in these centers during a Visioning Initiative.

Step 3 of the “15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative” suggests creating a “Preliminary Survey”, and sending such a survey to 150 key leaders who represent a variety of fields of activity in the community. Responses and summarized results from “Preliminary Surveys” will provide: 1) evidence from local leaders of the need for a re-assessment of current priorities 2) examples of local leaders stepping up in support of CVI 3) starting points for public discourse about the importance of the CVI 4) starting points for CTLC workshop content 5) starting points for some participants as they develop “Final Version” decisions (“votes”) on challenges, solutions, and action plans 6) an aid to mobilizing a high level of interest in the CVI, and a high level of citizen participation

The job fairs which come at the end of the Community Visioning Initiative process provide opportunities for all key stakeholders in the community (businesses, organizations, institutions, government, etc) to demonstrate their interest in the welfare of the community—by offering and facilitating new employment opportunities… and thus assisting with a just transition to patterns of investment which in many ways represent solutions to prioritized challenges.

“Sister Community” relationships provide whole communities with ways of assisting with a “just transition” to patterns of investment which in many ways represent solutions to prioritized challenges. In addition, such community-to-community relationships can create service work capable of uniting diverse communities of people, and a variety of opportunities for person-to-person peacebuilding (as can be seen by the work of organizations such as “Sister Cities International”.)

The IPCR Initiative’s “constellation of initiatives” approach to maximizing citizen participation in solution-oriented activity provides many opportunities for local newspapers to contribute very valuable community services (for example: making preliminary survey results accessible; highlighting inspirational role models and initiatives associated with the 117 related fields of activity; describing workshop activity in the “Community Teaching and Learning Centers”; reporting on the planning, implementation, evaluation, and follow up stages associated with Community Visioning Initiatives; etc).

The document “A Four Page Summary of the IPCR Initiative” is referenced as a key document for outreach and a starting point for workshop discussion. This “four page summary” includes much of the “6 point list” on the IPCR homepage, but has not generated much discussion so far. Participants are invited to offer comments, suggestions, discussion, etc in support of the "Four Page Summary..." as ideas for how it might be modified, and/or to suggest alternative overviews—for the IPCR Initiative, or for another kind of initiative which would be a comprehensive response to the critical challenges mentioned above.

There will be sections here for participants to contribute news, articles, books, facebook pages, tweets, etc which they believe will be relevant and helpful to other participants here. Contributors to this section are encouraged to identify the sources of their information etc., and give appropriate attention to the conventions of courtesy and respect regarding fair use of copyrighted material. There are links associated with the 117 Related Fields of Activity in the IPCR “Links” section. [SPECIAL NOTICE: DUE TO ACCUMULATING EVIDENCE AND UNFOLDING EVENTS, A PREVIEW OF THE FINAL REPORT FOR 'IPCR CRITICAL CHALLENGES ASSESSMENT 2011-2012' IS NOW ACCESSIBLE. The title: "Calling 'the better angels of our nature: A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises" (398 pages, January 2012). Accessible from the homepage of The IPCR Initiative (www.ipcri.net ) and from the webpage for the "IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012" project, (at http://www.ipcri.net/Critical-Challenges-Assessment.html , see Section #6)] (Note: All IPCR Initiative documents and resources are accessible for free.)

Here is the “Suggestion Box”, and the administrator (s) of this Discussion Forum encourage and support active use of this “Suggestion Box”—especially by people who are active participants, but also by anyone who happens to come by, and sees an improvement which could be made. One of the most important responsibilities of the administrator (s) of this Discussion Forum will be to answer, as soon as possible, all credible suggestions made here (reserving the right to judge some suggestions as “outside” the boundaries which define “deserving a response”.)

On 3/23/12 a restructuring of the IPCR Discussion Forum was made, to reduce the number of categories, and draw attention to one Open Discusson category. Many categories which were part of the original IPCR Discussion Forum format were discontinued. There is a sticky post in this section which provides the category titles and descriptions of categories which were discontinued for people who would like to see what they were.
UPDATE: On 5/20/12 some of the categories which were discontinued earlier were brought back, and some new categories were added, as a way of illustrating how local communities can use Discussion Forums like this to encourage solution-oriented suggestions, discussion, workshops, etc.