The Compassionate City Project: Opening the circle — a lesson in compassion and community

May ambassador Chris Sinclair reflects on the fourth weekend of the #CompassionateSTC initiative

This article originally appeared in Niagara This Week – St. Catharines, June 30, 2017

By Chris Sinclair

Shortly after being asked to be 1 of 12 ambassadors for #CompassionateSTC, I assembled a small team from my office to brainstorm what a compassionate city meant to us.

With the best of intentions, we set out to conquer the world in one weekend.

Our ideas were flowing and ambitious, including a list of over 100 volunteers, 12 different events, donation ideas, and even branded giveaways to help promote the hashtag.

But we quickly realized that this wasn’t about a hashtag and social media campaign. Rather this is a movement about promoting inclusion, community, and genuine connections between people from all walks of life.

Tim Arnold from Southridge Church suggested we focus on a few intimate events that truly impacted those in need of a conversation, laughter, care, or all of the above.

This theme of “opening the circle” resonated with our team. We aren’t experts in social issues, but we know we could make a difference by extending a hand in friendship to the people in our society who may not get the interactions and experiences most of us are fortunate to have on a daily basis.

So we selected five group activities ranging from bowling with some amazing people from a local shelter, to gardening and visiting with patients of a hospital. The action that impacted me the most happened Saturday afternoon.

We made arrangements to spend the afternoon with the residents of a group home, who live with a wide range of mental health issues. The group home is located right across the street from my home and for the year-and-a-half that I’ve lived there, I’ve never had interactions beyond a wave and hello in passing.

At first, I was very hesitant and nervous as I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know the severity of their cases or how they would react to strangers coming into their home.

In a matter of minutes, my apprehensions were forgotten as we enjoyed pizza, snacks and coffee. Soon it was on to board games and dancing. Hearing their stories and simply spending a couple hours connecting was deeply impactful.

I won’t hesitate to pop by with a few coffees and check in to see how my new friends are doing.

I challenge all of you to look around and see where you can open your circle just a little bit to help change someone’s life – including your own – one positive interaction at a time.

Niagara this Week is proud to support the Compassionate City Project with this first of a monthly series reflecting on the experience of one of the project ambassadors. For more on the Compassionate City initiative, visit www.compassionatestc.ca.