Voluntary Service and Compassion as a Pathway to Peace and Social Cohesion

This session explores kindness and voluntary service and compassion as offering a practical pathway to peace by transforming empathy into action. When individuals serve one another, across differences of culture, belief, or background, they build trust, reduce fear, and strengthen the social fabric that holds communities together. Small acts of kindness, multiplied through organized service, create shared purpose and mutual respect, helping people see one another not as strangers or rivals, but as partners in a common future. In this way, community service becomes more than charity; it becomes a quiet but powerful force for social cohesion and lasting peace.

Facilitators:

• Mike McCabe, President of the Rotary Club of Washington Global
• Rose Cardarelli, Ed.D. Rotary Representative to UNICEF
• Sonja Borgmann Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution l graduate student and instructor

Learning Objectives:

• Explore different practical models of volunteer service, compassion and peace action
• Connect voluntary service, compassion/kindness → trust + social cohesion around shared purpose that can contribute to peace 
• Reflect on how small, local actions contribute to peace and build each person’s sense of agency in their network/community
• Identify one concrete action they can take individually or collectively over the coming semester to apply these skills