Out of the Darkness Cafe Conversations 2021
Compassion Ballarat • March 11, 2021
Have you seen the Art Gallery’s 2021 exhibition, ‘Out of the Darkness’?
Compassionate Ballarat led, in a relaxed atmosphere at The George, a number of conversations to discuss what role the Arts can play in supporting individual and social trauma with questions such as:
- What was your overall response to the exhibition?
- How can creativity, wonder and awe lift us out of our day to day?
- What role might art and creativity play in social healing?
- How can contemporary art galleries and museums contribute to community wellbeing?
The Charter for Compassion recently held its first ever global conference and Compassionate Ballarat was accepted to present. This conference served as a vibrant platform for sharing insights, and actionable ideas to foster a more compassionate and equitable world. You can listen to the presentation on the history and work of Compassionate Ballarat
Do you need help or know someone who does? If you do, then this booklet is for you as it brings together all the food, shelter, support services, and learning services across Ballarat into one place. To make it easier in these cost of living times this booklet provides direct contact details, so in most cases you won’t need to go online. This 2025 version has been updated and so provides many more services than our previous brochure. Let’s look after each other in Ballarat.
Each year the Australian Compassion Council holds a National Day of Compassion, to provide a meaningful opportunity for all Australians to participate in learning about and in practicing compassion. This is the fourth year this National Day has been convened and each National Day has a theme and in 2024 our Theme is Compassion and Deep Connection which featured six facets of deep connection including: Contested spaces - Indigenous Justice - Peace Culture - Repairing Relationships - Innate Connection with our Environment - Dealing with our Distracted World. The National Day started with a launch that included presentations from the CEO of the global Charter for Compassion, Marilyn Turkovich on the Charter’s involvement in the 19th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates – with the Australian Charter Ambassador, Hugh Mackay, AO on Deep Connection in Community - and with the National Lead of the Australian Compassion Council, Dr Lynne Reeder on a Compassionate City project entitled Seeds of Compassion along with some inspiring young students and their compassionate wishes for their city. You can access the video recordings of this day here: