Grace and Associates Compact for the Common Good

Common Good Works

Inspiring Courage, Hope and Action for Just Communities

What Time Is It?

We stand at a pivotal juncture in history where the fabric of society may unravel at an irrecoverable rate or be re-woven with a new strength and resilience. The economic systems that have generated prosperity for many have been shaken to their foundation. The mounting environmental crisis highlights our global inter-dependence and reminds us that we rise or fall together. Our weapons have become too powerful and the world too interconnected to support war or terrorism as the chief means of addressing global conflicts. And today in America the Republic itself – a government of, by and for the people – has grown anemic through the manipulative power of the wealthy elite.

Though times of instability may create anxiety, they are also opportune moments to develop new responses born of a worldview more suited for these times—the common good.

A Time To Recommit to the Common Good

“We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penned these words in 1963, he was writing of issues of justice in the United States. Today his words apply on a global scale.

Applied globally, the common good is the stewarding of global resources justly and compassionately for the good of all, such that every corner of the earth is a safe place for a child to be born, a good place for a family to prosper, a place where the land, plants, animals, and businesses flourish, and a free place where the people can govern together. Justice, peace, and sustainability would be the natural outcomes of concerning ourselves for the good of all.

We are also asked to serve as stewards of the common good at the local and regional level but in the context of a global community. We need to be stewards of neighborhoods, institutions, communities, states and nations and see them as seamlessly tied to each other and the planet we call home.

The Common Good -- a Basic Foundation

The achievement of the common good is central to the best of human nature and expresses the inescapable network of mutuality that binds our ultimate well-being to that of others. The common good is established each time a person, institution or community reaches beyond individual self-interest for the sake of the greater whole. This is a foundation of civilized society. This human ability to open our hearts and minds to the needs of others makes it possible for human beings to be good neighbors and tend the web of life. The major concerns facing leaders across the country—employment, healthcare, sustainability—can be framed as opportunities to advance the common good. Within this framework, a new worldview emerges that inspires powerful and creative approaches to the questions of the day. These new approaches provide new responses charged with moral clarity and courage that have the capacity to inspire citizens in the region to join in the work of advancing the common good.

Compact for the Common Good – A Three Fold Social Movement

The Compact for the Common Good is a public promise by community and student leaders to continue to work for a future informed by social justice, compassion and stewardship and to manage resources and social structures so that all people in their communities may thrive. This commitment to collaborate for the sake of all will advance the common good and leave a valuable inheritance for succeeding generations.

The Compact for the Common Good is a national movement bringing together leaders from cities, counties, states and regions to examine the challenges facing their communities. In the context of the common good worldview, they chart a courageous path forward based on a clear commitment to create a better world for all.

A social movement is the inspiration and weaving together of simultaneous acts of innovation and reform in many settings into a coordinated expression of power and intention relative to common social concern. Within this noble tradition, the Compact for the Common Good is a movement of “the people” in communities and college campuses all over the country dedicated to the advancement of the Common good. The Compact has three core programs: