We know some people might be feeling a little alone right now, so if everyone in Ballarat simply called over the fence to say hello to their neighbour or waved through the window, it would mean every household maintains some much needed social contact.

Clinical and community trials show compassion is a specific area of interest for policy makers and business leaders wanting to build urban resilience.  Being kind is one of the human qualities that the motivation of compassion requires of us, being courageous is another.  Dr Lynne Reeder, Adjunct Research Fellow at the Federation University Australia says, “Building our compassion and perspective-taking ‘muscles’ are important not only for individual health, but also for communal flourishing”. 

As a contributor to the recently released International Handbook of Urban Resilience, Reeder’s work explains that acts of kindness towards neighbours (or others in general) in a local community can evolve into actions of compassion in a genuine undertaking to alleviate the suffering of others.  “Compassion involves activation of positive and uplifting networks in the brain,” concluded Reeder, which means the giver of kindness also receives a benefit.