enCOMPASSion was founded in November 2016 by Manasi Saxena, in order to offer learning solutions focused on Nonviolent Communication and related modalities, offered to organisations, schools, and individuals.
In the early years, from 2016 to 2020, we worked with institutions like UNHCR, Katkatha, Manzil, Katkatha, Saajha, Fr. Agnel School Greater Noida, and others.
In addition to this, we offered open workshops, training programmes, and practice groups for personal growth through NVC. We had a meaningful experience working in places as far flung as Guwahati and Udaipur, New Delhi and Bangalore. Additionally, as part of the NVC-network in India, we hosted two Mentoring and Assessment events.
Our focus was: From Inner Connection to Interconnecteness. We believed that shifts in personal development led to shifts in interpersonal and community relationships.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is based on the fundamental principle that everyone’s needs matter. We found that this principle, which we were sharing and experiencing in our trainings and workshops, did not reflect in most systems and structures in the larger world.
For us, 2020 was a turning point. In 2020, as ground realities posited challenges around physical sustenance and safety, enCOMPASSion also offered emergency relief support for vulnerable communities.
We collaborated with the Deputy CM Office for Relief in Northeast Delhi, worked with Goonj and Fidus Law Chambers on the Noida Covid Relief 2020 Project, which brought Dry Ration Relief Kits to 27300+ individuals, and Travel Kits to over 3500+ migrant workers heading home.
In the winter of 2020-2021, we worked with Goonj to bring blankets to the most economically vulnerable communities in Delhi/NCR, reaching 6300+ individuals.
Our focus expanded in 2020, as it did for many others. We were now exploring significant questions: What happens when inner compassion and empathy meets life-alienating systems? How does nonviolence and compassion come to life when the issues are as critical as baseline survival?
In a nutshell, how do we make compassion sustainable?
Working with communities on an emergency basis led us to the understanding that people who have less access to resources also have less capacity and power to ask for those resources. Working towards a world that works for everyone requires agile intervention at different levels.
As a response to these questions, we launched Project Asha, launched in August 2020, is focused on Enhancing Resilience in Urban Communities with a vision of community-driven development. This project brought together the use of Nonviolent Communication and related modalities, in practice, process, and consciousness, with the critical developmental concerns at the grassroots.
We worked for 8 months with one slum-based community in Noida to actively bring together collaborative decision making tools in around the developmental goals chosen by the community.
We brought this project to a close because of the 2nd wave of Covid in India, where our team just as many others, was impacted. Instead, we shifted our focus again to emergency relief – this time doing what we could with our resources and offering Project Empathy, listening circles for people impacted by the 2nd wave of Covid 19 in India, for 25 weeks.
Parallel to this, we launched Living Bridges — an enCOMPASSion project that envisions an active, thriving bridge between the processes and consciousness of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and Social Change.
Living Bridges has brought together trainers and learners from 44 countries across the world. People from diverse sectors of society came together to learn and live empathy, compassion, and collaboration to address social challenges, to become agents of change in their communities, and to create a more just and equitable society.
In collaboration with Connext Coaching, this project has focused on building bridges across differences, promoting diversity and inclusion, and fostering sustainable, community-driven social change. The focus has been: Start where you are; Do what you can.
At the same time, it became clear to us that we ourselves were undergoing a tranformation in ourselves. Over the last two years, we have shifted and registered as a Section 8 company, gone through Pravah’s Changeloom programme, and oriented ourselves as a Social Business.
Our projects and trainings now hold the understanding that true compassion requires more than good intentions – it demands the lived practice of nonviolence. Our mission now is to bridge the gap between these two essential elements, bringing practical tools for empathy and communication to individuals, organizations, and communities alike.