Laudato Si’ Goal 7: Community Engagement and Participatory Action
Community Engagement and Participatory Action encourages the development of regenerative cultures and policies that protect our common home and all who share it. To care for creation at the local, regional, national, and international levels by promoting advocacy and people’s campaigns, encouraging rootedness in local territory and neighbourhood ecosystems. This would be carried out through our Institute’s advocacy framework, the work already begun locally in the former congregations, and through engagement with Mercy Global Action initiatives and processes.
What have we achieved?
- Established an Institute-wide water advocacy taskforce, aligning with the goals of Mercy Global Action and addressing our own local water issues in parts of Australia and Papua New Guinea
- Established an Institute-wide refugee and asylum seeker advocacy network, sharing information and experiences between those members who are walking with people in their locality and leading campaigns on behalf of the Institute
- Encouraged local advocacy and participatory action campaigns such as Eugowra-Slow the Flow and the Oamug regeneration project in Papua New Guinea
- Developed numerous resources such as Waste Recycling Guide, Simple Daily Gestures Booklet , Simple Daily Gestures Video , Sustainable Living Procurement guide and Multiple video recordings of webinars and events
- Updates are provided through our internal sisters’ newsletters, eco conversion email group, ‘Just Mercy’ and occasional stories in MIA Mercy E News.
What are we doing?
- Engagement – Identify and implement campaigns to support Laudato Si’ goals, such as the CRA webinars, conferences, and the Ten-thousand for Ten tree-planting and tree-protection initiative
- Regularly exploring the global issues as we experience them locally, wherever we are, and supporting local campaigns as the needs arise.