Global Beacons of Hope

ABOUT THE PANDEMIC

WHEN WE STARTED THIS PROJECT IN 2019, OUR INITIAL FOCUS WAS ON CHOOSING AND DESCRIBING GLOBAL EXAMPLES. WE PLAN TO CONTINUE THE GLOBAL WORK WHEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS UNDER CONTROL. IN THE MEANTIME WE ARE CONCENTRATING ON APPLYING THE BEACONS OF HOPE CONCEPT WITHIN COUNTRIES, STARTING IN CALIFORNIA.

Global Beacons of Hope are places carefully chosen to symbolize the imagination, exploration, and moral behavior needed to move the world toward greater justice and sustainability. 

We believe putting a spotlight on them will help change minds and inspire action. 

This initiative will show how that can be done, starting with representative places in several countries.  Six examples. 

We aim to inspire people to take action to move the world toward greater justice and sustainability.

We plan to select, explain, and publicize places associated with extraordinary people, events, and ideas as Global Beacons of Hope to serve as tangible symbols of the kind of imagination, exploration, and moral behavior needed to move the world toward greater justice and sustainability.

Global Beacons of Hope are meant to be representative, rather than the “best.” Beacons are not an award, and there is no contest. Although designation of places as Beacons may encourage people to visit them, this is not their main purpose, and some of the places are remote or closed to the public.

We see our main audience as the educated public, especially those who have influence over decisions and opinions at all levels of society.

This is a civil society, not-for-profit initiative led by nongovernmental organizations. 

We aim to change attitudes and change behavior, not by propagandizing but by drawing out the best in people. 

Stories about real places and what has happened in them are powerful communication tools. Tangible symbols are needed even more these days in a world of “cyber-existence” and “virtual reality.” 

For this purpose, emotion is as important as knowledge. Behavioral scientists tell us that raising awareness of facts, by itself, rarely leads to changing behavior. People often make decisions based less on what they know than what they feel and believe.