Research and Social Change towards Compassionate Communities (RESOCO)

A compassionate community aims to improve ideas, circumstances, and experiences around care, illness, death, dying, and bereavement. In order to realise this, the IRP, Research and Social Change towards Compassionate Communities (RESOCO), brings eight research teams, all contributing specialised scientific expertise, together in a large interdisciplinary consortium. The objective of RESOCO is to have a pioneering role by developing, implementing and evaluating the Compassionate Communities model in Flanders, Belgium, Europe and beyond. It will run a comprehensive and interdisciplinary research programme combining fundamental research and action research. Despite initiatives to develop Compassionate Communities internationally, there is a lack of evidence on best practices, fitting scientific tools and evidence-based methods for developing and evaluating compassionate communities in Belgium and Europe. Hence, the main goal of RESOCO is to examine the processes that lead to the successful development of a Compassionate Community in different contexts. RESOCO will act as an interdisciplinary consortium of 1) scientific expertise in compassionate communities at the VUB, 2) valorisation through close collaboration with practical and policy organisations while developing interventions and programmes that lead to lasting change on empathic behaviour and support within our society.