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    Without Harm
  • Institute for the Study of Health & Illness (ISHI)
  • Juvenile Justice
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Welcome to Commonweal

Commonweal is a nonprofit health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California. Founded in 1976, Commonweal conducts programs that contribute to human and ecosystem health—to a safer world for people and for all life. We do that through a program focus in five areas:

• We help people with cancer through the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, a weeklong residential support program for people with cancer, and through the Commonweal Cancer Project, our resource for cancer patients and health professionals.
• Through the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, we help physicians, medical students, and other health professionals who wish to restore the principles of healing to the practice of medicine and practice with a deeper sense of meaning, satisfaction and lineage. ISHI conducts faculty development trainings for Healer's Art faculty, healing workshops for the public, and CME workshops and retreats for physicians at the Commonweal site. ISHI's Healer's Art curriculum is presently offered in 53 medical schools.
• We help children and young adults in the juvenile justice system through the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program, which advocates for reforms in California juvenile justice.
• We support local, national, and international initiatives that contribute to human health and a healthy environment, including the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, Health Care Without Harm, The Safe Cosmetics Campaign, the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center, Women's Health & the Environment, the Commonweal Garden, the Commonweal Fair Growth Program, and the Commonweal Ocean Policy Program.
• The New School allows you to join conversations with remarkable people working to encourage awareness of the deep interconnectedness of personal and planetary health. These collaborative learning events explore a wide range of issues in health, education, science, the arts, the environment, culture, and consciousness. Most of our events are free. Podcasts of TNS conversations can be downloaded at wwe.the-new-school.org or from itunes.

The Commonweal Retreat Center is an integral part of Commonweal's work. The Retreat Center, which houses up to 22 people, is available for personal or professional retreats, conferences, and workshops when not in use for Commonweal programs.