Long-time conflict resolution educator Linda Lantieri speaks about the importance of building bridges between homes, educational institutions and community organizations in order to create caring learning environments for children and youth. She shares specific tools, strategies, inspirational stories, and a framework for supporting integrated peace education efforts in schools, families and community organizations. She will also share the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning’s work (CASEL), the nation’s leading organization advancing the development of academic, social and emotional competence for all students.
Archive
Choosing Love in Every Situation
Scarlett Lewis, parent of a child who was killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack, shares her personal story and the prevention and response strategies she advocates for through the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation. Planting the seed of post traumatic growth and teaching children personal responsibility, emotional intelligence and cultivating connections will give them the ability to choose love. A simple but powerful equation gives us insight into how to choose love and have the courage to do it.
Cultural Sensitivity in Peace Education
Cultural sensitivity is helpful in building relationships and can be fun. Cultural sensitivity integrated into communication skills helps prevent identity-based conflicts – from interpersonal conflicts to national conflicts. Examples of how educators and facilitators can create a culturally sensitive curriculum will shared.
Conflict Resolution Skills for Youth and Adults – Incorporating Traditional Teaching and RJ
The Take Ten program – developed at the University of Notre Dame – began by teaching CRE skills to youth and has evolved to teach adults as well. Most recently, the program has returned to its Restorative Justice (RJ) roots to teach the curriculum in a Circles format and to lead participants in a truly restorative Circles experience. Participants will engage with the presenter in an authentic Circle process experience, demonstrating how the Take Ten curriculum is now available as a Circle event. As part of the discussion, programmatic evaluation results will be shared with participants.
Can Buddhists Help Restore Harmony in Modern Society?
Violence is a worrisome concern for religious minorities in some south and south-east Asian countries today. Fundamentalists and conservative political groups who try to dominate the political and religious landscape in states such as Bangladesh and Myanmar have oppressed minority religions, while communal disturbances have become a painful reality in the greater societies and the disturbing consequences spill over to neighbors as well. This workshop will propose resolutions at different levels to address violent situations, with application of Buddhist teachings to resolve inter-religious conflicts and promote religious tolerance and harmony.
Effective Ways to Motivate Change in Youth Using Restorative Justice Practices
This workshop looks at utilizing Peace Circles as a community-based endeavor grounded in the belief that communication is essential to fostering understanding among youth, law enforcement and neighbors. Peace Circles empowers communities and the people who are affected by crime to actively participate in the response to violence and social issues. In this way, Circles enhances the justice system by holding the offender accountable to the community in which he or she resides. This workshop will offer unique restorative approaches for participants serving our youth.
Field Services Arbitration Process: Building Stronger Teachers through Facilitated Dialogue
The Cleveland State University OFS Arbitration Process, utilized when a student intern faces conflict in their student teaching or other field experience, models conflict resolution and de-escalation of emotion by using evidence and tools to understand and dissect current situations in order to set actionable goals for growth and future direction. The process requires facilitators to be mindful of several factors including valuing dignity, developmental appropriateness for the learner, and seeing oneself as a teacher.
Supporting Community “Thirdsiders” via the East Side Conflict Resolution Outreach Project
Students and faculty affiliated with the Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution program at Wayne State University in Detroit have created a service learning and community building initiative on Metro Detroit’s East Side. The ESCRO project reimagines the community boards’ civic engagement community mediation model, extending it via a service learning element and via the promotion of a broader range of Thirdsider conflict intervention roles. This workshop will review the underlying philosophy promoted by the initiative, explore the creative ways that a Thirdsider perspective opens up engagement opportunities, and report on the project’s progress to date.
Best Practice in Integrating Conflict Management Education into Armenian School Curriculum
Learn about the The Peace Education project launched in 2002 by the NGO Women for Development Armenia in order to form a culture of peace and conflict resolution among teachers and schoolchildren. By 2015, the “Peace and Conflict Resolution in Schools” project was implemented in 800 schools in Armenia’s 11 provinces, about 60% of Armenia’s schools, reaching 4000 teachers and approximately 70,000 students. The project evaluation showed that the cases of school conflicts with violent outcomes decreased by 72%, cases of verbal violence decreased by 67%, and the cases of indirect violence decreased by 50%. As a result, the “Conflict Management Education in schools” handbook was officially adopted by the National Institute of Education as a framework for all schools.
Using Extracurricular Activities to Broaden Perspectives of a Diverse College Community
At Cuyahoga Community College, students organized several events to educate other students and the public about diversity in an attempt to diminish conflict on campus and in the community. These activities included a panel discussion on the relationship between the police and the Cleveland community, a debate among presidential candidate representatives, a panel discussion on radicalization and extremism, the psychology of radicalization and the role of the media, a panel of five religious leaders, and several other activities. The students will discuss their activities and the impact they have made on the campus.
A Review of Recent Scholarship on Nonviolence
This presentation will explain the basic processes by which nonviolence creates social change on a societal or national level. The presenter will describe the major debates in the field, and then focus on the findings of recent research which analyzes databases of nonviolent and violent national campaigns. These data demonstrate the effectiveness of nonviolence compared to violence, and help in understanding the factors that produce success or failure. The accompanying publication will provide lists of materials that can aid in teaching high school and college students about nonviolence.
Online Peer Mediation Platform
Since the mid-1980s, peer mediation has been the most commonly used conflict resolution education program in the United States. Research indicates that as many as 25% of US schools have had peer mediation programs. However, three important changes in the educational and social context now suggest the need for an online version of peer mediation. These changes include the significant and increasing online public education, prevalence and preference for online communication, and the growing popularity of peer mediation across the globe.