Cultivating Peace – Taking Action

This 66-page pdf is a curriculum packet developed for use in Canadian classrooms. “This resource encourages students to examine their own beliefs regarding the need for change in our world and their personal responsibility in taking action. The preconditions necessary for a culture of peace are explored through the examination of global issues in sustainable development, economic disparity, fair trade, human rights and consumerism. Students are given opportunities to explore the range of actions possible, the ways in which change occurs, the barriers to participation and the factors that support youth involvement. The resource includes a teacher’s guide, a video, a poster series and a student guide to taking action. It is designed for use in grades 10-12.”

The Dignity in Schools Campaign Model Code on Education and Dignity

The Dignity in Schools Campaign Model Code on Education and Dignity presents a set of recommended policies to schools, districts and legislators to help end school pushout and protect the human rights to education, dignity, participation and freedom from discrimination. The Code is the culmination of several years of research and dialogue with students, parents, educators, advocates and researchers who came together to envision a school system that supports all children and young people in reaching their full potential. Five chapters organize the 104 page document. They cover Education, Participation, Dignity, Freedom from Discrimination, and Monitoring and Accountability.

In October 2013, DSC released a new revised version of the Model Code, which includes new sections on: social and emotional learning, prevention and response to bullying behavior, reducing tickets and summonses issued in school, reducing racial disparities in discipline through culturally responsive classroom management, creating safe schools for LGBTQ students and other topics. A community toolkit was also created to help groups make good use of the Model Code. It is available separately.

Media Toolkit for Restorative Justice Organisations

This 100+ page media toolkit presents 10 chapters of practical advice on doing a promotional campaign supporting restorative justice. It was prepared within the framework of the project Building social support for restorative justice, implemented by the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) and the partner organisations, between April 2008 and April 2010, and co-financed by the European Commission. The Building social support for restorative justice project has tried to answer three main questions:
1) How can interaction and cooperation with the media be set up in order to inform and educate the public about restorative justice (RJ)?
2) How can cooperation be developed with civil society organi- sations in order to create broad support for RJ?
3) How can we increase the involvement of individual citizens in the functioning of local RJ programmes?

The resulting media toolkit covers the following topics:
Tool one – Strategic communication planning
Tool two – Understanding the media
Tool three – Building media relationships
Tool four: Developing ethical guideline
Tool five – Press release and media events
Tool six– Giving interviews
Tool seven- Media public campaigns
Tool eight- Exploring new media
Tool nine- Communication for social change
Tool ten- Taking design seriously

Something is Wrong – Exploring the Roots of Youth Violence

A 382-page pdf curriculum guide addressing violence in the lives of youth. From the introduction:” The Chicago Freedom School, Project NIA and Teachers for Social Justice have partnered along with other volunteers to develop a curriculum guide in order to contribute to the ongoing efforts by young people and their adult allies to analyze the root causes of youth violence and to create local solutions”

The authors “wanted to create a curriculum that would provide a holistic view of violence in the lives of young people across a number of arenas. Through this curriculum, we want to challenge youth to think about a) the roots of violence in their lives; b) the enforcers and victims of violence; c) the effects of violence on both victims and perpetrators; and d) how violence can ultimately be minimized through systemic changes.”

I Painted Peace: Handbook on Peace Building with and for Children and Young People

This 72-page illustrated handbook has been designed and developed together with children and young people for children and young people. It is, however, also meant to be of use and interest to adults. The children and young people involved in the production of this handbook would like to promote, build and sustain peace in their local communities, schools, districts, and nations. The handbook may be most suitable for children and young people aged 12 years and upwards.

The idea behind this handbook is to encourage more adults to listen to girls’ and boys’ voices carefully and seriously and to work with them as partners in creating and sustaining peace. In this way, the handbook helps to promote children’s participation leading to the better fulfilment of children’s rights.

Children’s contributions are presented in the following sections:
– Children’s visions on peace
– Children’s understanding of peace building
– Children’s understanding of the history and the impact of conflict
– Opportunities for children’s participation in peace building at different levels (individual, family, children’s organisation, school, community, district, national, international) – including examples of activities and the impact of children’s participation at these different levels;
– Assessment of what helps and gets in the way of children’s peace building efforts
– Recommendations and proposals to strengthen children’s role as agents of peace

Pennies for peace toolkit materials

Website presented by “Pennies for Peace is a program of Central Asia Institute (CAI), founded by Greg Mortenson – author of the #1 New York Times best seller, Three Cups of Tea. The heart of the Pennies for Peace program is the penny raising campaign. The campaigns raise money to build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but they also serve a more important purpose. A Pennies for Peace campaign teaches young people at all levels the importance of taking action and engaging their communities. It shows them that no matter how big or small you are, you can make a difference for others – often a profound one – by choosing to commit yourself to service and to a cause that matters to you. If you’re a classroom teacher, the Pennies for Peace toolkit encourages you to think differently about your program. The Pennies for Peace toolkit offers deep classroom activities at all grade levels; but to create effective campaigns you’ll need to do more outside of the classroom to get your community involved. For this reason, the Pennies for Peace toolkit is designed with classroom resources as well as campaign tools.” Includes curriculum resource guides for grades K-4, 4-8 and 9-12 as well as videos, maps, photos, etc.

Cultivating Peace in the 21st Century: Ready to Use Student Activities

This 60-page pdf is a lesson pack developed for use in Canadian classrooms. It consists of 7 distinct lessons “designed to actively engage secondary school students in the search for a deep understanding of the forces that can bring about tragedies such as the attack on the World Trade Center, and the means by which they can personally contribute to the ongoing search for peaceful coexistence. It provides teachers and administrators with concrete mechanisms for integrating peace education into the curriculum and the school environment.”

25 years: Looking back and looking ahead

20-page Powerpoint keynote address given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which reviewed “the CRE field from the vantage point of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR).”

Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Manual for training of facilitators 3

49-page pdf manual which “is one of the components of the Inter-Agency Peace Education Programme, the programme is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and for agencies which implement education activities on behalf of the government … this manual has been written for you as a trainer of facilitators. The manual looks at the skills required to develop “effective facilitation”, these skills are useful not just for a peace education programme but also for all aspects of the professional life of the people whom you are training, this is the third level of the facilitator training, with three levels of training, this has meant that revision has been built into the course, this level of training is primarily clarification of and building on previous work, this may require you, as the trainer to use the training manuals from level 1 and 2.”

Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Manual for training of facilitators 2

50-page pdf manual which “is one of the components of the “Inter-Agency Peace Education Programme, the programme is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and for agencies which implement education activities on behalf of the government … this manual has been written for you as a trainer of facilitators, it looks at “effective facilitation” and the skills required to develop effective facilitation, these skills are useful not just for a Peace Education Programme but also for all aspects of the professional life of the facilitators whom you are training.”

Inter-agency P.E.P.:Skills for constructive living: Manual for training of facilitators I

59-page pdf manual which is one of the components of the “Inter-Agency Peace Education Programme, the programme is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and for agencies which implement education activities on behalf of the government … the manual looks at the skills required to develop effective facilitation of adult learners, these skills are useful not just for a Peace Education programme but also for all aspects of the professional life of the people with whom you are working.”

Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Background notes for facilitators

37-page pdf summary of the major points covered in the training sessions to be used as a reference. This manual is “of the components of the “Inter-Agency Peace Education Programme”. The programme is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and for agencies which implement education activities on behalf of the government.”

Inter-agency peace education programme: Skills for constructive living: Overview of the programme

46-page pdf document which provides an overview “of the components of the Peace Education Programme and the implementation structure of the programme. It is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and from agencies who may be implementing education activities on behalf of the government …
The programme is currently being implemented in eleven countries in Africa and has been integrated into complementary programmes in Sri Lanka, Kosovo, and Pakistan. In these latter situations, training and initial materials were provided but the implementation costs were borne by the agencies concerned.”
Related to this overview are 15 pdf documents that make up the Peace Education Programme kit with individual entries in this catalog.