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The Young Peacebuilders Guide To Tackling Harmful Narratives

18 January 2023

The Young Peacebuilders’ Guide to Tackling Harmful Narratives entails a concrete step-by-step methodology and tools to support young peacebuilders in their fight against harmful narratives, as well as four concrete alternative narrative campaigns that were developed by United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) members.

Rather than creating the umpteenth resource that sheds light on the issue of harmful narratives, this by-youth-for-youth guide is a collaborative document that encapsulates the work and input of 11 UNOY members who took part in UNOY Peacebuilders’ capacity development programme—Youth Promoting Peaceful and Cohesive Societies in Europe—held between April and June 2022, as well as the insights of experts in disinformation and media development at large.

Young Community Mediators Peer to Peer Mediation Curriculum

5 August 2017

Young Community Mediators is a regional EU-based group established with the purpose of equipping young people age 16-30 with the knowledge and skills to become peer mediators, empowering the youth of society to play a greater role in addressing conflict in the community around them thus helping to create a brighter future.

This 85-page PDF guide initially focuses on the trainer through a training delivery support-focused section. Following on from the tutor support guidelines is the Young Community Mediators Peer to Peer Mediation Curriculum which consists of five modules. The first Module is designed as an introduction module where participants are welcomed on to the programme and facilitated to engage as a group. They are introduced to the area of conflict, mediation and to the peer to peer mediation process. At the initial stage the trainer will conduct an audit of the participant’s level of understanding and knowledge of peer to peer mediation. Modules 2-5 are concentrated on the main themes and skills required to deliver a youth peer to peer mediation resolution process successfully. The modules are;
– Introduction & Welcome
– Understanding Conflict
– Peer Mediation & Listening Skills
– Overview and process involved in the Peer Mediation Event
– Decision Making & Teamwork
The modules are each designed as 4-hour peer mediation training sessions. Each module commences with a tutor module overview containing a module descriptor with the individual learning objectives/outcomes. Learning objectives/outcomes spell out exactly what should be achieved by the learning event.

Peace Education Handbook for Educators

9 January 2016

The International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International (IFM-SEI) celebrated 2015 as their Peace Education Year. IFM-SEI is an international educational movement working to empower children and young people to take an active role in society and fight for their rights. They are an umbrella organisation for child and youth-led movements all over the world, educating on the basis of values of equality, democracy, peace, co-operation and friendship. At the end of their Peace Education Year, IFM-SEI published a handbook of educational activities based around peace education for use in member organisations.

The 87-page handbook includes sections on “Understanding conflict”, “Transforming conflict” and “Making Peace” with activities for all different ages, and that can be used on group nights, on camps or seminars, as an experienced group leader, peer educator, or someone who is running a workshop for the first time.

Learning to Live Together: An intercultural and interfaith programme for ethics education

24 October 2014

Learning to Live Together is an interfaith and intercultural programme for Ethics Education that contributes to nurturing ethical values in children and young people. The programme was developed by the Interfaith Council on Ethics Education for Children in close collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF and tested through the Global Network of Religions for Children to contribute to the realization of the Right of the Child to full and healthy physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development, and to education as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in article 26.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), in the World Declaration on Education for all and in the Millennium Development Goals.

Learning to Live Together is a programme for educators (teachers, youth leaders, social workers) to nurture ethical values and spirituality in children and youth that will help them strengthen their identity and critical thinking, ability to make well grounded decisions, respect and work with people of other cultures and religions, and foster their individual and collective responsibilities in a global community.

Learning to Live Together is built in two modules, “Understanding Self and Others” and “Transforming the World together”. It is based on four ethical values: respect, empathy, responsibility and reconciliation. The learning process focuses on methodologies based on experience, cooperation, problem solving, discussions and introspection.

Additional materials and versions in other languages are available at http://www.ethicseducationforchildren.org

Youth and Conflict: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

5 June 2014

Mercy Corps, as an international NGO focused on “saving and improving lives in the world’s toughest places” believes youth are a force for positive change — the generation that can help transition their countries into productive and secure nations. However, youth are the primary participants in conflict today. The reasons they participate in conflict are multi-dimensional – they lack economic opportunities, political voice and a sense of belonging or connection to their communities. Often the only way young people can imagine changing their predicament is through violence. In Mercy Corps programs the focus is on catalyzing youth’s desire for change into positive outlets.

This 11-page pdf publication is a sample of Youth and Conflict Best Practices and Lessons Learned drawn from Mercy Corps’ programs, other agencies, donors, think tanks and researchers. It is divided into six sections:
* General Program Design and Implementation. This section includes advice on training, as it is a central part of many of our youth programs.
* Economic Engagement
* Political Participation
* Youth-to-Community Connections
* Youth-to-Youth Connections
* Addendum: Lessons from Our Colleagues

Youth Leadership Development Module on Conflict Management

2 September 2012

This 38-page pdf on conflict management strategies for youth leaders was provided as a handout for a May 2008 training for youth in Namibia. The event was sponsored by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and facilitated by C.T. Bayer & B.T. Schernick. The materials include several creative visualizations of conflict resolution concepts.

Help Increase the Peace (HIPP) Program

6 June 2012

This article from 2006 describes the Help Increase the Peace Program (HIPP), a project of the American Friends Service Committee that uses an experiential training model to teach non-violence to youth. The HIP Program is based on the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) that has brought Quakers into American prisons to teach non-violence.

NEW: The full HIPP training manual from 1999 is also now available from the AFSC archives here.

Useful Tools for Engaging Young People in Participatory Evaluation

4 March 2012

This 42-page pdf provides an overview of strategies for involving young people in evaluation research and then provides details on a specific set of tools that have proved particularly useful. Included are activities such as Card Visualization, Smiley-face Scale, Testimonials/Stories, Impact Drawings, Historical Timeline, Social and Community Mapping, Trend Analysis and Force-field Analysis. The guide is illustrated with photographs of various youth groups engaged in these evaluation activities. Also provided are some examples of ice-breakers and energizers to help engage and motivate participants.

Gender Toolkit: A manual for youth peace workers

22 January 2012

This guide aims to provide flexible and context-sensitive tools for supporting awareness and gender mainstreaming in youth peacebuilding organisations. It address the challenge of how to include a “gender lens” in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of different projects while integrating gender issues at the structural and organisational levels. These challenges can be addressed first by acknowledging their existence and making corrective entries to the organisations’ apparatus of power, and secondly by transforming the challenges into something positive and productive.

The 69-page guide provides a short overview of internal gender mainstreaming and gender mainstreaming in project management backed up by checklists and annotated resources in every section, best practices and trouble-shooters, as well as tips, quotes and advice. An appendix provides some activity modules that will lend a hand in addressing gender issues in organisations and projects.

The Role of Restorative Justice in Teen Courts: A Preliminary Look

28 June 2011

In March 2000, the American Probation and Parole Association convened a focus group to examine and discuss the role of restorative justice in teen court programs (also called youth and peer courts). The panel consisted of persons working actively in teen courts and persons working actively in more traditional restorative justice-based programs.

This paper provides a brief overview of restorative justice principles and addresses several key issues the focus group members identified that serve as a promising foundation from which teen courts can begin to move toward integrating more restorative justice-based practices within their programs. Key issues discussed include how youth courts can rethink the role of victims and the community within their programs, how youth courts can alter the way that their proceedings and practices are structured, and how youth courts can rethink and redefine sentencing options so that they are based on the restorative justice philosophy.

Help Increase the Peace Program – sample activities

31 May 2011

A selection of 10 sample activities from the fourth edition of the Help Increase the Peace Program (HIPP) manual for high school age youth. HIPP is an experiential program for teens developed out of the Alternatives to Violence Project curriculum used in prisons and community settings. A project of the American Friends Service Committee, HIPP is program for building community, trust, conflict resolution skills and reducing violence. The full HIPP manual (1999 version) is available here.

Something is Wrong – Exploring the Roots of Youth Violence

24 November 2010

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.”

Squash It!: Routes to Mediation for Young People by Young People

19 August 2010

This 19-page booklet was written by young people associated with PeerLink who wanted to share their mediation expertise and get other young people mediating. Print copies available via http://www.peerlink.org.uk

The guide addresses questions like: What are the key skills you need to be a good mediator? How do you plan a mediation session? What should you do if mediation goes wrong?

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

27 July 2010

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