Created as part of the Divided Community Project’s Virtual Toolkit, these short hypothetical fact patterns propose several divisive incidents on college and university campuses to be used in training and discussion. The examples discuss a range of important issues. For example, how should university administrators respond to student protests against racial injustice? What role, if any, should campus police play when there is student unrest? What policies should schools consider to ensure student safety/well-being and to protect free speech on campus? These are only some of the questions that are worth discussing. The Divided Community Project encourages campus leaders to carefully think through each example, talk through the steps that one would take, consider relevant questions, and develop actionable plans.
Archive
Quaker Peacemakers Poster Collection
This set of 10 letter-size posters describes the work of 9 Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends) active in various domains of peacemaking. Featured peacemakers include Lewis Fry Richardson, Adam Curle, Bayard Rustin, Elise Boulding, Kenneth Boulding, Priscilla Prutzman, Jennifer Beer, Bill Kreidler and George Lakey. Also featured is the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), a Quaker-founded program working in prisons and community settings. Each poster includes a quote, a stylized picture and biographical background information on the featured person or project.
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.”
Why is Everybody Always Picking on Me?: A guide to handling bullies for young people
This 10-chapter 131-page illustrated book, available as a pdf, is for youth ages 8-16. Lively color illustrations, exciting stories, and practical tips and role-playing exercises help give children the tools to avoid being victimized. Topics covered include: Cope with the “Schoolyard Bully”; Stop bullies by using the “School of No Sword”; Gain the confidence to win without fighting. Recipient of the Silver Benjamin Franklin Award.
Let’s Resolve Conflicts Together: Middle School Classroom Activities
A 30-page guide filled with suggested activities designed to be used during Conflict Management Week (May 1-7, 2000) in Ohio Middle Schools. In the middle school classroom, making use of themes of conflict can invigorate subject areas across the curriculum. This activity booklet/guide offers ideas for improving the overall climate of the school and for learning how to resolve conflicts in the classroom. The guide first presents ideas for drawing attention to issues of conflict and peace. It then provides activities for helping students become aware of underlying causes of conflict. The guide cites the six steps to conflict resolution and states that, in addition to learning steps of a conflict management process, teachers may also work with students to enhance communication skills used in conflict management. According to the guide, these skills include understanding blocks to communication, using “I” statements, and improving listening skills–resources to teach these skills are included in the guide. The guide is divided into four broad sections: School-Wide Activities; Learning about Conflict; Communication Activities; and Conflict Management across the Curriculum.
Let’s Resolve Conflicts Together: Elementary School Classroom Activities
A 30-page guide filled with suggested activities designed to be used during Conflict Management Week (May 1-7, 2000) in Ohio Elementary Schools. This activity booklet/guide first offers ideas for how schools can engage in school-wide activities. The guide then describes a process for improving the overall climate of the school through the use of the classroom meetings. Six steps to conflict resolution are offered in the guide, as well as activities for helping students become aware of underlying causes of conflict. According to the guide, in addition to learning steps of a conflict management process, teachers may also work with students to enhance the communication skills used in conflict management; these include understanding blocks to communication, being aware of nonverbal communication, using “I” statements, and using active listening skills. The guide is divided into four broad sections: School-Wide Activities; Learning about Conflict; Communication Activities; and Conflict Management across the Curriculum.
Creating Spaces for Dialogue – A Role for Civil Society
This manuscript is published by Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) as part of a new GPPAC Dialogue and Mediation series. The stories presented in the book are authored by GPPAC network members who initiated a conversation between communities and societies polarised and divided as a result of conflict. Each story shows how civil society plays a vital role in rebuilding trust and enabling collaborations.
The authors describe how the dialogue processes unfolded, and share resulting lessons and observations. They also present their views on the questions that need to be addressed in designing a meaningful process. Is there such a thing as the most opportune moment to initiate a dialogue? Who should introduce the process? How is the process of participant selection approached, and what are the patterns of relationship transformation? Lastly, what follows once confidence and trust have been established?
The stories include civil society contributions to normalising inter-state relations between the US and Cuba, and Russia and Georgia and chronicles of community dialogues between Serbians and Albanians in Serbia and Kosovo, and Christians and Muslims in Indonesia.
Preventing, Assessing and Intervening in Teen Dating Abuse
This training guide and related slides and handouts aims to provide school Specialized Instructional Support Personnel with information and skills to identify, assess, effectively intervene in, and prevent teenage dating abuse; as such, it is appropriate for upper middle school and high school communities (and some lower middle school communities). The full training kit with powerpoint and handouts is available at http://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov
Youth and Conflict: Best Practices and Lessons Learned
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
Conflict Management Week High School Activity Guide
A 30-page guide filled with suggested activities to be used during Conflict Management Week (May 1-7, 2000) in Ohio High Schools.
Peaceful Conflict Resolution Guide for Primary and Secondary Schools (Croatia)
This training guide for schools consists of three primary modules:
1. damiri/ice – Conflict and Communication
2. spajalice – Peer Mediation
3. kazimiri/ice – Peer Education
The guide is the result of the work on the project Peaceful Problem Solving in Schools and Trauma Alleviation, Youth for Youth – Peer Mediation, initiated and supported by UNICEF Office for Croatia in co-operation with Croatian Ministry of Education and Sports. The Project was carried out by NGO “Mali korak” – Centre for Culture of Peace and Non-violence Zagreb.
In the school year of 1999/2000 it was implemented in 52 primary schools, most of which were schools of special social care in previous war affected areas. The purpose of this program model was to change attitudes, behaviors and experiences related to conflict and violence: improve coping with problem and conflict situations, develop awareness of prejudice, of one’s own rights as well as the rights of others both in those who participate in the program (students) and those who deliver it (teachers).
Human Total: A Violence Prevention Learning Resource
Human Total is a 303-page pdf manual created by Human Rights Education Association (HREA), the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) and the Instituto Mexicano de Investigación Familia y de Población (IMIFAP).
Targeted towards young people between the ages of 10 and 14, the manual helps learners understand attitudes that promote violent behavior (often brought about by the misuse of alcohol) by males and cultivates methods to minimise these behaviors’ harms and prevent their perpetuation.
Human Total contains 32 adaptable lesson plans, including ways to recognise and understand violence in social contexts and techniques for minimising violence through education about human rights and active participation in the community. The manual also features a note for facilitators on how to use it, tools for outreach to parents and guardians, recommendations for additional resources, and eight annexes with supplemental information. The resource was piloted in El Salvador and Kenya.
Human Total: A Violence Prevention Learning Resource is currently (July 2013) available in English and will soon be available in Spanish.
Youth Leadership Development Module on Conflict Management
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.
Gandhi’s Nonviolent Values and Skills
This 295-page guidebook, subtitled “A Violence Prevention Guidebook for High Schools”, is available online as a series of pdfs. It provides a basic methodology for proceeding from “awareness” through “concern” to “action” building on the ideas of nonviolent activist Mohandas Gandhi. The units in the Guidebook are designed to help teachers nurture in their youth and in themselves: 1) a disciplined mind – awareness – there are other ways of thinking and acting, you can control your feelings and thoughts, you have an important role to play in the world; 2) a compassionate heart – concern – becoming empathetic and deepening the desire to act on behalf of others; 3) a courageous hand – action – putting compassion into practice by standing with others in service and against the forces and forms of oppression/domination (social change); 4) a committed will – perseverance – pledging to be a doer of peace and a teacher of peace. It provides a pledge of nonviolence as a key element of the program that can be used in various settings.
The units include the following:
Unit 1: Introducing Gandhi and His Principles
Unit 2: Respect
Unit 3: Anger
Unit 4: Nonviolent Problem-Solving & Nonviolent Resistance
Unit 5: Making Amends & Forgiveness
Unit 6: Our Oneness with the Earth & Challenging Materialism
Unit 7: Courage & Solidarity: Overcoming Our Fears & Standing with Others Who Are Treated Unfairly
Unit 8: Courage: Challenging the -ISMS: Sexism, Racism, Nationalism & War
Help Increase the Peace (HIPP) Program
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.