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National Peace Academy Holds Second Summer Intensive for Community Peacebuilders
an article by Dot Maver
Over 50 participants from 15 US states and 6 countries in Africa
and Asia convened on Champlain College campus in Burlington, Vermont in
July for the National Peace Academy's 2011 Peacebuilding Peacelearning
Intensive. Led by 15 faculty speakers and facilitators, the NPA
Intensive's week long program helped practitioners develop programs for
safe, healthy and sustainable communities free from violence. Vermont's
own Amy L. Seidl, PhD author of
Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World, and
Finding Higher Ground: Adaptation in the Age of Warming and ( Bill McKibben
presented a plenary session at the NPA's Peacebuilding Peacelearning
Intensive. She shared, "PPI has given me a great gift: it showed me
that mitigating and adapting to climate change is, in the large stand
most powerful sense, about bringing peace into our lives." 
The trust train
click on photo to enlarge
National
Peace Academy President and Burlington resident Dot Maver said, "We
want to thank the 29 local businesses who supported PPI 2011, and based
on the overwhelmingly affirmative response from Intensive participants,
we at the National Peace Academy are eager to offer several new courses
through our National Peacebuilding Peacelearning Certificate Program to
support the ongoing development of the skills, capacities, and knowledge
Americans are calling for to create positive change in their
communities."
Recently featured in a Christian Science Monitor
editorial on peacebuilding institutions ,"The nonprofit National Peace
Academy in Shelburne, Vt., is one such institution, building the skills
for the professional peacemaker in every aspect of life, be it at the
personal, social, political, institutional, or ecological level." With
the support and assistance of National Peace Academy edulearner
faculty, each participant worked throughout the week on the design and
development of a strategic peacebuilding project to bring back to his or
her community or organization. National Peace Academy faculty will
follow up with participants to assist as needed with project
implementation and impact evaluation.
Concerned citizens from all
walks of life came to Burlington," said Tony Jenkins, National Peace
Academy Director of Education, "and returned home with concrete ideas
for bringing sustainable change to their organizations and local
communities. I see this commitment as evidence that peace, hope, and
change are not just slogans but real practical possibilities."
Visit nationalpeaceacademy.us for more information on the National Peace Academy and its future programs.
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
Does research show that nonviolence works?
Thematic forum(s) in which this article is being discussed:
NON-VIOLENCE - NON VIOLENCE
LATEST READER COMMENT:
GRANNY D Part IV -- last part
The
limousines of monstrous presumption whisk by us today, but we need not
feel powerless, for the real power of history is always in the people's
hearts and hands. All the power of change is given by fate and history
to the courageous, who fear the loss of liberty and justice more than
that brief glimmer of life that sparkles through the eternity of who we
are. And so we take our parts in the great struggle between dark and
light, fear and love, between the withering decomposition of separation,
and the living joy of combination, cooperation and growth.
Let
our neighbors, who have voted another way or not at all, see what we are
made of and what we are willing to do for love, for life, for justice.
Only a few more of them need step forward to our side for love and life
and justice to win. They will not step forward if we are not full of
courage and grace and beauty and most of all love. We will inspire them
with awe.. . ...more.
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