The Engage workshop is the basic, one-day workshop on nonviolence as a way of life and introduces you to Pace e Bene’s Engage Program. It presents the idea that violence is more than just physical force, presents a vision of a “third way” between violence and passivity, and offers tools to put this vision into practice. This workshop explores the process of creating nonviolent options in our lives and in the world through story-telling, role-playing, small group discussion, presentations, and audio-visual resources.

The workshop covers the following four areas:

• Section 1: The experiences and dynamics of violence. In this section, participants explore personal and societal beliefs about violence, including the origins of those beliefs, common responses to violence, and the impact that violence has on our society.
• Section 2: Nonviolence as a way of being and living. This section highlights some of the key dynamics of nonviolent peacemaking and introduces the participant to key principles such as: the desire for the well-being of all, overcoming us vs. them thinking and doing, and claiming power by being neither a victim nor a victimizer.
• Section 3: Tools for practicing nonviolence in daily life. In this section participants learn concrete, practical skills. Through a 4-step nonviolence process participants learn a way to deal successfully with conflict situations that may arise in their lives.
• Section 4: Taking nonviolent action for peace and justice. In this section, participants explore ways they can apply what they are learning about nonviolence to take action for justice in their communities. They are exposed to a theory of social change and invited to see how individual and small actions are essential to larger movements.