Nine “trainers-in-training” participated in the second of three intensive weekend workshops together this past weekend, March 10-12. The training was part of a 10-month process to prepare members to become certified Pace e Bene trainers.

The weekend focused on facilitation skills as the trainers took turns co-facilitating the different parts of the Engage process.

It was a training that included learning and growing as nonviolence educators and facilitators as well as community building among the program members, especially in discussion of how integral anti-oppression work is in relation to nonviolence.

The group also brainstormed and planned a nonviolent action together as part of the Engage process.

This was the second weekend that the participants were together for training led by Veronica Pelicaric and Ken Preston-Pile, the program’s co-coordinators.

The current program includes members from as far as Boston and Philadelphia, working as teachers, trainers, nurses and students; some with long histories of involvement in nonviolence work and action in schools, churches, prisons and anti-racism work.

“What was powerful was how this group deepened its nonviolence journey; not just through practicing facilitation, but actually through engaging in a process of exploring nonviolence as a community,” coordinator Ken Preston-Pile said.

“It became a real workshop because people brought their own personal journeys, especially their experiences in structural violence—anti-racism and anti-oppression work—to deepen their understanding of nonviolence and to truly build community.”

More information about the Engage Training Development Program can be found here.