Pace e Bene’s Projects and Partners
Pace e Bene organizes projects for nonviolent change. It also partners with organizations and social movements to assist in building their capacity to more effectively work for justice and peace through the principles and methods of creative nonviolence.
Projects
The Circle of Peace is a campaign working to end to torture and to human rights. The campaign has created The Declaration for a World Without Torture, an initiative that invites people to publicly go on record with their opposition to torture.
Pace e Bene training co-coordinator Veronica Pelicaric leads Pace e Bene programming with community groups across Argentina, including the city of Rosario.
Pace e Bene leads nonviolence study groups with inmates at San Quentin Prison, Dublin Federal Correctional Institution (Dublin, CA), and San Francisco Jail in Northern California. Participants learn skills in nonviolent communication, community-building, leadership-development, and spiritual grounding. Inmates report that these tools help them cope with their pressure-packed prison environment and increased their own sense of self-esteem and affirmation.
Women’s spirituality is a powerful force for peacemaking. TWT creates opportunities for women to explore the values and practices of this spirituality and how they contribute to personal healing, healthy relationships and inclusive communities.
Consulting Practice and Partnerships
Through trainings and action strategies, Pace e Bene builds the capacity of organizations and social movements working for:
Environmental Sustainability
Capitol Climate Action
Pace e Bene led a “Training on the Train” on the Amtrak from Chicago to Washington, DC to prepare participants for the March 2, 2009 Capitol Climate Action. We were asked by the coalition to lead this training in support of this large national witness for environmental sustainability took place at a coal-fired power plant serving the US Capitol.
Franciscan Action Network
FAN and Pace e Bene coordinate a national training initiative with Franciscan communities across the US. In regional workshops, teams are trained using a Peacemaking Study Program to deepen the vision of peacemaking and to strengthen their ability to advocate for concrete policy changes for environmental sustainability, justice, and peace.
Hip Hop Caucus
Hip Hop Caucus and Pace e Bene are collaborating to create a movement for nonviolent lifestyle and nonviolent action in 20 metropolitan communities across the US. With 690,000 members, this organization works with urban youth to stop police brutality, create green jobs, and register voters. This joint project will include a community-led program of: Transformative Story-Telling; Active Nonviolence Training; and a Take it to the Streets strategy to create nonviolent social change. A pilot project in Oakland will launch this joint project in 2009.
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Past Partnerships:
Nevada Desert Experience
Since 1989, Pace e Bene has led nonviolence training and helped create action strategies to strengthen this movement to end nuclear testing. NDE works to safeguard the planet and its inhabitants.
Just and Lasting Peace
Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
CPWI has brought thousands of people from fourteen Christian denominations to Washington, DC to pray and act for an end to the war in Iraq. From its beginning, Pace e Bene played a leading role in CPWI, and has strengthened it through action strategies and nonviolence training.
Nonviolent Peaceforce
This nonpartisan unarmed peacekeeping force is composed of trained civilians from around the world. In partnership with local groups, NP members apply proven nonviolent strategies to protect human rights, deter violence, and help create space for local peacemakers to carry out their work. Pace e Bene is a member organization and leads trainings for NP.
Past Partnerships:
The Declaration of Peace
Pace e Bene sparked this nationwide grassroots campaign for a concrete plan for peace in Iraq. During its September 2006 Week of Action, thousands of people and 800 endorsing organizations participated in 375 events in cities across the US that helped make the pivotal fall congressional elections a clear vote to end the war.
National Council of Churches East Timor Task Force
From1996-2000 Pace e Bene actively participated in this faith-based movement supporting the movement for East Timorese self-determination. As part of its work, Pace e Bene organized a national strategy retreat for religious leadership and many nonviolent actions at the Indonesian consulate in San Francisco, California. East Timor won its independence in 1999.
Michigan Peace Team
MPT empowers people to engage in active nonviolent peacemaking. It was started in 1993, in response to the growing need for civilian peacemakers both in the U.S. and abroad. MPT seeks a just world grounded in nonviolence and respect for the sacred interconnectedness of all life. MPT has used and adapted Pace e Bene’s training program in its work.
Nevada Desert Experience
Since 1989, Pace e Bene has led nonviolence training and helped create action strategies to strengthen this movement to end nuclear testing. NDE works to safeguard the planet and its inhabitants.
Human Rights
School of the Americas Watch
SOA Watch seeks to close the US Army School of the Americas (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) at Ft. Benning, Georgia through vigils, fasts, demonstrations, nonviolent action and media and legislative strategies. Pace e Bene has led numerous nonviolence trainings for SOA Watch.
Torture on Trial
This campaign organizes nonviolent witness at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona which houses the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School (USAICS), which trains US military personnel in torture techniques. PeB founder Friar Louis Vitale served five months in prison for taking nonviolent action at Ft. Huachuca.
Witness Against Torture
WAT organizes nonviolent action to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, end torture and indefinite detention, and stop extraordinary rendition by the U.S. government. Pace e Bene has endorsed WAT’s 100 Days Campaign, which seeks to end torture as policy and practice.
Ending Poverty and Injustice
The Mosaic Project
The Mosaic Project, located in Oakland, works towards a peaceful future by reaching children in their formative years. It unites young children of diverse backgrounds, provides them with essential skills to thrive in an increasingly diverse society, and empowers them to strive for peace. Pace e Bene partnered with The Mosaic Project to provide nonviolence training for middle school children in Spring 2008.
Hip Hop Caucus
Hip Hop Caucus and Pace e Bene are collaborating to create a movement for nonviolent lifestyle and nonviolent action in 20 metropolitan communities across the US. With 690,000 members, this organization works with urban youth to stop police brutality, create green jobs, and register voters. This joint project will include a community-led program of: Transformative Story-Telling; Active Nonviolence Training; and a Take it to the Streets strategy to create nonviolent social change. A pilot project in Oakland will launch this joint project in 2009.
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Past Partnerships:
Congregations Organizing for Renewal
Based in Hayward, California, Congregations Organizing for Renewal is a member of PICO, a national network of faith-based community organizations working to create innovative solutions to problems facing urban, suburban and rural communities.
On November 4, 2008, COR mobilized thousands of voters to pass a ballot measure in Union City, CA, which will generate four million dollars over eight years for youth violence prevention and intervention. Pace e Bene has led numerous trainings for COR.
Union de Vecinos
Union de Vecinos is a grassroots community organization in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, California. It works for “a clean, safe and habitable community” through civic participation. Pace e Bene led a series of trainings with this organization and has co-led workshops in the United States and Colombia with one of its organizers, Leonardo Vilchis.
Religious Witness with Homeless People
Located in San Francisco, California, this coalition works on behalf of the survival and dignity of homeless men, women and children. For over a decade Pace e Bene has participated in RWWHP nonviolent action on the streets of San Francisco, which helped end specific repressive measures taken by the city against the homeless community.
Healthy Oakland
Healthy Oakland is part of Healthy Communities, Inc., whose mission is “to decrease violence and health disparities in primarily the African American community, but also in other ethnic communities as well. We shall accomplish this by collaborating with other community conscious organizations, churches, businesses, and individuals.” Pace e Bene led a series of trainings with Healthy Oakland organizers and supporters.
Spiritually-Based Change
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
This national organization of Episcopalian peacemakers hosts nonviolence trainings and takes action for justice and peace. EPF adapted and integrated Pace e Bene’s training program into its work. Pace e Bene has led many trainings for EPF, including 2008 trainings in Haiti and with Native American Episcopalians at the Winter Talk Gathering in Minnesota.
Call to Action
Founded in 1976, Call to Action is a Catholic movement working for equality and justice in the Church and society. Since 2006, Pace e Bene has organized and led the Nonviolent Action Track for a Just Church as part of CTA’s yearly national conference.
Holy Names Province, Franciscan Friars
Based in Washington, DC, this Franciscan province has contracted with Pace e Bene to help integrate nonviolence in its 41 ministries along the US Eastern Seaboard. Pace e Bene has led trainings for Franciscan friars throughout the province during this three-year project.
Franciscan Action Network
FAN and Pace e Bene coordinate a national training initiative with Franciscan communities across the US. In regional workshops, teams are trained using a Peacemaking Study Program to deepen the vision of peacemaking and to strengthen their ability to advocate for concrete policy changes for environmental sustainability, justice, and peace.
Past Partnerships:
Fellowship of Reconciliation USA
FOR seeks to replace violence, war, racism, and economic injustice with nonviolence, peace, and justice. It is an interfaith organization committed to active nonviolence as a transforming way of life and as a means of radical change. It educates, trains, builds coalitions, and engages in nonviolent and compassionate actions locally, nationally, and globally. Pace e Bene led a series trainings for FOR. For several years, FOR adapted and used Pace e Bene’s training programming.
Lutheran Peace Fellowship
LPF is a “community of Lutherans across the U.S. and around the globe responding to the gospel call to be peacemakers and justice seekers.” In 1999, Pace e Bene led trainings for LPF leadership. LPF adapted and integrated elements of Pace e Bene nonviolence education process into its training program.