Reports are still coming in from the 2024 Campaign Nonviolence Action Days where 5,239 nonviolent actions took place across the country and around the world between September 21 and October 2. Today’s collection of action reports includes peace circles, peace poles, and nonviolent education. Read more below.

Joe Rice shares that in Cook County, IL, 60 people participated in Peer-Led Peace Circles on Nonviolence at the Cook County Jail on September 25 and 27. He writes, “Female inmates at Cook County Jail who participate in therapeutic programming completed a course on the six principles of nonviolence and then, as peers, facilitated their own peace circles that put these principles into practice. Our treatment team counselors and supervisors attended and participated, along with correctional staff. The ladies worked as an organized, prepared, cohesive group and brought the circle to tears with their inclusion of a very moving social justice video set to the tune of "What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye. Ideally, our clients in this program feel transformed by the course and motivated to lead nonviolent lives. The opportunity to work together, heal past traumatic experiences through dialogue, and build a practical set of skills is fundamental to any restorative notion of ‘corrections,’ as well as any restorative notion of ‘culture.’”

See the presentation slides here.

John Mukhuta Muhiana shares that the Fondation de la Paix Mondiale in Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of the Congo held an event called “Promotion of the culture of Peace and planting of Peace Mast” which was attended by 1600 people of all ages. He writes, “We always work with local and government media, the activity was sponsored by the Provincial Assembly of Lualaba and we will work with civil society. The impact we will continue to promote the culture of Peace and non-violence as our organization works in the framework of Peace and our organization has contributed to the world reports of the culture of Peace and non-violence. For information we work in the field of defense of human rights.”

Read the full report here.

Kate Towle with Twin Cities Nonviolent in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, shares that on October 2, 2024 they held an event titld Peace Literacy Skills for Building Strong Communities: A Gandhi's Birthday Collaboration for 70 people. She writes: “Please enjoy inspirational remarks international peace educator, Paul K. Chappell, offered during the call:

• Instead of thinking about evil people, think about evil systems and how those systems corrupt people's ways of thought and ways of being, and that allows you to access a deeper layer of explanations, a deeper explanatory framework that is much more capable of explaining problems than just seeing the surface issues.

• Effective leaders know that when people don't feel safe, the most immediate need you have to feed is you have to inspire people so that they can overcome their fear.

• The military gives people excellent training in how to wage war. But what if people were as well trained in waging peace as soldiers are in waging war? How different could our world be?

• We have to take peace at least as seriously as people take reading and writing and mathematics and engineering, because peace is even more complicated than all of this.

• If you can look at somebody and realize, this person is afraid, this person is feeling disrespected, this person's feeling humiliated. This person is confused, they're feeling ignored. Not only can you get to the root cause of what's causing the heat of their aggression, but it's easier to have empathy for them if you can see them on that level.

• Developing self-compassion for ourselves is going to make it easier for us to have compassion for others when they're struggling.

We received strong feedback from participants, many of whom said this was their favorite event during the ‘12 Days Free from Violence’ and will integrate these teachings into their educational and counseling practices.

The call was an international call with four collaborators, including Pace e Bene. Because of this, more people in the movement for peace and justice were able to hear Paul K. Chappell's call to becoming ‘literate’ in the skills, actions, and deeper understanding of peace. He talked about the ‘tangles of trauma,’ how violence is escalated when we fail to meet people's nonphysical needs (as well as physical), such as purpose and meaning, expression, belonging, self-worth, and even challenge. Paul introduced participants to his Peace Literacy Institute, where free curriculum is available for use in schools and communities. The other collaborators, The Euphrates Institute, Weave: Peace and Justice out of the Aspen Institute, and Twin Cities Nonviolent will also benefit from Chappell's ‘New Peace Paradigm’ which helps us understand more broadly how to meet our human needs and understand the nature of peace and justice.

We put out this invitation to join the call:

To honor Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, through a partnership with Weave Peace & Justice, the Euphrates Institute, Twin Cities Nonviolent, and Pace e Bene, we are hosting an online presentation by international peace educator and founder of the Peace Literacy Institute, Paul K. Chappell. A West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran, Chappell believes that peace requires the same level of training as warfare, aiming to empower individuals to build a more peaceful and resilient world.

This workshop is designed to teach Peace Literacy as a vital skill set, essential for navigating the complex challenges of the 21st century. It begins with an introduction to the origins of Peace Literacy and then delves into two key presentations. The first presentation challenges Maslow’s hierarchy by introducing a new framework that identifies our nonphysical human needs, explores the impact of unmet needs, and highlights the importance of new skills for thriving in today’s world. The second presentation focuses on understanding aggression—its causes, anatomy, and alternatives—and offers practical Peace Literacy skills for healing and managing aggression. The workshop concludes with a Q&A session and information on upcoming opportunities with the Peace Literacy Institute.”

See more here: https://www.euphrates.org/blog/2024/10/10/peace-literacy-skills-for-building-stronger-communities-call-notes-10224

Bekky Baker with Ignite Peace - CNV Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH, shares that on 9/28/24 they held a Strategic Nonviolence Intensive with 7 people in attendance. She writes, “We held a four hour intensive covering the methods of strategic nonviolence including exploring the definitions of violence and nonviolence as well as bystander intervention and de-escalation techniques. Nonviolence is a practice and a tool. Providing the community with the tools and processes of strategic nonviolence will engender advocates who react and bring about nonviolent change baking some of those values into our activist culture.”