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From Conflict To Community: Transforming Conflicts Without Authorities

  • Pace e Bene online book club with Rivera Sun and Gwen Olton (map)

From Conflict To Community: Transforming Conflicts Without Authorities

4 Week Book Group on Zoom
facilitated by Rivera Sun w/ Author Q&A with Gwen Olton on July 31
Mondays, July 10-31
4-5:30pm PT // 5-6:30pm MT // 6-7:30pm CT // 7-8:30pm ET
$65, scholarships available

You need to purchase the book separately. See below on how to find it.

A perfect book discussion group for the movement to build a culture of active nonviolence! You will find volumes to talk about in this 4-week book group on Gwen Olton’s compelling book From Conflict To Community: Transforming Conflicts Without Authorities. Facilitated by Pace e Bene staff member Rivera Sun, each week will connect a set of chapters to our personal experiences and situations. On the last week, Author Gwen Olton will join us for a Q&A session. 

In divisive and contentious times like these, building our ability to handle conflict is essential. From family disputes to incidents in the streets, we need strengths and skills for sorting out the heated moments that are cropping up everywhere. From Conflict To Community is a book that helps us see our nonviolent capacity to deal with a wide range of challenges. It also directly invites us to do so without reliance on the police or other authorities. (An approach that aligns with many aspects of social justice work and our vision of a nonviolent culture.) 

Bring a friend. Get your book. And get ready for a powerful 4-week discussion group! 

About the Book

Conflict is everywhere: our living rooms, our streets, our community organizations, and every corner of the internet. But few of us have the training to successfully intervene or resolve these conflicts. In these pages, professional peacemaker Gwendolyn Olton shows you how to use your existing skills and intuition to transform a wide variety of conflicts from insurmountable impasses to working relationships where everyone's needs are met. The result is a practical, kind, realistic guidebook for anyone who's found themselves in a conflict (their own or someone else's) and wondered, How did we get here and what can I do to make it better!? 

The book is broken up into three sections: learn the basics of conflicts, help others work out their conflicts, and finally, resolve and heal the conflicts in your own life. Filled with real life examples and thought-provoking scenarios, Olton offers a variety of conflict analysis and conversation tools that you can use to navigate the most challenging interpersonal dynamics, and to better understand yourself and others along the way—all without calling HR or the cops.

Where to get From Conflict to Community: Transforming Conflicts Without Authorities:

About the Author

Gwendolyn Olton brings her unique background in mental health nursing and conflict transformation to her work as the Interim Director of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Rochester, NY. She is a lifelong learner of communication models and group processes that help transform conflicts to leverage for more systemic and liberatory change. She is an Appreciative Inquiry facilitator, member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, restorative process facilitator, transformative mediator, and an Apprentice Provider with the Nonviolent Global Liberation Community. Gwen studied philosophy (as well as geological sciences) at the University of Rochester, nursing at St. John Fisher College, and obtained a master's in peace and conflict resolution from Arcadia University.

Earlier Event: June 28
Campaign Nonviolence Affinity Groups—Virtual Gathering
Later Event: July 16
From Reflection to Action: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test