Many of you have asked us for help in finding resources for teaching the principles of peacebuilding to youth. We're going to start providing links to some resources on this page. If you know of information or programs you'd like us to add, please let us know. Note that inclusion on this page does not necessarily imply endorsement by The Peace Alliance. Please be sure to do your due diligence before you engage in any program with youth.
The Talk It Out Solution
How can you promote safety? Try getting rid of the metal detectors.
By Caralee Adams | November/December 2008
Scholastic Administrator
"What makes for a safe school? Security guards patrolling the hallways?
Metal detectors? Zero-tolerance policies? The answer may be none of the
above: Educators are searching for new solutions to achieving harmony
in the classroom and, surprisingly, they’re increasingly holistic. Read the rest of the article.
Teach Peace
A multitude of great ideas for working with youth of all ages, Teach Peace offers curricula, videos, and even a youth-designed coloring book that helps show the value of a Department of Peace and how anyone, no matter how small, can make a big difference in the world.
The Tariq Khamisa
Foundation, San Diego, CA
TKF is dedicated to "Stopping Kids from Killing Kids" and
breaking the cycle of youth violence by inspiring nonviolent choices and
planting seeds of hope for our children's future. Through TKF's school-based
nonviolence programs and curriculum, TKF works with elementary, middle, and
high school students. TKF teaches them about the realities of gangs, violence,
revenge, and the importance of becoming "peacemakers."
Assessments of TKF's Violence Impact Forum (VIF), measured
by pre-, post- and 45-day post-VIF questionnaires, demonstrate that the VIF
causes significant changes in students' beliefs and attitudes toward
revenge, violence, gangs and guns. For example, middle school students deemed "high
risk" were asked whether or not they agreed the statement "I think
being in a gang makes it more likely that you will get hurt or killed" was
true for them. Prior to the VIF, 8% agreed it was. Forty-five days following
the program, that number had increased to 87%.
Ohio Commission
on Dispute Resolution and Conflict, Columbus, OH
Established by the Ohio legislature in 1989, the Commission provides
dispute resolution and conflict management resources, training, and
direct services to Ohio schools, communities, courts, and state and
local government.
The Commission has ample evidence of the efficacy of the programs
it identifies and makes available. For example, in the 2002-2003 school
year, all schools implementing just one program the Commission
sponsored--the SOAR program--showed marked reduction in time dealing with
discipline, truancy, tardiness, suspensions and expulsions, and increases
in attendance and, not surprisingly, academic performance. At a cost of
a mere $12 per student, the program resulted in system-wide savings of
more than $300,000--in just one school year.
Attitudinal
Healing Connection Oakland, CA
The Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC) works to eliminate violence
and fear by creating spiritual and educational programs that incorporate
art, health and diversity/social justice in order build peaceful
and loving communities. Through their ArtEsteem programs, AHC engages
students and supports their positive development-–body, mind, and heart-–helping
young people stay interested in school by creating individual and collective
educational excellence across academic subjects.
AHC strives in particular to provide art classes in schools that cannot
afford them, helping remedy the effects of socioeconomic conditions
that can block academic and personal achievement. Participants discover
how to self-reflect and dream, as well as focus on tasks and "follow
through." Classes also build students' language and math literacy,
aesthetic appreciation, and listening and performance skills. Students
learn conceptual understandings of social, historical, and cultural
topics to engage and inform their minds, and develop the whole child,
in expansive ways.
Community Conferencing
Center, Baltimore, MD
The Community Conferencing Center works to support communities and
individuals in realizing they can safely and effectively resolve
conflicts themselves. It is the first and only multi-sector program
being conducted in a large American inner city, and works with issues
related to youth and adult conflict and crime. Through the use of
community conferences, the Center brings together the people affected
by behavior that has caused serious harm. It provides a forum in
which those who have caused harm, those who have been harmed, and
their respective supporters can find ways to repair the damage caused
and minimize further harm.
Use of community conferencing has resulted in a 60% reduction
in recidivism in young offenders compared to similar juvenile justice cases
in the traditional juvenile justice system.
Challenge Day, Concord, CA
Challenge Day provides youth and their communities with experiential
workshops and programs that demonstrate the possibility of love and
connection through the celebration of diversity, truth and full expression.
Challenge Day has been featured on the Oprah show and in the documentary,
Teen Files: Surviving High School.
Individual schools using the Challenge Day programs have reported
a variety of powerful results, including:
-
A reduction in disciplinary
incidents ranging from 24% to 67%
-
A 16% reduction in suspensions,
from 701 in 2000 to 587 in 2002
-
A 78% decrease in students reporting
feeling unsafe at school
-
17% of participants reported experiencing
less teasing, bullying and fewer students being picked on
-
50% of participants
reported an increase in sense of connection, openness, friendliness
and knowing people
-
100% of participants felt there was an adult at
school who would listen to them
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