Photo by Serdiukigor | Dreamstime

 

Everyone must be committed in the matter of peace, to do everything that they can ....Peace is the language we must speak.

~ Pope Francis

 

Introduction

This section is about peace – a most fundamental asset to community building, to personal growth, and to the very survival of our planet. At the heart of many faiths, practices, and cultures, advancing peaceful co-existence is essential to ensuring productive, meaningful lives and sustainable societies.

After providing a working definition of peace, our main focus will be on practical steps one can take to advance peace, so that we can strengthen ourselves and our communities. We’ll supplement this guidance with examples throughout. These come from initiatives stimulated by the Charter for Compassion, its partner organizations, and many others who offer practical models that individuals, groups, and/or governments can employ for peace-building. We will also consider how we, as individuals, can be enriched by establishing peace within our individual lives, even in the most challenging of circumstances.

Throughout this section we draw from actual events and emphasize personal experiences. Assisting in authoring is September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, whose members have connected with others from over 25 countries – from Rwanda and South Africa to Japanese survivors of atomic bombs; these individuals have lost loved ones, or themselves been injured by mass violence through war, terror, or other incidents, but they have joined together to work toward a more peaceful future.

To get us started on the topic of promoting peace, let us look to what may seem at first to be an unlikely source for leadership and inspiration – the mountains of Afghanistan. There live a group of young people who have been surrounded by war from birth, from Soviet invasions to warlords, Taliban fighting, and more recently the American invasion. As a result, several of them have been severely injured and/or lost family and friends due to conflicts that have nothing to do with their interests.

Yet they have not responded with a violent thirst for revenge, but rather by forming the Afghan Peace Volunteers. This group has held peace marches and vigils in areas across the Middle East and has worked to support other youth and victims of war, while strengthening education and justice within their own communities. They challenge you and me, and the entire world, with their simple question: "Why not friendship?" Perhaps you would like to respond to their heartfelt plea. They welcome everyone to join in their conversations toward mutual understanding, called Global Days of Listening.

Youth and adults across the U.S. and the world have joined in these calls to discuss ways to make our communities safer and to live together in peace. Later in this section, we will discuss how a student group in Groton, MA participated, sharing dreams and strategies. If these young people can embrace peace and see a way forward through mutual support with those who have been enemies, we can all find that path, whether in our home communities or across the globe.

 

The Author’s Personal Story

As a 9/11 family member, this topic of peace is profoundly important to me. My brother, Donald Freeman Greene, having hugged his beloved wife and young children goodbye, headed off on an early flight on September 11, 2001 to visit our siblings on the West Coast. He died on that beautiful morning as a passenger aboard United Flight 93. Young men, deluded into thinking that they were acting in accordance to their religion’s beliefs and/or to benefit their people, had taken over the plane in an act of extreme violence. Their intent to use the airplane as a weapon, most likely aimed at the United States Capitol, was thwarted by passengers who came together to retake control of the cockpit.

In my anguish and personal loss, it was still painful to me to hear the call of the Flight 93 passengers – "Let's Roll" – taken up across the nation and used as a justification to head to war. The nation embraced the idea that a military approach would teach our enemies a lesson and destroy them. Yet we must ask ourselves, what is the lesson? As hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, predominantly women and children, have died due to the ensuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have failed to demonstrate in any way that violence against civilians is ever justified.

We have lost far more young soldiers than the number of people who died in the September 11th attacks. The wars seem to have perpetuated the same misguided belief held by the terrorists – that enemies can simply be eliminated. Prior to the wars, the group that launched the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaeda, was a very small extremist faction with virtually no presence in Iraq. Now ISIS, an extreme offshoot of Al-Qaeda, has emerged and taken over large sections of the country, even as the Taliban has crept back into power in Afghanistan.

Eventually, I learned of other 9/11 family members who shared my perspective and had formed September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, turning our grief into actions for peace. Our goal is for no other families anywhere in the world to suffer needlessly due to violence, whether from terrorism, war, or other causes. Our name comes from the prescient quote by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.: "The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." (Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr, "The Casualties of War in Vietnam,” Speech, Los Angeles, CA, January 1967.)

 

Definition

Several elements are useful in defining peace. On an individual level, peace may start with having calmness within oneself. Expanding outward, peace entails agreement and harmony among people. At its largest scale, peace is to live without violent conflict or war. Peace underlies our quality of life and the fabric of our communities; and, as our weaponry becomes ever more powerful, our very survival as people on this planet depends upon it.

Many spiritual traditions and teachings throughout history have emphasized peace, both as an inner journey and as an outward commitment to live in mutual benefit with our families, our communities, and in the world. Yet in our current global landscape we often see peace described in an inverted way, so that “keeping the peace” has come to refer to soldiers and “peace-keepers,” or to armed militia.

A number of other terms and concepts are necessarily related to the creation of peace, including fairness, justice, inclusiveness, and human rights. These must be embedded into the community in order to foster agreement and harmony. Peace is strongest when derived from social justice, which can be defined as ensuring fundamental rights and equity to all. Strengthening civil society – the rules that bind us and allow us to live productively together, with established means of resolving conflict – is the means to those ends.

 

The Importance of Peace to Community Building

Peace enriches our communities and individual lives, as it directs us to embrace diversity and support one another to the fullest extent possible. Through caring, generosity, and fairness we provide a cornerstone for attaining a sustainable, just, meaningful, vibrant, and fulfilling personal and community life.

To bring home this point, consider the following questions:

• Can our families and communities thrive without mutual support and peace with our neighbors?
• Can peaceful communities exist without attention to justice and equity?
• What would be the prospects of a world without peace?

 

Situations Favoring the Promotion of Peace

Photo by Patricia Marroquin on Dreamstime.com

Detection and Action

Promoting peace requires valuing and considering both oneself and others. As such, peace is central to every situation throughout our lives. Just as a child is enriched as he or she learns to take on more responsibilities, the meaning in our lives grows as we learn to recognize and take more responsibility for one another and the world.

While such a broad application is encouraged, individuals or communities can enhance their impact by strategically focusing their efforts. In community organizing, promoting peace is in many ways similar to other areas of strategic planning. The Charter for Compassion and the Community Tool Box recommend the following four steps that can help to detect and set peace-building priorities, then develop peaceful action opportunities:

 

1. Discover and Assess

Learn more about the issues and assets that affect peace in your community. A quick snapshot of concerns can be identified through statistics on criminal activities, hate crimes, and school incidents. Many of these statistics can be found on the FBI website or on commercial sites such as city-data.com.

More in-depth information may be gained from discussions with residents, local human rights commissions, and/or parent-teacher associations. The cultural and spiritual organizations in your area can also be valuable in engaging diverse residents to share their cultures and to promote your learning about current efforts devoted to harmony and cross-cultural/interfaith understanding. You can reach out and participate in some of their activities.

Participatory Asset Mapping builds on discussions with community residents in order to identify and map locations of issues of concern (such as high crime areas), community assets to protect (such as parks, schools and organizations), and factors that impact community violence (such as vacant lots and abandoned buildings). For helpful guidance, refer to the tools available from organizations such as the Advancement Project.

 

2. Focus and Commit

With this information in hand, choose the most important issues to you and your community, particularly those you can commit to in promoting peace. Here are some among many potential areas of focus that individuals and community peace organizations have chosen, ranging along a continuum from simple to more extensive:

• Arts, music, and cultural programs that promote peace
• Peace and interfaith collaborations, events, vigils, and rallies
• Anti-bullying and other violence prevention initiatives in schools
• Restorative justice programs in schools and community settings that focus on healing rather than punishment
• Partnership strengthening between residents and police
• Formation of local peace commissions
• Establishment of sister-city programs with other communities
• Instituting community by-laws and other policies that foster peace and justice

Several of these will be discussed in more depth, with examples, later in this section.

 

3. Build and Launch

You don’t have to start building from scratch. Join with others already active in your community to pursue your goals for peace-building. Learn if your town has a peace commission or similar organization. Even if not, the Charter for Compassion lists many communities that have committed to the principles of compassion and are mobilized to take action. You can contact the local organizers of such efforts, or follow their guidelines to help start and implement your own.

 

4. Evaluate and Maintain

Evaluating your peace-building efforts can help ensure they are effective and sustained. Setting clear and measurable objectives can pave the way for progress that can easily be transparently monitored.

It is vital to be inclusive and listen to the voices of the entire community as you develop, implement, and evaluate as well as celebrate the success of your actions. Guidance is available on the Creating and Maintaining Partnerships portion of the Community Toolkit.

 

Photo by © Michal Bednarek on Dreamstime.com

Contexts for Promoting Peace

Below are several different contexts and situations for strategically promoting peace: all involve being inclusive, proactively addressing needs, and anticipating situations that may arise.

 

When Defining Community

As we form and define our communities, the groundwork for promoting peace can be laid by ensuring that all in the community are welcome and that none are excluded.

 

When Strengthening Policies and Initiatives

Peace-building calls upon us to ensure that policies and procedures benefit the entire community. A fundamental first step is to establish and follow a clear, fair, and just rule of law. This relies on full participation of diverse residents and stakeholders in its development and maintenance so that everyone’s needs and contributions can be incorporated.

Consider, as an example, the long history of unequal law enforcement in the United States. The mission of the police is to advance justice: Yet too often black youths and other people of color have been profiled by the police, resulting in unfair, and in some instances life-threatening, treatment. We must recognize the persistence of discrimination even as we make progress and take action to root out its many forms.

For instance, Maryland responded to recent serious incidents by issuing new guidelines for police departments throughout the state. These guidelines explicitly condemn the arbitrary profiling of certain races, ethnicities, and other minority groups, and restrict the circumstances under which police officers can consider those characteristics during interactions with the public. The guidelines are accompanied by new training programs for police officers and ways to partner with residents.

As reported by the Baltimore Sun, Attorney General Frosh wrote in a memorandum, “The time has come for these principles to be transformed into uniform practice” across the state – covering not just race and ethnicity, but also national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. “Experience has taught us that improper profiling by police exacts a terrible cost, discouraging cooperation by law-abiding citizens... and eroding community trust.”

Furthermore, the Baltimore Police Department has established a Community Collaboration Division that recognizes the importance of a close partnership with residents and other community sectors. Its mission is "to develop strategies that produce collaborative partnerships between law enforcement, Baltimore city residents, faith-based organizations, businesses, schools, media, other government agencies, and non-profit organizations.”

 

When Others in the Community Fall under Our Care

Paying attention to maintaining individuals’ dignity and quality of life when they are under our care can help ensure the ability of all residents to live more peaceful, tranquil lives. As we consider the following circumstances, remember that we, or those we care about, all might fall within these categories at one point in our lives; and while we are responsible for others they also are responsible for us:

• Children are a joint responsibility of our community. Whether in our families, foster care systems, schools, or society in general, we collectively bear responsibility for ensuring children’s safety and fostering conditions and opportunities that help them flourish.
• A number of other vulnerable populations fall under our care, including those who are frail, ill, or have other special needs.
• It is also a community responsibility to ensure that those who are incarcerated, in mental health facilities, or otherwise institutionalized are treated fairly and humanely.
• Refugees and recent immigrants need us as well, while they in turn contribute to strengthening our communities. Opening one's community and one’s heart is a great act of compassion – one many of our own families may have relied upon at some point in their history.
• All who inhabit our Earth: It is important to recognize that our responsibility for peaceful cohabitation ultimately extends to every human being, across all corners of the earth. We even need to consider how best to co-exist with other living creatures, as they are important contributors to the interdependent ecosystems of which we are a part and on which we depend for survival on this fragile planet.

As documented in books such as Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon, caring for the earth is essential for being able to live in peace with one another. Many of the most serious conflicts that have arisen, from genocide in the Sudan to the recent fighting in Syria, have stemmed from environmental collapse and resource depletion.

Acknowledging our connections and responsibilities to one another and our world does not mean that everyone needs to take on every issue; but awareness of mutual dependency is an important foundation to acting peaceably. Spiritual traditions offer many ways of safeguarding this care, calling for us to be good shepherds of the earth.

For example, First Nation tradition recognizes that we are all guests on the earth and responsible for taking care of nature for those yet to come. The law of the Iroquois, for instance, guides us to make community decisions that will serve those who will be born seven generations into the future.

In sum, there are few if any situations in which being conscious of respect, inclusiveness, and justice will not help to promote peace. The public health community has recently been embracing the concept of “Health in All Policies,” and this is equally true for peace and justice.

 

STEPS IN DEVELOPING AND PROMOTING PEACE

There are many paths to climbing a mountain; similarly, there are many paths through which a commitment to peace can be used to strengthen oneself and one's community. There are approaches one can take as an individual, a family, an organization, or a community, nation, or general society. Some of these are simple, while others require more commitment and resources. Let us consider each approach in more detail.

 

Finding Peace Within

Many maintain the importance of establishing peace within oneself in order to bring about peace in the world. Quelling the tendency to be at war with oneself, and with those closest to us, can be among the most rewarding, if difficult, accomplishments. You could start by acknowledging your worth and your flaws – we all have both. With that acceptance, show compassion toward yourself, and seek out strategies and supports best suited to you and your circumstances.

In the box below is a story from another member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Antonio Aversano. An artist who works with young men involved in the juvenile justice system, Antonio describes his inward journey and choices.

 

A Son’s Personal Lessons from 9/11

At the time of this writing – almost 14 years since September 11th, 2001 – it seems effortless to share these words as they are unencumbered by some of the traumatic feelings and perceptions from the day my Dad, Louis F. Aversano, Jr, was killed in the World Trade Center.

The experience of losing my Dad through such a globally impacting tragedy was one of feeling broken open. All that I knew to be “reality” was shattered. And, from this breaking of all that I knew and all I knew myself to be, I believe I experienced what some call Grace – as the Soul of who I am rose to the surface and since has become an integrated and instrumental part of who I am and how I live my life.

It is from this place of new perception that came the main life lesson that I received from my Dad’s death: I HAVE CHOICE! How would I choose to live my life from that moment on? Just the realization that I had a choice was itself a transformation. To both be washed over by grief, anger, and the temptation of revenge, while also clearly sensing that beyond my pain there was another way forward, felt like I was given a huge Divinely-guided gift. Day by day I came to accept what happened in my life and decided to honor the best of who my Dad was, who I am, and who we all are by living a life guided by Love and dedicated to Peace.

In essence, I learned that if I want to live in a peaceful world, the seeds of Peace must first bloom within me. Living in Peace is a process reflected in each moment by what I choose to believe, how I filter my perceptions, and all the ways I then act, create, and live the gift of my life.

By witnessing and having compassion for the impulses of fear, hatred, and ill will in my own mind and heart, I learned that self-awareness and a commitment to personal transformation is the most profound action that I can take in cultivating Peace in my own life. By doing so, the possibility for Peace comes alive in every moment, in every interaction, and in every way I am called to serve others. The Peace that shines from within becomes a beacon for a peaceful way of being that, through its demonstration in everyday life, has a profound and incalculable ripple effect with the potential to reach its waves around the world.

 

Ensuring Peace within Families

Domestic violence and child abuse are urgent problems that have often been viewed inappropriately as private, rather than as community concerns. Correcting this misperception is an important first step to addressing these too-prevalent crimes that have risen to epidemic proportions in the U.S., and are routine in many other nations as well. A World Health Organization report cites annual costs of child abuse and domestic violence to the United States economy as a staggering 106 billion dollars annually (1.1% of the gross national product).

Nearly one-third of U.S. women have experienced domestic violence, with almost one-quarter reporting severe physical violence such as being strangled, hit with a fist, or stabbed (as reported by NPR and the Washington Post). Bureau of Justice statistics indicate that a majority of homicides of women in the U.S. are committed by a family member or intimate partner, while the World Health Organization reports that internationally this figure is as high as 38 percent.

Author and advocate Gloria Steinem emphasizes that these are crimes of domination rooted in unequal power dynamics. Those perpetrating such crimes in families, she observes, are more likely to eventually commit crimes in community settings linked to dominance as well, such as hate crimes. When these domestic crimes are ignored or inadequately addressed, it places everyone at risk. In her book Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, Andrea Smith traces linkages in the other direction, from the community to the individual and family. She describes the many arenas in which historic and ongoing violence and oppression waged against Native American communities has segued into violence against women.

Security analysts from Texas A&M, in their book, Sex and World Peace (Hudson, et al., 2012), further trace gender violence as predictive of a society’s use of violent means of conflict resolution, finding gender equality an important indicator of the security of a nation. Despite the scale of such violence, there is evidence that it is neither universal nor inevitable. The World Health Organization has established that effective interventions exist to address individual, relationship, community, and societal factors. Recommended community-level interventions include:

• Reducing the availability of alcohol
• Changing institutional settings – e.g., schools, workplaces, hospitals, and long-term care institutions for the elderly – by means of appropriate policies, guidelines, and protocols
• Providing training to better identify and refer people at-risk for interpersonal violence; and Improving emergency care and access to health services.

Gender violence activists often emphasize that these problems are best solved through empowerment and community strengthening. For example, the organization MASUM, based in India, holds that a “primary belief is that people can resolve their own problems collectively with some amount of external support; thus, rather than create dependence on itself, MASUM focused on strengthening people’s perspectives on democracy, equality, secularism, and social justice.”

While providing counseling for women victims of violence, MASUM also engages women and men in changing the community context. This includes public actions that raise awareness across the community, exerting pressure on village leadership to act on behalf of the victim /survivor, instituting programs from early childhood to prevent violence and discrimination against women, and fostering efforts by young men and husbands to advance women’s rights.

 

Living Peaceably with Others

As individuals, we need to recognize the extent to which all of us are interdependent. It behooves us to direct our energy and resources toward supporting, not harming, one another. The person we dismiss or even hate today may be connected in ways we don't realize to our own well-being.

You can make a tremendous difference by welcoming others into your life and community. This starts with gaining an awareness of those you may not have thought about who are new to the community, or simply new to you. They may be at work, at schools you or your children attend, down the street, or in isolated pockets of your community.

Thirteen percent of people living in America were born outside the country (American Community Survey 2013 estimate). Rather than being fearful or resentful, learn about those in your area who are following America’s great tradition of immigration and their contributions to its prosperity. What are their cultures, traditions, assets, and needs? How can you draw upon what they have to offer, ease their transitions, and help welcome them into the fabric of your community?

To learn the answer, you may have to reach out and extend yourself. You might start by going to events where you can learn more and offer assistance.

 

Providing Assistance to New Americans

Need inspiration? Consider this story about Omar Shekhey, a Somali-American cab driver who founded and runs the nonprofit Somali American Community Center, based in Clarkston, Georgia. The Center works to help refugees integrate and adjust to life in the United States through programs and services addressing social adjustment, education, health, and advocacy. Its services help refugees find housing, obtain food, and navigate the immigration process. With after-school programs for youth, the Center also provides assistance with homework, builds math and reading skills, and helps refugee students successfully integrate into the American school system.

Photo by Rodney Jackson on Dreamstime.com - Nelson Mandela Statue in Johannesburg

Seeking Reconciliation

Many of us must confront having been harmed, either directly or through a history of harms done to our family or people. There is a choice to be made: to exact revenge, or to seek justice and reconciliation. By separating the deed from the whole person, we can begin to forge connections and to heal. Empathy can arise when we acknowledge that we might have acted in a negative way under the same circumstances, or by recognizing that people are multidimensional and can change and grow.

Below is a poignant example, of someone who chose to honor his fallen family members by forgiving their murderers. The Forgiveness Project has gathered additional stories of victims and perpetrators who have traveled on the path toward forgiveness and reconciliation in an effort to encourage people to consider alternatives to resentment, retaliation, and revenge. The Community Tool Box section on Forgiveness and Reconciliation explores these journeys in more depth.

 

Father Romain’s Story

Romain Ruringarwa is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. He was away at school, studying to be a priest, when the genocide broke out. He returned to his village to find his parents, all eight of his siblings, and many other family members slaughtered by neighbors whom they had lived with throughout his life. He himself had to hide for several months in the bushes with other youth struggling to survive and avoid the carnage.

In facing his deep loss, his heart would often fill with an intense anger. At night, he would console himself by looking up at the stars hanging so brightly above him in the open air, and thinking of them being members of his family shining above him, a blanket of light and love keeping a safe watch over him. He would get himself to sleep by recounting the many rich stories they would tell him and the other children in the village about the stars.

As Romain thought of his family, all he could remember was people who were full of love, not just for him but for others as well. They made every effort to help their neighbors. When thoughts of revenge came in waves upon him, he felt that such feelings drove away memories of his family. As he weighed the future before him, he made a choice. He would honor his family, not by revenge – acting in kind in the same fashion as those who had committed such horrible deeds – but instead by compassion and working toward peace and reconciliation in the tradition of his family. It was in many ways the harder choice; but it has been deeply fulfilling, as it keeps their memories alive and offers hope for a better future. (Source: Presentation, Trinitarian Congregational Church, Concord, MA, May 9, 2007.)

 

Advancing Peace in Community Building

Under this heading are some practical steps you can take to develop and promote peace in your community or region, and more examples you can draw upon for inspiration. We start with some peace-building actions one can take among neighbors, then consider what one can do to strengthen school programs and workplace initiatives, and lastly suggest ways to support policies that promote peace in your broader community.

 

Working with Neighbors

Peace with neighbors starts with broader understanding. Simple actions can further such understanding. These can include holding interfaith discussions, organizing films or guest speakers to showcase approaches to peacebuilding, and gathering with neighbors to identify local issues and opportunities.

Residents in local peace groups, whether organized independently or through schools or faith-based organizations, magnify individual efforts by identifying local issues in their community and tying these to an understanding of national and global issues of peace and justice. The phrase “Think globally, act locally!” applies here in crafting your efforts. Below are some activities groups have engaged in to advance peace:

Interfaith Events. One of the most rewarding methods for building community peace can be participation in interfaith gatherings and efforts to end religious intolerance. These types of events vary widely, and include small discussion groups; after-school programs where local youth can meet students from different religions; community gatherings to celebrate unity; and calls for greater religious tolerance issued jointly by diverse religious leaders.

For example, in the wake of 9/11, three women neighbors in New York City – one Muslim, one Christian, and one Jewish – launched what they called a “Faith Club” to discuss their respective religions. It changed their lives. They wrote a book about the experience that has led to Faith Clubs arising in many cities. You can start your own faith club.

At a broader level, many communities and states have interfaith councils or similar collaborating organizations. Such efforts are important, as U.S. law enforcement reported over 6,000 hate crimes motivated by bias in 2014. In Birmingham, Alabama for example, a multi-faith, multi-racial organization called Greater Birmingham Ministries was established to pursue peace and justice in their community. It engages “the poor and the non-poor in systemic change efforts to build a strong, supportive, engaged community and pursue a more just society for all people. To do so, it unites people across racial, economic, political, and social identities to build working relationships among faith communities, businesses, civic groups, and social service networks.”

Among the Ministries’ partners is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, with whom it joins to condemn terrorism and anti-Muslim sentiments. CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Peace Gatherings. Whether organizing a local community peace vigil, or larger symposia at universities or major international gatherings, it is important to gather together to advocate and showcase support for peace. In communities strained by conflict, bringing diverse people together to advance peace can offer powerful opportunities for healing and moving forward, as witnessed in events ranging from Healing Conversations to End a Culture of Violence and Intolerance in Harlem, NY to marathons for Peace in Iraq.

 

Working with Schools

Whether as a student, parent, teacher, administrator, policymaker, or community member, there are any number of creative and powerful ways to support schools to effectively advance peace. Many effective models can be drawn upon. These can be embedded in the design of school systems, initiatives targeted to local needs and assets, ethics and peace curricula, and other services. Elements in school system design can start within a school's mission and vision and then range anywhere from graduation requirements (e.g., a minimum number of volunteer hours before graduation) to a disciplinary system based on restorative justice.

As examples, Quaker schools commonly provide a model of supporting students to follow a spiritual and ethical commitment to peace. The mission of the Friends Academy in Locust Valley, NY, emphasizes that “Global citizenship at Friends is rooted in the understanding that ‘the peoples of the world are one people, enriched by individual differences and united by a common bond of humanity.’ ” The stated philosophy behind the Cambridge Friends School includes being a “learning community that chooses...peaceful resolution of conflict over aggression.”

Bullying. Many schools and states have adopted policies and programs to specifically address the problem of bullying, a form of aggression that can entail verbal, physical, and/or cyber (social media) means to harm others. A review of the nature, extent, and prevention of bullying conducted by Dr. Rashmi Shetgiri, of the Dallas Children’s Hospital, offers several insights (Shetgiri, 2013). Of concern is the widespread extent of bullying and that both bullies and victims are at high risk for negative short- and long-term consequences. Dr. Shetgiri calls on clinicians to play a role in identifying bullies and victims, evaluating them for developmental conditions that might be risk factors, and providing resources and referrals as necessary.

Effective bullying interventions embrace the entire school to create a culture of safety and support, engage and train teachers and parents, and are of enduring intensity and duration. Researchers have found that many types of less intensive anti-bullying programs that at first glance seemed promising resulted in only slight decreases in bullying and victimization. They caution that programs focusing solely on individuals and outreach to peers can even backfire (see Jeong & Lee, 2013 and Farrington & Ttofi, 2009).

Guidance and evidence-based approaches to addressing bullying are also available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on its website: Stopbullying.gov. In addition, this website offers Bullying Prevention Training Modules, with tools and resources to organize effective prevention efforts in your community.

Restorative Justice. Public and private schools of all types are also adopting systems of restorative justice. Punishing and excluding students who violate school rules or harm others may be counterproductive, in that these actions can lead to further alienation and lack of opportunities; they may also hinder education, ultimately leading such children to higher rates of future incarceration.

In contrast, restorative justice has been very effective at improving school safety and safeguarding the futures of young people. It keeps students who conduct offenses in school, ensuring their accountability through restitution, and deals with underlying issues while supporting victims. Many schools use talking circles to bring together students, parents, faculty, and administrators to discuss and address incidents, with written commitments to resolve the harm.

In the words of Fania Davis, Director of Restorative Justice Oakland Youth, “This is a justice that is not about getting even, but about getting well. A justice that is not a battle ground but a healing ground. A justice that seeks to transform broken lives, relationships, and communities rather than damage them further."

In the aftermath of the well-publicized shootings in Columbine, the state of Colorado tried instituting a zero-tolerance school policy for youth who committed offenses, with mandatory expulsions. But they found this policy did not work, and only exacerbated problems among students.  Watch this video to learn why some schools have turned instead to restorative justice for more effective solutions.

Youth as Leaders. How educational approaches are designed can be as important as implementation. Engaging students, families, and faculty in choosing, adapting, and/or designing the approach and in selecting materials makes those materials more likely to be locally relevant and culturally appropriate, and facilitates strong buy-in and momentum.

Students themselves do not just present risks; they are valuable leaders and allies in promoting peace. As a first step to engage youth in peace-building, rather than simply holding an event and hoping that youth will join what you have planned, go to them first and see how you can build upon their interests and ideas. You may be surprised by the resources they offer.

 

Bookmakers and Dreamers

The sky is the limit in youth creativity and energy, as demonstrated by youth in the Groton/Dunstable school district in Massachusetts. Forming a Bookmakers and Dreamers Club, these young people, many from families in military service, decided they wanted to learn how to promote peace. They then launched a project to create the world's largest book, with peace as its topic.

Working over many years to accomplish that goal, they were supported by a committed teacher, Betsy Sawyer, who helped them enlist others across the community. Parents, businesses, and area universities contributed expertise and resources. The students gathered advice from hundreds of peace leaders, including Nobel Peace Laureates, to include in their book.

Using new technology to print and turn the pages of such a large volume, the completed book has been showcased at the United Nations and other venues. The Club has also launched community peace events; for one event, they invited 9/11 first responders from New York City, who came and referred many times to the importance of educating young leaders who can contribute to a more peaceful future.

In a related and widely-publicized effort, the Groton students also accepted the invitation of young persons in the Afghan Peace Volunteers to engage in peace discussions held via Skype conference calls. That initiative changed the lives of students, several of whom have now graduated and are pursuing careers advancing peace. It also sparked important dialogue across the community on the importance of peace-building as a response to conflict.

Several additional models and resources for promoting peace are available on the Peaceful Tomorrows and the Charter for Compassion websites. Schools can sign the Charter for Compassion and join others in shared commitment and resource-sharing. In addition, The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, teaming up with The WGBH Educational Foundation, has gathered many resources for teaching ethics. Also, the Teaching Tolerance Project offers free lessons, videos, toolkits, and other resources to promote tolerance and inclusivity in the classroom.

 

Committing Your Organization or Business

Peace-building also involves awareness of the needs and assets of those in your group or organization, along with those in the community where you live or provide services. Devote time to how you may address those needs and build upon existing assets.

As one case in point, important models and guidance for businesses to address domestic violence, many of which can be applied to other forms of violence, are profiled in the workbook Interrupting the Cycle of Violence: Addressing Domestic Violence through the Workplace. Compiled by a team of employers, researchers, public health specialists, and battered women service providers, the workbook outlines strategies including assessing those at risk, providing supports, and working with one’s community, through which “every organization can make a difference.”

To relate this to your own situation, consider the following questions:

• What is your organization’s commitment to social responsibility and community service?
• Does it include a stated policy that focuses on promoting peace, and implementing that commitment, in your own community setting?
• What partnerships do you engage in to support peace and prosperity in your home community?

By exploring these questions, you are likely to find ways to strengthen both your organization and your community impact. Many businesses, large and small, are realizing that a commitment to social responsibility not only contributes to strengthening communities, but also raises employee satisfaction and even increases the bottom line.

 

Some Examples of Business Leadership

There are several ways that businesses have advanced peace in local and even in international contexts. One is to provide job opportunities for local youth during summer months – this is a proven strategy to reduce local crime and provide community advancement. Beyond that:

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company has been a leader in social responsibility, including initiatives specifically focused on advancing peace. These include launching a nonprofit, 1% for Peace, whose focus is a campaign to divert funds from the military to civilian uses. They have also partnered with the organization Peace One Day, to support the development of nonviolence and conflict-resolution curriculum materials used in U.S. schools. They have joined as well with the Peace Alliance and the Student Peace Alliance to support peace-building legislation, such as the Youth Promise Act.

Business leaders have also acted to maintain and strengthen community unity, for instance by refusing to ostracize and discriminate in ways that can divide a community. In Indiana and Arizona, many businesses have joined together to take a stand against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Healthcare Without Harm provides an example of proactive organizational commitments to live peaceably with their neighbors by safeguarding environmental health. This initiative promotes best practices to protect the quality of local air, water, and land, encouraging healthcare facilities to consider their impacts not only on the health of staff and patients, but on host communities as well. This conscientiousness is one way to secure the safety of a community, including safety from the threat of chemical accidents such as the devastating 1984 incident in Bhopal, India, which killed several thousand persons and injured over 500,000 (Varma & Varma, 2005).

 

Community Civic Leadership

A strong community is one that has integrated a commitment to advancing peace throughout its systems, policies, and initiatives. A strong partnership across sectors – including community agencies, local organizations, and businesses – underlies many peace-building efforts. Any such efforts should be shaped and driven by the contributions of community residents, which require early engagement and capacity-building to maximize their participation and leadership. Below are some examples of community initiatives that exemplify peace-building in innovative ways:

 

Community Safety

An important focal area of policy to stem violence is policing and the criminal justice system. The U.S. is presently incarcerating over 1,500,000 people, a larger percentage of national population than any other country in the world. We must begin to realize that imprisonment is not where the solution lies. Being “tough” on crime is not necessarily being effective in reducing it. Many alternative models work to bring communities together to reduce violence.

One effective model program for communities is the Advancement Project. Activists working in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, once infamous for gang violence, have worked with residents and all sectors of the community to drastically improve community safety; they have had tremendous success. A few key elements of their approach include:

• Engaging police with youth and other residents to dismantle the “us” versus “them” viewpoints, and instead working together for the community.
• Bringing in all residents and partners into this effort. A priority has been ensuring the safety of all children. As children walk to and from school, community organizations of all descriptions open their doors, with staff standing outside to ensure safe passage. Even former gang members have joined in as escorts through particularly dangerous neighborhoods.
• Learning from residents about their community – what facilitates violence, and where are dangerous hotspots? In Watts, the City had built a new library and playground to improve a very high crime area, yet residents did not use them. The Project learned from residents that the area still had vacant lots, broken street lamps, and a liquor store with couches outside, all fostering crime. By working with the liquor store, the Project helped clean up the area, making it much safer; as a result, the playground and library are now well used.

 

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice programs, mentioned above in the contexts of school delinquency, can also be applied to criminal justice as an alternative to incarceration. In a community context, restorative justice works proactively to promote safety across the community. It emphasizes aiding and protecting those who have been harmed, and requires restitution by responsible parties, effectively engaging them to become constructive members of society.

To be most successful, restorative justice strengthens civic participation. This can include promoting truthful crime reporting and testimony, participation in jury duty, identification of factors that facilitate or impede crimes, and other forms of public engagement. As proven crime reduction practices are adopted, safety improves.

 

Mass Violence

Domestic incidents of mass violence in community settings are defined as those in which three or more persons are killed. Such incidents occur almost daily in the United States; according to the American Public Health Association, over 350 incidents were reported in 2015 alone. Some factors associated with such incidents include terrorism, mental illness, and gang violence. Each is discussed below.

Terrorism. Terrorism has been a factor in relatively few, if high impact, cases of mass violence. The Department of Homeland Security is engaged in a number of initiatives to advance community safety. Among these are:

• National Network of Fusion Centers, which gather, centralize, analyze, and share threat-related information among federal government, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners.
• Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, which entails coordination with the Department of Justice to report, track, and provide information “in a manner that rigorously protects the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.”

Domestic terrorism has been perpetuated by extremist individuals and groups of different backgrounds. It is vital to distinguish violent extremists from the religions they claim to represent. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was conducted by an individual claiming to be protecting Christian principles. Those responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 claimed to be protecting Islamic societies. Yet the vast majority of Christians and Muslims do not condone violence, and their adherents and leaders are great allies in combatting domestic terrorism.

Hate crimes against Muslims (as well as those mistaken for Muslim, such as Sikhs), have risen dramatically following terrorist incidents. In the year of the September 11 attacks, the FBI reported 481 anti-Muslim hate crimes; similar spikes have continued to occur. Communities can anticipate and help forestall these responses by educating their residents and holding interfaith activities to help prevent hate crimes and heal communities in the wake of incidents that may arise. Political leaders can also help stem violence through their messaging; after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush reminded us that “Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others. Ours is a country based upon tolerance and we welcome people of all faiths in America.” (Remarks to reporters by George W. Bush, Washington, DC, November 13, 2002)

Mental illness. It is often assumed that perpetrators of mass violence suffer from mental health disorders. However, the American Psychological Association (APA) has noted that the vast majority of those suffering from a mental illness are not dangerous; rather it is a history of violence that poses the greatest risk factor for further such acts (see text on domestic violence, above).

Nevertheless, the APA advocates the following, which you can support in your community:

• Greater access to mental health treatment for those at risk for violence due to mental illness, suicidal thoughts, or feelings of desperation.
• Behavioral threat assessment as a standard of care for preventing violence in schools, colleges, in the workplace, and against government and other public officials. In such assessment, teams gather and analyze information to assess whether a person poses a threat of violence or self-harm, and if so, outline steps to intervene.
• Firearms prohibitions for high-risk groups – domestic violence offenders, persons convicted of violent misdemeanors, and those with mental illness who have been judged to be a threat to themselves or others.
• Early childhood programs to help parents raise emotionally healthy children, along with efforts to identify and intervene with troubled individuals who are threatening violence.
• Collaborative problem-solving models that bring together various community service systems, which may too often operate in isolation. One example is mental health crisis intervention training for police and other community service providers.
• Extensive public health campaigns on firearms safety, as expanded upon just below.

 

Firearms safety. 30,000 people die annually from firearms injuries in the United States; these were the second leading cause of death for individuals aged 15 to 34 (Gunderson, 1999 as cited by WHO). The American Public Health Association (APHA) considers gun violence to be an epidemic that can be solved, as with Ebola or other public health threats, given adequate research and resources. While firearms policies are hotly debated, the evidence is clear that gun ownership does not ensure family safety. According to researchers from the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, those living in households with guns are at significantly greater risk of dying from homicide or suicide, even when these households have similar characteristics and live in similar neighborhoods.

The application of a public health approach is at the heart of the initiative Cure Violence, which has reduced shootings 41% to 73% in seven communities studied. Just as in disease outbreaks, hotspot areas are identified. One intervention has been to enlist former gang members, or others with credibility and access, to quell potential outbreaks of violence before they erupt, and to support members in transitioning out of gang activity. Information on these and other well-researched models (also focusing beyond the problem of gang violence, such as removing firearms from domestic violence offenders) is available at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.

Additional firearms safety policies recommended by the APA and APHA include:

• Licensing of handgun purchasers
• Background check requirements for all gun sales
• Close oversight of retail gun sellers to reduce the diversion of guns to criminals

Increased availability of data and funding to reduce gun violence through all available interventions, including those from the legal, public health, public safety, community, and health systems. (At this writing, a Congressional ban limits federally-sponsored research into gun violence, forcing researchers to seek private or academic funding. Finding ways to support research on gun violence impact and on promising solutions is another area where one can actively promote peace.)

Gang violence. Gang violence is a specific problem emerging in rural as well as urban areas. According to the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice (OJJDP), gang violence peaked towards the end of the 1990s but has been rising again in recent years.

The Department recommends that communities conduct a gang-problem assessment as a first step, offering A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem to help answer:

• Who is involved in gang-related activity? – and what is the history of current gangs?
• Where is gang-related activity primarily occurring?
• What crimes are these individuals committing?
• When are these crimes being committed?
• Why is the criminal activity happening (e.g., individual conflicts, gang feuds, gang members acting on their own)?

This type of assessment is important to identify youth gangs and youth who are at greatest risk of joining. Keep in mind that counter to stereotypes, youth engaged in gangs are of diverse race, ethnicity, and gender, with studies cited by OJJDP estimating that almost half of gang members are girls.

Gang violence prevention activities recommended by OJJDP focus on:

• Primary prevention – the effort to prevent youth from joining a gang targeted to all adolescents. OJJDP has shown that “youth join gangs for protection, enjoyment, respect, money, or because a friend is in a gang.”
• Intervention strategies aimed at youth who exhibit risk factors for gang participation. These factors fall under the realm of individual, family, school, peer, and community risks. Youth are at higher risk of joining a gang if they “engage in delinquent behaviors, are aggressive or violent, experience multiple caretaker transitions, have many problems at school, associate with other gang-involved youth, or live in communities where they feel unsafe and where many youths are in trouble.”
• Suppression strategies that clamp down on gang activity through increased policing have also been used. However, the OJJDP notes that these strategies have not been proven to be effective. They instead emphasize that “Intervention strategies that address risk and protective factors at or slightly before the developmental points at which they begin to predict later gang involvement and other problem behaviors, are more likely to be effective.” (Institute of Medicine, 2008 as cited by OJJDP)

The OJJDP also offers a Model Programs Guide as an “online tool that offers a database of evidence-based, scientifically-proven programs

 

---

 

←  Go back                                                  Next page →