| FROM THE DIRECTOR
In my opinion, there are many contradictions this time of the year:
Winter will start when the days start getting longer. On many nights sunsets come before dinner. Though the days are shorter there is more sunshine without leaves on the trees.
In Eagle Creek Park woods around Peace Learning Center, signs of winter are very apparent - but you can already see plants getting ready for spring to start in a few months.
Have you ever wondered how some spring flowers bloom in late February or early March? They do much of their growing in October and November after the leaves fall from the trees. A crafty strategy, many of the earliest flowers grow their roots and leaves then go dormant after a few freezes. When the snow melts and ground warms back up, they are ready to bloom.
Nature's lessons are true with children and spreads hope at Peace Learning Center. Though we started back in 1997 with just 4th graders, we now have programs in Kindergartens and pre-schools as well as high schools and for people of all ages.
Teaching peace gives our community the chance to nurture and grow children into peace-builders - but it takes everyone learning and using a language of respect. Enjoy this month of peace and family - and keep growing to bloom.
Tim Nation
Cofounder and Executive Director |
| PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
 K-12 Programs
The Youth Services team is stretching across the city this fall, inspiring young people to demonstrate respect and responsibility throughout the city. At IPS Schools #109 and #105, student in Kindergarten through 6th grade met with Peace Learning Center facilitators to learn more about living peaceful lives. From discussions and drawings about friendship to visions of supportive communities, students took the time to really think about what respect means. Older youth explored key communication skills, like using I-messages and apologies, and worked together to build stronger classroom communities. Peace Learning Center facilitators also enjoyed working with the women of Starfish Initiative this November. As part of their annual mentor-mentee retreat, Peace Learning Center led a discussion about the causes of conflict, as well as the skills needed to overcome it. In November, the Youth Services team also worked with students at Arsenal Tech, beginning a three-month commitment to working with specially selected students.
In December, the Youth Services team will launch services at Northwest High School and IPS's Over-Under Program, in partnership with four IPS schools: Arlington, George Washington, John Marshall, and T.C. Howe. This special program will serve young people who are over-age and under-grade; young people who have faced academic challenges but who remain committed to advancing their educations. This is an exciting new venture, funded through a special contract with IPS's Alternative Education office. In addition to Peace Learning Center's core adolescent programs, the Over-Under Program will engage students in small group discussions about respect, responsibility and empathy. At Northwest High School, Peace Learning Center facilitator Teresa Thomas will lead social studies students in a special 10-week program, focused on helping youth make healthy choices. Work with Northwest, as well as with IPS Schools #109 and #105, is made possible through the Community Anti-Gang Initiative.
In December, the Youth Services team will also welcome the Emma Donnan Unit of the Boys and Girls Club to the Peace Learning Center, providing critical skill-building with conflict awareness and communication skills.
Pendleton Juvenile Correction Center
Peace Learning Center started a new partnership with Pendleton Juvenile Correction Center to help incarcerated youth learn skills to deal with problems while focusing on personal responsibility. Facilitators Tahnea Jafari and James "JT" Taylor began last month by hosting workshops for guards, teachers, and support staff to share the Peace Learning Program's main learning objectives while engaging adults in interactive non-didactic activities similar to the youth sessions. The program has two components: 1) A four-day orientation for every new youth who enters the facility - the first time Peace Learning Center will be able to engage all youth at a correctional facility, and 2) A ten-week intensive skills building program for up to 20 youth to learn conflict resolution and critical thinking skills, strengthen their character, and create a plan for their re-entry into community.
Coleman Academy
Indianapolis Public Schools Alternative Education programs partners with Peace Learning Center at Coleman Academy to bring our curriculum to students with behavior and attendance challenges. Started last spring and continuing through this fall semester, three days each week PLC facilitator Naeemah Jackson leads about 45 students through a program aimed at strengthening character values such excellence, scholarship, respect and courage, while learning conflict resolution skills. Students who attend Coleman Academy must complete accelerated classes and demonstrate better behavior to be able to return to their original school.
Corporate & Community Programs 
In November, PLC's Corporate & Community Programs offered its Tuesdays at PLC session on Developing a Deeper Awareness of People with Disabilities, presented by Indianapolis Resource Center for Independent Living. Peace Learning Center associate consultant, Richard W. Smith, facilitated a session with Ark7 Fisheries. The December Tuesdays at PLC session is Bully Prevention in Schools facilitated by Gina Woodward. For more information or to register, please click here
 International Interfaith Initiative
Hope for a Brighter Future in the Middle East
International Interfaith Initiative is collaborating with The Village Experience to host the second annual Middle East Journey leaving Indianapolis on December 27 and returning on January 9th 2010. This year we are excited to be traveling with a dynamic group of individuals that represent the rich religious diversity here in Central Indiana. Our group includes the Catholic Chaplain at Butler University, the Jewish education director at Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, two members of 91st Street Christian Church and a representative from Al Huda Mosque in Fishers. We are also traveling with a civil rights attorney, a Masters student from UIndy and a woman who works to reduce recidivism in our community. This year's Journey will take us to various sites in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank in Palestine. New Year's Eve will be spent at Wadi Rum, a breathtakingly beautiful National Park in the southern desert of Jordan.
Our goal is to continue building relationships based on mutual trust with organizations working for positive change in the Middle East. 
The journey includes a meeting with Iraqi refugees in Amman, an organization that coordinates after school activities for youth in Bethlehem and a group that coordinates Arab-Jewish dialogue in Jerusalem. All too often we hear only negative news from this awe inspiring region of the world when in fact there is much to celebrate and many projects that we can support for a better future for everyone! Interfaith efforts are one of the keys to help facilitate this change.
A fundraising dinner is planned for Wednesday December 9 from 6-9pm at the Riverwalk "Lodge" in Broad Ripple 6729 Westfield Blvd. Fortunately all of our expenses are paid so all of the money we raise will go directly to the organizations in the Middle East doing exemplary work to make a positive difference, increase understanding, and create a better future for everyone.
Please plan to attend this event! The cost is $20 per person or a table of 8 for $160. There will be a sumptuous dinner catered by Al Basha's Middle Eastern restaurant in Fishers. This will be a fun, informal and family friendly event; there is no better time of year to show your support for a brighter future in the Middle East.
The money we raise will:
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Provide Iraqi refugees living in and around Amman, Jordan better access medical and education supplies
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Enable the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Jerusalem to continue dialogue between the Arab and Jewish community
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Help young children in Bethlehem so that they can participate in wholesome after-school programs and summer camps
RSVP to charlie@mcdiii.com or call (317) 283-2730. |
| UPCOMING EVENTS - DECEMBER AND JANUARY
December 8: Tuesday's at PLC - Bully Prevention in Schools with Gina Woodward. 8:30a.m-10:00a.m at Peace Learning Center. For more information, click here
December 9: International Interfaith Initiative fundraiser at Riverwalk in Broadripple - - see above for more information.
December 24-January 3: PLC will be closed for the holidays.
January 16: Celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - - PLC's 12th Annual MLK Community Festival. From 11:00a.m.-3:00p.m. at Christian Theological Seminary, 1000 West 42nd Street (Southwest corner of Butler University). FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - Including a free lunch! Activities include African drumming, art workshops, family yoga, Hip Hop Poetry with Blair Karsch, music, vendors, and community groups.
Do you have a youth group you'd like to bring? Youth groups will receive a Peace Learning Center participation certificate, not to mention a day filled with fun and memorable experiences.
Kingian Nonviolence:
· Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people
· Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding
· Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice not people
· Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform
· Nonviolence chooses to use love instead of hate
· Nonviolence believes that the Universe is on the side of Justice
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| IN THE COMMUNITY & MEDIA
For the second year, Peace Learning Center co-sponsored the Spirit and Place event,  Celebrating Interfaith Spirituality with Families, with Marian University and International Interfaith Initiative. It was held on Sunday afternoon November 8 at Marian University. Participants included the Marian University Chamber Singers, the Catholic Children's Choir, and members of the Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh faith communities. This year was a focus on the family, youth and service. Non-perishable food items were collected and distributed to the locally-based Interfaith Hunger Initiative. This event has a 27-year history beginning at the Carmelite Monastery with its founder Sister Marcia Malone. As K.P. Singh said in his remarks that day "Sister Marcia Malone could not have imagined where her effort to connect us with faith traditions and wisdoms would lead us twenty-seven years ago. Your presence, bringing your personal light, spirit, hope, faith, and prayers is a powerful testimony that her taking a chance to place different spiritual traditions together under one beautiful sanctuary in a spirit of respect and friendship would continue to expand the spiritual and cultural ripple of our shared humanity through her all-embracing vision and prayer. In an angelic spirit, Sister Marcie has gently placed the burden of our individual responsibility and moral accountability on the shoulder of each one of us to carry the torch of our common humanity to others, every day and wherever our journey, encounters, and crossroads intersect." |
PLC SUPPORTERS
The Indianapolis Public Schools Board of School Commissioners recently approved a $100,000 contract with Peace Learning Center to engage students in the over/under program - over typical ages for their grade levels - to build conflict resolution and character skills while increasing their commitment to education. The program is part of a long-term partnership with IPS Alternative Education Programs led by Sondra Towne.
A new partnership with Indiana Department of Correction will mean $48,000 in additional resources for Peace Learning Center to add programming at Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility. Recovery funds thru the US Department of Justice Title II program were awarded as a partnership grant by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. |
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GET INVOLVED WITH PLC 
There are several ways to be a part of Peace Learning Center - - whether making a donation or volunteering. For more information, please click here
TO DONATE PLEASE CLICK HERE
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