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MAY 2012 

Dear NPA friends, family, supporters and students,

 

Thank you again for helping us celebrate NPA's third birthday!  With the boost of your tremendous generosity, the National Peace Academy took a major stride toward sustainability in March and April.  In just a few short weeks we signed up more than 50 new sustaining supporters, all pledging monthly donations.   While we may still have a long way to go to securing an endowment that will keep us going for perpetuity, knowing that we have incoming monthly funds brings us peace of mind and allows us to shift our energy from fundraising to our peacelearning and educational work that is at the heart of the NPA. 

 

At the NPA, our most important measures of success are the "ripples of peace" we observe emanating from the peacebuilders who attend our peacelearning programs.  Our programs are designed to capacitate students to create meaningful and sustainable change in their personal, family, professional and community lives. Thanks to the generous spirit of our alumni, we are now able to share the stories of our students' applied peacebuilding efforts.  We will be featuring new stories each month of the "ripples of peace" the NPA is supporting on the special alumni stories section of our website.  This month we feature the story of Jeffrey Weisberg, a 2010 PPI alumni who has been a key developer of the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding.    We hope you'll take the time to celebrate the many other stories our alumni have already posted, including efforts to create university peace education programs, community peace centers, and efforts to rebuild Detroit. 

 

While our students are active building peace, our edulearner faculty are also prolifically productive, generating news courses, writing, and engaging the public about issues that concern us all.  To keep you apprised of the new visions of our edulearners we've also launched a new faculty blog.  This site is dedicated to sharing new ideas and practices in peacebuilding as well as crosscutting issues from the perspective of our contributing faculty.  This month we feature an article from Dr. Betty A. Reardon on Slavery and War  - this article is a companion to the upcoming May 12 NPA workshop on Teaching About Sex Trafficking: Gender Crimes, War and Law. Please be sure to check out past posts, including articles from Mary Lee Morrison, Michael Nagler, and Stephanie Van Hook.

 

Our new website proclaims, "peacebuilding vocations, just like careers in science, business or technology, are built upon foundations of knowledge and skills that are pursued through lifelong learning." Learning with and from our peers is essential to our ongoing learning. While you may not be able to join us in the classroom each month, we hope these new educational features of our website will help keep you engaged and motivated in the pursuit of your own peacelearning goals. 

 

Yours in peace,

Tony sig

Tony Jenkins, Vice President for Academic Affairs

HIGHLIGHTS

AlumniAlumni Highlight

Jeffrey Weisberg
Jeffrey participated in the 2010 NPA Peacebuilding Peacelearning Intensive (PPI) where he refined and articulated his vision for the implementation of the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding.   He shares, "when my wife, Heart Phoenix and I had the idea to start a "peace center" we began with the inspiration and life of her son, River Phoenix. River's creative expression was not only as an actor but his provocative thoughts and vision of a world living in peace."  Read More
facultyFaculty Blog Highlight
Dr Betty Reardon 
This article from Dr. Reardon comes in advance of the upcoming National Certificate Program workshop "Teaching About Sex Trafficking: Gender Crimes, War and Law".  In the article she states, "The institution of war and the militarized security system through which it is waged, place women in the category of essential "strategic" commodities, with the value and function of other supplies and ordinance."  Read More
NPA NEWS  

 

NPA Sponsors Successful Event on Prosecuting Sex Traffickers 
On April 24, 2012 the NPA co-sponsored and participated in a special public form in NYC on the topic of "Confronting Modern Slavery: Prosecuting Sex Traffickers."  The sold-out event sought to elicit creative ideas for citizen action toward reducing human trafficking and prosecuting sex traffickers. Read more about the ideas for action generated by the panelists and audience. 

 

Cardozo
NPA President Speaks at 25th Anniversary Celebration
Joyce Lang, one of the conference organizers, shared this update: In celebrating its 25th anniversary, Maryland United for Peace & Justice held its annual conference April 20-21 in Baltimore. NPA President, Dot Maver was a featured speaker telling about various peace happenings throughout the country and the world. Dot introduced the concept of effectiveness of building new structures from the ground up instead of trying to tear down the structures we think aren't working well any more. Members of the audience eagerly accepted this new idea and a shift could be felt.

P4P logoPush4Peace:  A Global Call to Action  
There is a growing momentum around the UN International Day of Peace September 21, 2012 and push4peace.org, a call for global actions for peace, takes its place among many strategic partners including PeaceJam, Shift Network Summer of Peace, United Religions Initiative, Culture of Peace Initiative, Generation Waking Up, The Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace, Dalai Lama Foundation, Rasur International, and so many more. The goal? Inspire one billion people to take action towards creating a culture of peace.  Read More.

 

NPA Presentation & Workshop at Philadelphia Society for Ethical Culture 
NPA President Dot Maver and NPA alumni, Martha Gallahue, presented a workshop to the society using Appreciative Inquiry, followed by a special keynote given by Dot Maver. She inspired the Ethical Society saying, "our faith is in the capacity and responsibility of human beings to act in their personal relations and in the larger community to help create a better world. Our commitment is to the worth and dignity of the individual and to treating each human being so as to bring out the best in her or him."  The President of the society shared that "Dot's talk was extremely inspiring and left a feeling of hope in a landscape that is normally bleak- that of genuine peace efforts."

GCPE_logoGlobal Campaign for Peace Education
The Globa
l Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE) is coordinated by the National Peace Academy. The Campaign helps to facilitate the exchange of ideas, strategies and best practices through a monthly email-based newsletter that features articles and news as to how and where the GCPE network is active and growing.  We encourage you to read the most recent newsletter, with an introduction from NPA board member, Mary Lee Morrison.   
UPCOMING PROGRAMS & EVENTS   
May 12, 2012. Teaching About Sex Trafficking: Gender Crimes, War and Law, Betty Reardon and Tony Jenkins, Adelphi University Manhattan Center (New York City), $50

May 14-June 8, 2012. Global Innovations for Digital Organizing: New Media Tactics for Democratic Change, TechChange, Online Course, $445 ($50 discount to NPA students!)

 
June 22-23, 2012BePeace Foundations Course: Part I BePeace Practice - Creating Peace in Yourself, Paula Guarnaccia, Shelburne, VT, $174 before June 10 ($224 after June 10)
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