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| Peace Learning Center Newsletter |
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How do we stop the violence?
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July 2013
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Greetings!
All of us at Peace Learning Center are saddened by the many senseless deaths of young people in our community. We know there are not any easy answers or solutions to stop the violence. Yet, we also know that it is our responsibility to educate young people to ensure they have the skills and support they need to become future peacemakers in our community.
This issue of Peace Learning News will highlight what we are doing to prevent violence and how you can help us do it better.
Peace on,Peace Learning Center
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Volunteer Opportunities
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It's a proven fact that cities with residents who have a commitment to volunteering take better care of their communities. Want to learn more ways you can get involved in the Peace Learning Center and be a part of the movement? Click here to email Jay Horan to learn about our volunteer opportunities.
Vol unteering and civic engagement are the cornerstone of a strong city. Citizens working together and talking to each other, help solve problems and make their communities better and safer places to live and work.
Peace Learning Center has a group of young professionals (POP) dedicated to making a difference in Indianapolis. Each month, on behalf of the PLC, members volunteer at different non-profit organizations in order to connect with the city. Click here to see how POP spent their time this month as they served the
VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH
Peace Learning Center would like to recognize Ashley Schwartzkopf, Tiffany Tibbot, and Lymari Quintana as the volunteers of the month! These wonderful ladies joined us as summer interns/volunteers and have
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Ashley (Upper Left), Tiffany (Lower Left), Lymari (Right)
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been a tremendous addition to our program staff! Clare Wildhack-Nolan and Mame Keita, youth development facilitators, worked closely with them and said, "This summer had been amazing and fun with our new interns. Ashley, Tiffany and Lymari jumped in with enthusiasm. They shared their unique personalities and styles with the PLC staff and all the summer groups. They were always positive, willing to help and we could always depend on them to step up. After just a few weeks, they were able to facilitate groups by themselves for an entire week. We appreciate that they lived the PLC values as well as their willingness to do the grunt work of ordering pizza, putting away chairs and cleaning bathrooms. They showed great commitment to peace and youth. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts."
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Youth Programs
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It is hard to come to terms with the crime happening in our own community. The good news is that crime statistics are only telling us part of the story. We have been working tirelessly to empower kids in our community to have the tools to be peacemakers and to take a stand for peace in their own schools and neighborhoods.
 | Peacemaker campers connect to each other by sharing one word about their experience at the end of camp each day while passing yarn to demonstrate their connection.
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We have served over 700 new students just this summer for full day Peacemaker camp at Peace Learning Center, many from the same notorious neighborhoods that often make the news. Each student has completed a "Pledge for Peace" and has returned to their neighborhood with a new understanding of the power of their own actions. Planting these seeds of peace early is an investment we make in our community to ensure that we give our young people the understanding and skills to foster peace rather than violence.
We also continuously step up to the plate, seeking out youth who need our services the most: in juvenile detention settings, in alternative schools, and in our most underserved settings. In our most recent partnership in IPS's Alternative Schools:
- 89% of the students we worked with now believe there are things that they can do to resolve conflicts and build relationships
- 80% learned new skills to resolve conflicts peacefully
- 85% believe that they can resolve conflict without violence.
This is incredible progress for these students and necessary work that benefits all of us who want a healthy and peaceful community.
We hear our students talk about trauma and violence on a daily basis. Sadly, we are no longer surprised by violence. Yet, what is surprising is when kids are expected to make positive, healthy, and peaceful choices but are never shown how. It takes a village, friends, especially when times are challenging. We must try to not be weighed down by the sadness and violence in our community but to use it as an inspiration to work that much harder to prevent the pain and suffering that victims of violence and their families endure.
To learn how to bring PLC youth programs to your child's school or organization, please contact Kristina Hulvershorn, Director of Youth Programs, at KHulvershorn@peacelearningcenter.org or call her at 317-327-7144.
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Community Programs
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Community conversations about reshaping our neighborhoods and city have always been heartfelt, passionate, and essential. As our community continues to grow and change, these conversations are even more important as we prepare to meet the challenges we are certain to face in the near future. All of us want to see a bright future for our community but lately, it seems, our conversations about how to get there have become less civil, less collaborative, sometimes even hostile. Sometimes, we can't even hear each other through the noise, arguing, and competitive posturing.
At Peace Learning Center, we believe people can learn to work together and solve problems in peaceful, collaborative ways. Our Focus 2020 workshops teach some of the essential problem solving skills required of all collaborative endeavors:
- Appreciate and leverage our differences and similarities
- Listen with dignity and respect
- Consider each others points of view
- Communicate respectfully
Our Focus 2020 workshops are designed to help individuals interested in community improvement and problem solving skills. Click here for a schedule of our upcoming events and to see a full list of upcoming workshops.
To learn how you can create a customized training session for your business or organization, please contact Community Programs Director, John McShane at jmcshane@peacelearningcenter.org or call him at 317-327-7144.
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Tim's Peace Tip
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Tim Nation, Executive Director & Co-Founder
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It is already back to school season which means it's important to explore what makes successful schools for our children. Schools that are successful make community partnerships work so their students can succeed.
However, I've seen very few community partners who can quantify their success in understandable terms.
What if I told you there is a local organization that helped raise students' grades from D's to B's and assisted a school in reducing incidents of fighting and assaults from about 120 a month to less than 40?
Peace Learning Center has these results with schools that are committed to change - who see the benefits of long-term partnership and investment in social emotional learning.
These amazing results were achieved at the Indiana Girls' School and Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility - also known as Indiana Boys' School - as part of research conducted by IUPUI's Center for Urban and Multicultural Education. Correctional schools are the best environment to be able to show success or failure since most variables are controlled.
Peace Learning Center serves preschool students at St. Mary's Child Center all the way to senior citizens in Oasis helping people learn ways to invite more peace into their lives while reducing violence in our community. More than fifty school and community partners host programs and work with the center.
Participants learn the fine art of dialogue instead of debate, how to be a violence-free problem solver, and how to connect with the peacemaker within. We prove every day that once a child has hope for the future, they will take ownership of their education and become a more successful student and citizen.
Two new exciting projects include working with a team of high school students at Crispus Attucks who are trained peer facilitators and share what they learned with 3rd and 4th graders. Peace Learning Center is also leading our community's Focus 2020 effort to help Indianapolis realize our full potential as a global and diverse city through community educational and civic engagement efforts.
How can you get involved? Peace Learning Center is seeking businesses and individuals to become Peace Coach volunteers serving as small group facilitators with elementary students. You are also invited to attend a wide variety of workshops and opportunities offered at peacelearningcenter.org. And, as always, financial support is needed to plant more seeds of peace in our community. Please click here to make a donation to support our work this coming school year.
Let's celebrate 15 years of Peace Learning Center and look for many more years of educating, inspiring and empowering people to live peacefully. There is much more work to do.
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Upcoming Events
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 Upcoming Focus 2020 Workshops:
Join the movement to make Greater Indy a more welcoming and engaged community! All Focus 2020 workshops are offered at no cost to you, but preregistration is required. By attending 16 hours of Focus 2020 workshops and at least one Focus 2020 Chautauqua, you will be eligible to apply for a $500-$5,000 Focus 2020 Community Action Grant to make your vision for a more welcoming, inclusive, and peaceful community a reality.Click here to learn more about Community Action Grants.
Creating Inclusive and Welcoming Communities Saturday, July 27, 10 am - 2 pm at Purdue Extension - State Fairgrounds. The talented facilitator Carmen E. DeRusha will you learn how to embrace diversity to create inclusive and welcoming communities, free from bias and discrimination. Gain a better understanding about the multiple sources of discrimination and oppression which contribute to the exclusion of individuals and/or groups because they are newcomers, or because they are just plain different from the mainstream.
Focus 2020 Orientation Workshop
During this free workshop, you'll learn the tools, techniques, and strategies for understanding each others differences and similarities. Through a fun and engaging session you will connect with others to practice and demonstrate dialogue, conflict resolution, empathy, and collaboration skills.
Creating a Culture of Peace Focus 2020 Workshop
Thursday, August 22, 12:30-4:30 pm at Peace Learning Center
Participants will learn and practice advanced techniques of conflict de-escalation, dialogue, and communication skills and how to use those skills to build a more
peaceful community. Participants will design strategies for applying these skills in
their homes, workplaces, and communities.
Mustached Turtle 5k, 10k, and 15k Run/Walk "Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: You won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you." - Ajahn Chah
Saturday, September 28, 2013
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Support Peace: Make Good Changes Happen!
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Help us plant seeds of peace.
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