Week 3 – Social and Emotional Learning + Positive Psychology (Summer 2013)

This week we look at emotional intelligence which, in an educational context, is sometimes referred to as social and emotional learning.  Social and emotional learning really blossomed in the field of education after the release of Daniel Goleman’s book, Emotional Intelligence, in 1995. Theories of social and emotional learning are at the foundation of many other elements of peace pedagogy such as conflict resolution, reflective listening, and cooperative learning.  Hence, connections to social and emotional learning will continue to be referenced in other modules. We will also look at the field of positive psychology in this module. Positive psychology is a field of psychology made most famous by Dr. Martin Selligman.

The learning objectives of this module are that you will be able to:

  • Define emotional intelligence
  • Define social and emotional learning
  • Define positive psychology and identify various elements of it
  • Identify skills to enhance and develop emotional intelligence
  • Connect emotional intelligence to concepts of positive psychology
  • Brainstorm ways to incorporate emotional intelligence in your own learning environment

Key ideas and terms in this module are: emotional intelligence, positive psychology, emotional vocabulary, social and emotional learning, empathy, safe learning environment, comfort zone

The exercises for this week are:

  • Daily peace actions (Gratitude Letters)
  • Talk with your learning partner over the phone by Saturday, July 20th.
  • Contribute to forum 3.1 by Sunday, July 21st @ 12:00pm

Continue reading for the full outline of this week’s assignments… Continue reading →

Week 2 – Foundations of Peace Education (Summer 2013)

This week you will be introduced to a number of individuals whose work has had and continues to have a significant impact on the field of peace education. There are, of course, a lot of people who fit this category – many of which are not included in this module. The eight selected and highlighted for this course have special significance because of not only their written contributions, but the diversity of perspectives and affiliations they bring to this conversation.

The learning objectives of this week are for you to be able to:

  • Identify key scholars and thinkers who have helped shape and define the field of peace education
  • Understand the different ways, approaches, and methods of peace education
  • Trace the history of peace education and the various ways it has evolved since the mid 20th century
  • Reflect on your own experiences, or lack thereof, with peace education

Key ideas and terms in this week are: 7 blossoms of peace education, partnership model, domination model, banking education, liberation praxis, dialogue, five spheres of peace and right relationships, peace through strength, peace through justice, peace through transformation, peace through politics, peace through sustainability, peace through education, conflict resolution training, disarmament education, education for the prevention of war, environmental education, global education, human rights education, multicultural education, nuclear education, world-order studies.

The exercises for this week are:

  • Daily peace actions (Make Someone Smile)
  • Talk with your learning partner over the phone by Saturday, July 13th
  • Contribute to Forum 2.1 by Sunday, July 14th @ 12:00pm

Continue reading for the full outline of this week’s assignments…

Continue reading →

Week 1 – Building Peaceable Learning Communities (Summer 2013)

Welcome everyone! Let’s jump right in. Begin by watching the welcome video below, then make your way through the rest of the blog post, following the instructions and engaging in the various exercises. I recommend dedicating around 4 hours this week to complete the assignments and activities.

“The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.”
-William James

This week we look at different ways educators can incorporate community building practices and methods into their work.

The learning objectives of this module are that you will be able to:

  • Describe and represent who you are and what you bring to our learning community
  • Identify commonalities and differences that strengthen our learning community
  • Brainstorm ways in which icebreakers can be incorporated into your educational practice
  • Define cooperative learning and identify its benefits
  • Think creatively about how to structure learning spaces in ways that foster community
  • Critique and assess the value of rules and rule-making in the classroom
  • Devise questions that can be utilized during check-in processes and with learning buddies

Key ideas and terms for this module are: cooperative learning, icebreakers, community agreements, community building, check-ins

The exercises for this week are:

  • Daily peace actions (Quiet Time)
  • Contribute to Forum 1.1 by Wednesday, July 3rd @ 12:00pm
  • Participate in the all class conference call on Wednesday, July 3rd @ 5:00pm
  • Talk with your learning partner over the phone by Saturday, July 6th
  • Contribute to Forum 1.2 by Sunday, July 7th @ 12:00pm

Continue reading for full outline of this week’s assignments

Continue reading →

Delicious, Nutritious Peace: Building Peace through Food

Image

I don’t know about you, but I love food. Most people relish the opportunity to satiate hunger, to dine with friends, to share a holiday meal with family. A resource I believe can be incredibly effective in building peace is commonplace. In the United States of America, most of us are fortunate to have this resource waiting in our cabinet at home or in the cafeteria at school. Food, in abundance for the majority of this nation’s citizens, can be a driving force in building peace within communities.

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience” – James Beard

Food can be very informative about a region and a culture. In my online research into building peace through discussing food, I happened upon a lesson plan titled “What Do People Around the World Eat?” created by Learning to Give. This 45 minute lesson plan is designed for high school students and can be easily employed in history, nutrition, or economics classes. If I was facilitating this lesson in a history or nutrition class, I would add several components.

This lesson plan first involves an activity in which students stand by a poster with a continent’s name written on it, guessing which one has the healthiest food and eating habits. Next, a slide show “What the World Eats” created by Time will be presented. Pairs will discuss why people from around the world eat such diverse food in different quantities. A volunteer will take notes on the poster about students’ observations. Discussion will then shift to the differences in observations across continents.

If this was my own lesson plan, I’d add my component after the section described above. I would add discussion about the cultures of the students. Split into 5 small groups, students would discuss traditional foods and eating norms in their culture. They can also speak more about their family and their eating style. Do they eat out all the time? Do they share family meals often? Experiences with foods from other cultures can also be brought up. As they discussed, each group would prepare a simple dish from one continent being presented. Students will grow in community with each other and understanding of the culture, as well as get several snacks to enjoy while they enter into the next round of discussion. This would add approximately 45 minutes. The dishes will be chosen based on ease, short cooking time, and appeal. Food preparation is not be feasible in all situations, but a discussion of the students’ cultural experiences with food should be included.

According to the lesson plan, after this portion, discussion will shift again to comparison of attributes of the foods (cost per week per person, nutritional value, quantity per person, variety of food groups). The class will split into groups to discuss these attributes, soon presenting a class with a summary of their observation. If computers are available, a summary with research should be expected.

This lesson plan ends with two excellent questions: “How do these differences show that there is an injustice in food availability?  Whose responsibility is it to take action to address the injustice of food availability?” After a brief discussion of this, I’d expect students to write an essay or reflection about their thoughts on the matter.

This lesson plan reflects many of the pillars of peace education, particularly community building, engaging multiple intelligences, and skill building. Students build community with each other, gain understanding of one another’s cultures, and are introduced to the outside world’s experiences with food. They have the opportunity to discuss, to view a presentation, to walk around the class, to create food—engaging verbal, visual, and kinesthetic learners. Finally, this helps develop skills in analysis, comparison, and cooking.

This lesson plan would be great for high school teachers, particularly those that lead history or nutrition classes. This can be adapted for economics classes, for younger students, or for college-level courses. Informally, I could see this project fitting very well in Saturday community projects, with Girl and Boy Scout troops, in youth groups at churches, and in community enrichment classes.

For more information about building peace through making food, The PeaceMeal Project is a good place to start.

Peace and Freedom through the Art of Theatre

The Freedom Theatre is an organization that advocates freedom and peace through theatre arts. The organization was initially run by Arna Mer  Khamis—a Jewish woman who has been working with the Palestinians regarding the trauma of violence caused by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The organization does a lot of projects with Palestinian kids who are traumatized by the conflict. It located in the Northern part of West Bank. The Freedom Theatre’s projects include the young generation to learn the art of acting, and through it they express their hardship and their everyday experience being Palestinian adolescences. The organization contains of drama workshops, acting school, applied theatre, productions, and performances. The expression of their trauma and feelings through this art form has done positive things to these kids.

 

http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/what-we-do/theatre/

 

 

Theatre art of peace and freedom could be used to heal or educate kids from around the world that are struggling with hardships of any kind. Home problems, violent neighborhoods, segregation, bullying, war are some types of settings where the program could work. Kids age 8 through 20 may be the more ideal learners of this form of peace-building.

 

 

By using emotional intelligences and multiple intelligences, a facilitator could run this program and apply to struggling communities. It requires absolute open-mindedness and support to implement this. Kids who express their feeling want to be heard. They want to be healed. Expression needs to be followed up by support and caring in order for healing to work.

 

Teachers in violent inner city neighborhoods and international peace-builders are the most ideal educators to utilize this form of healing.

 

ImageImageImage

Namaste

From its humble beginnings to now becoming an international fad, Yoga is making an impact on not only the body, mind, and soul, but in Peace Education. In a never ending attempt to revamp and expand peace education programs, Yoga has wiggled its way into bringing peace to individuals and communities that would not otherwise be able to find such outlets.

With a practice that requires high volumes of focus, yoga programs like that of YogaKids allows education in a traditional classroom setting to shift into something more. The goal of programs like YogaKids is to create better creativity, behavior, and energy in children starting at a young age.

According to their program results, students can obtain higher understanding of curriculum, focus in class, less anxiety, and higher creativity among other things.

To find a Yoga Kids teacher in the area, just click the link and input your information: http://yogakids.com/find-a-teacher.htm

Not only can you find a teacher, but you can become one yourself: http://yogakids.com/training/trainings-overview.htm

However, yoga in Peace Education does not stop just with the children. These types of programs encompass every level of circumstance.

Higher education has gotten in on peace through yoga as well. Butler University has created workshops to learn how to become an expert in peace through yoga. The 200 hour certifies students to become instructors. Each student of the program attains an understanding of meditation and mindful techniques.

The goal of such programs and yoga in general is to find inner peace. When this has been attained, then approaches to conflict can be found in healthier and more nonviolent manners, or avoided at all. 

Catharsis Lebanon

The discussions in class surrounding the topics of women and violence and the legal system reminded me of Zeina Daccache (a Lebanese actress, director and drama therapist) and the work she does with inmates in Lebanese prisons through her organization Catharsis: The Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy. Often working with those who have committed the most violent crimes, she works with inmates to deal with the emotions surrounding the crimes they’ve committed (or been accused of, as there are cases of corruption and wrongful imprisonment among those she’s worked with) and allowing them to assume roles that help them to work through the trauma they’ve experienced and to bring attention to the state of the Lebanese prison and justice system. The project is the first of its kind in Lebanon and only came about through Daccache’s tireless efforts to bring drama therapy to Lebanese prison’s that had previously been isolated from the public and the media.

The two most notable examples of her work have been in the Roumieh men’s prison and the Baabda women’s prison. In both, Daccache has implemented the same formula, but for very different audiences. In Roumieh, Daccache worked with twelve men to produce their own version of Reginald Rose’s play 12 Angry Men titled 12 Angry Lebanese. The play becomes a role reversal of sorts, where the men who had been judged all or most of their lives become the judges- debating and prosecuting the same society that played a role in their current circumstances. Many of the men had stated that the project was reinvigorating and had helped to restore a sense of humanity in themselves and others. For them, their identities were no longer just associated with being a prisoner or the crime they committed.

In the women’s prison of Baabda, the drama therapy takes on a very different context but has a similar end result. The women and the plays they perform are a discussion surrounding the gender disparities that still exist in Lebanese societies and the painful and damaging outcomes of these inequalities. Their plays often discuss the painful details of topics such as forced marriages, physical and sexual abuse, rape, and neglect and try to break the through the veil of shame and silence that these topics are often shrouded in. In the CNN interview (posted below), Daccache mentions that for many of these women, it was the first time that they had ever discussed what they experienced and lived through. But the result was the same as that of the men’s prison: many of the women walked away feeling empowered and like they had taken control of their histories and their stories. And a similar theme runs through all of their stories: the ability to tell stories that hadn’t been told before.

(Trigger warning for mentions of abuse and sexual violence)

Setting and Ways to use this resource

The two major stakeholders in a project like this could be either students in a peer mediating programs or even those living in communities affected by long histories of ethnic, racial, religious, etc. tensions and violence. Although Drama Therapy requires a certified drama therapist, aspects of it can be implemented in many schools and classrooms. I found that there had often been a strong emphasis on the idea of role-reversal and assuming new points of view, which is essential to resolving conflicts and disputes. By teaching students to reenact the dispute, but through another person’s point of view, students of all ages will learn to approach conflict creatively and while being open towards the experiences of others.

However, I think drama therapy would be most beneficial to communities and peoples where there is long history of trauma and conflict within and between communities. The dramatic and slightly fictionalized aspect of drama therapy offers a safe space to explore emotions that are often raw and too painful to deal with in the “real-world” setting of everyday life. It may also encourage participants to become active participants in the rebuilding process that occurs after prolonged conflicts, empower them to become more than victims of circumstance and begin to chronicle the origins of the conflict.

An advantage of programs centered on drama therapy is that it often employ multiple intelligences all at once. They require engaging our emotional intelligence and building analytical skills. It allows participants to build a small community with one another and create a safe space to explore sometimes-painful topics and subjects, while at the same time increasing participants’ self-esteem and pushing them to become active participants in their lives and communities. Because of the emphasis placed upon role-reversal, participants are able to reframe history not only for themselves but for their audience as well. Through drama therapy, participants are no longer just the subjects, but simultaneously become the creators, writers, and directors. They’re not just writing the beginning, but the resolution as well.

Sources:

Catharsis- Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy

BBC article on Roumieh

CNN article on Baabda

Seeds of Change: The Natural Classroom

Many of us have heard the metaphor, ‘our education is planting the seeds for the future,’ or something similar or maybe not! Regardless, I believe this needs to be taken more literally. The metaphorical seeds should include literal seeds. Humans and our environment are partners in a mutually eternal relationship; however, the harmony has been disrupted because of industrial neglect amongst other causes. We must teach the balance and sustainable treatment of the planet and mustn’t forget that environmental education is also under the umbrella of peace education. If teachers can keep this in mind, student’s learning will breach the walls of the confining classroom. The world will become their natural classroom, always available for exploration and discovery.

This focus on the natural world was also a critical philosophy of Maria Montessori.

“It is also necessary for his physical development to place the soul of the child in contact with creation, in order that he may lay up for himself treasure from the directly education forces of living nature.”

– Maria Montessori

We should teach to this kind of connection. Outdoor education is often survival or work based, a get your hands dirty kind of approach. The time spent doing these activities outdoors will help rebuild this relationship.

Outdoor education requires children to use all 5 senses and think about the world around them. They will learn to explore, discover, and reflect. Unstructured outdoor education will allow for the student to become independent. Outdoor education gets students physically active and our shown to be more nutrition savvy. Recess is a perfect example and oftentimes very profound interpersonal lessons are taught on the playground, however recess is often taken away earlier on in a child’s education. For the sake of environmental education, the playground should remain natural as opposed to manufactured products.

After a bought of outdoor kinetics, a teacher can switch into classroom mode again without going back into the classroom! Math and English, two subjects that we might think are impossible to be taught outside can be taught outdoors as well. Math can be taught be adding and subtracting pine-cones and sticks and drawing out the equations with chalk for example. English can be taught by prompting students to reflect on their outdoor experience. Also, reading outside and holding lessons outdoors as much as possible is an great way to reap the benefits of the natural world – this was always a exciting option for me as a young learner.

What if it’s raining? In that case the inside of the classroom should have a similar feel.

More plants! Raymond De Young, an environmental psychologist at the University of Michigan, believes in the power of plants to bring peace. “I have one colleague who, whenever she’s going into a very important meeting, places a small potted plant on the center of the table. She says it has a really calming effect on everyone around.” Plants also help with preventing illness. Teachers have the option to incorporate live fauna in the classroom. Maybe have the students water the plants? Start a garden? The symbolism behind the growth of a plant can be related to the growth and progress of the child. It’s no different then having a pet in the classroom.

Open the windows! Let it shine. Not only is sunlight in the classroom healthy but research has shown that those who sit next to windows are happier, more enthusiastic, more calm, and more productive. Those plants you brought in are going to need some UV rays!

Don’t stop there! We love to fill our lives with images of the natural world, from cave paintings, to our computer desktop, to our fairy tales and folk stories. Placing more images of the planets natural wonders inside the classroom will keep students curious and connected with the diversity of the outside world they are in a serious relationship with.

Get moving! Make movement and music a priority within the classroom as well. Music can be easily incorporated into learning and research proves music’s contribution to positive child development. This helps students express themselves emotionally and stimulates creativity and imagination. Music can be included to enhance other subject areas as well. Choreograph a dance? Bring in natural instruments? “This land is your land” is a song with a lot of history and a very peaceful message. These sorts of things you never forget, as a student and a teacher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr5fkRmP_Q0

Here are some other ways to breach the walls of the classroom and pedagogically implement natural elements.

http://www.whitehutchinson.com/news/learnenews/2003_05/article101.shtml

http://education.audubon.org/tips-bringing-nature-classroom

What can teachers do today?

Pick some of the previous suggestions and take action! Teachers have control over the structure of their classroom and what is included. Students depend on the teacher to create for them a rich and diverse learning environment. Music, movement, and nature cannot be overlooked. This is proving to be dangerous and unproductive. I remember an exercise from the ‘Peace Education Exploratorium’ I attended a couple weeks back where the instructor pushed us outside into a cold field and had us walk around thinking about the environment. She was simultaneously playing relaxing music and I can honestly say a connection was established, if only for a brief moment. The naturalist inside of me was satisfied.

What an educator can do for tomorrow?

Environmental Psychology is an emerging field, which seeks to study built and natural environments and how they influence human behavior, and is great for the creative educator’s inquiring mind. We need to design future schools and classrooms in a way that embraces the exuberance and freedom of being a child, while rebuilding the bridge between the environment and us. The classrooms of the future allow for the extension of learning outside the walls of the classroom and for the inclusion of the outside world within the classroom.

Who will benefit?

Children and teachers will benefit from embracing a more natural learning environment. Children learn more from the actions of adults rather than their words. A teacher cannot effectively incorporate any of the previous recommendations without fully believing in and understanding music and movement as healthy expressions of emotions and the outdoors as an infinite classroom. A teacher must be an authentic role model and teachers will conversely share in the learning if they are willing. But, our home, our planet, the extension of our bodies, and the canvas for our lives, will appreciate it the most.

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”

– Mahatma Ghandi

They are one in the same.

Sonic Peacemakers

                                                  Image

In my search to find organizations or programs that promote and teach peace through creative and artistic means, I found Sonic Peacemakers. The organization was founded by Lanny Cordola a guitarist and Todd Shea, a musician and founder of another organization called SHINE Humanity (Sustainable Healthcare Initiatives Now Empowering Humanity). The duo’s mission was to play music all throughout Pakistan in order to cultivate peace through various creative outlets. Since its formation, the organization has collected a diverse group of musicians from all over the world who travel through Pakistan, playing music and spreading peace.

Another important goal of the organization is to highlight and remind the rest of the world of the impressive and beautiful culture of Pakistan. In order to do so, the musicians collaborate with local musicians and children to create new music. They travel through the darkest areas of Pakistan including Taliban-controlled territories in order to reach out the people, especially the children, and remind them that peace and cooperation are possible even when they seem out of reach. By playing music, they not only empower the people but they also educate everyone involved. Many of these children who are forced to grow up in conflict zones rarely ever get to express themselves. Most don’t even have access to the arts. Sonic Peacemakers brings the arts to these children and help them realize their potentials and remind them that they can achieve more than they’ve been led to believe. Both sides are able to benefit through this organization. The children and the adults of Pakistan feel empowered and motivated, while the musicians explore new cultures and are taught of the beauty of the country and its people.

Sonic Peacemakers has set up several projects one of which was accomplished through the generosity of donors and local musicians. The organization created a four cd set entitled “The Sounds of Pakistan and Beyond” which consists of music from fifty-seven Pakistani artists that donated their music. With the funds collected from the sale of those CDs, the organization purchased guitars, keyboards, flutes, and drums and delivered them to the children of a school in Karachi.

When and What setting can this program be used?

Since music is an all encompassing form of art and communication, I feel that the work done by Sonic Peacemakers can be used in all settings. The program has successfully addressed children and adults alike in some of the most hostile areas of the world and it has led to me to believe that the same can be achieved in any other setting. It doesn’t always have to be used in areas of conflict. School children from all over the world can use this program to learn about each other. There is so much potential to not only teach peace, but also to educate people about the world by introducing new styles of music and bringing various artists together to play. For example, children in Pakistan and the United States can share with each other the types of music they each listen to and play to get an understanding of each others’ cultures. Children from all levels of education can benefit from this program. The same applies to adults as well.-

The Sonic Peacemakers program uses several peace education pedagogies. The most important ones come from the seven pillars of peace education. Community building, engaging multiple intelligences, nurturing emotional intelligence, exploring approaches to peace, transforming conflict nonviolently, and skill building are all achieved through the music program. The most important out of these is the engagement of multiple intelligences. Through this program people are able to engage with their verbal/linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and musical intelligences.

How can this program be implemented?

In order for the Sonic Peacemakers program to be successful, I think it would be important for educators to have strong grasps on music and culture. I think the more educated they are in these areas, the more successful they can be in spreading knowledge about peace and cooperation. Well connected educators are also necessary in order to bring together artists from all over the world. Additionally, support from the local communities, charities, and organizations can really make a difference in how successful the program can be. Through their donations, the organization is able to buy the necessary instruments and tools to spread peace through music.

Who is able to benefit from the program?

I believe that there is great potential for this program to reach out the transform various communities across the globe. There are two specific groups I think could stand to benefit. The first, are people in post-war areas that who are starting the process of rebuilding. Music can be extremely uplifting and it can really help these people as they try and mend their communities. It gives hope to people and keeps them going. A second group that I think would benefit are women who have dealt with violence and abuse. Women can achieve a lot through learning to play, listening to, and actually playing music. Many of these women are in situations that seem hopeless and lonely. Playing music for them and teaching them how to play instruments can give them hope. It can show them that they are capable of doing so much more and that they have something to achieve.

Website: http://www.sonicpeacemakers.org

Learning Peace through Inmates

Prisoners of Peace

A program that started in a women’s prison facility in  Chowilla, Ca in 2009, works on instilling peace within the prison system. In its initial implementation, it focused on female inmates who had life without parole sentences, and now encompasses every category of female inmate at Valley State Prison for Women. The goal is to train inmates to promote peace among themselves.

I found this program when simply typing in prison and peace education. There is another model of peace education that can be found with The Prem Rawat Foundation.

http://thepremrawatfoundation.com/en/programs/peace-education-program

But I found Prisoners of Peace to be an important program to give light to because it was started by an inmate, Susan Russo. This means, that even in a place of great violence, peace can be inspired.  Russo has received the help of experts in peace education and mediation, Laurel Kaufer and Douglas Noll. Prisoners of Peace workshops were based on the book Peale Kills by Robert Bolton. While the program was constructed by Laurel and Doug, the trainings were conducted by certified personnel from Ridge Associates: http://ridge.com/

This type of program can be implemented in any classroom setting, but since it focuses greatly on peace circles, emotion intelligence, and third party neutrality mediation this would be best applied in a similar setting to the prison. This could mean: youth correctional facilities, counselors office, with students who are still within the public school system but have been separated from regular classes.

Because this program has resonated so strongly with the women in prison, it would be beneficial to consider the option of using this in men’s facilities. While some may hesitate to consider this, I would disagree. As the workshop program reflects, the first part of training focuses on reflection. This type of break-down allows oneself to truly focus on what is happening with them, before being asked to consider others. This would, as stated above, also benefit those at a younger level. Starting earlier with children who have already experienced conflict can greatly benefit them in the long term.

To get a better understanding of how these women’s lives have been changed by this program, I have provided a short video below. This video was taken and uploaded by one of the lead peace educators, Dough Noll.

Because this program was set up in a prison and there are very little resources, it was mostly funded by grants and pro-bono work of Kaufer and Noll. An effective training program takes up to 84 hours and 192 professional hours, according to the Prisoners of Peace. These training focus on reflection, listening skill development, emotional reading, peace circles, and neutrality. Something I find very interesting in this program is the educators need to focus on “moral re-engagement”. Since so many of these prisoners have committed murder and are then, sentences to life without parole there is a loss of ethics . This is something to focus on when doing trainings with those who moral compasses may have gone off track.

Based upon the results that Prisoners of Peace has seen, these peace circles and mediation trainings have become very effective within the parts of the prison they are practiced. As noted by Warden Walter Miller, “[s]ince the start of the Prison of Peace program the institution appears quieter and with less violence.” The prison has experienced less fights and more resolution between inmates without any staff interference. Inmates have also been able to use their skills in calming conflicts between staff and inmates.

While still on a small scale, the potential for this program within the prison and correctional systems within the United States is endless. Prisoners of Peace is proof that even the most violent of people can understand peace and use it to do good.

To get more information on the program please go to: http://www.prisonofpeace.org/index.html

To get in contact with the Peace mediators Laurel and Doug, please follow this link: http://www.prisonofpeace.org/contact.html