I will be traveling to Winnipeg on Thursday November 27th to discuss with anyone interested about a Winnipeg Centre for Teaching Peace and Peace Café. This will be our 4th meeting on this initiative.

With help from Anne-Marie Collette, David Pankratz (Director, Institute for Community Peacebuilding at Menno Simons College of U. Winnipeg) and Jocelyn Greenwood, we have organized 2 gatherings that will deal with PEACE EDUCATION.

Below you will be able to read a summary of the vision.

People will have a chance to meet with us on Thursday November 27th at one of these 2 public meetings:

Mondragon Bookstore and Coffee Shop
91 Albert
2:00 pm -4:00 pm

or

Menno Simons College/across from U of W campus
520 Portage, room 213 (on the second floor)
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

If this resonates with you and you would like to join us in promoting peace in our community, please feel free to join us and pass this to your contacts who might also be interested.

Could you please email Anne-Marie at amcollette@mts.net if you are interested to be at one of the 2 gatherings and please ask your contact people to do the same as we would like to know how many chairs we will need.

We believe that this is an idea whose time has come, and a Winnipeg Peace Café will make a difference.

Regards,

Bob Stewart

BACKGROUND TO A WINNIPEG PEACE CAFÉ

As you may know, I am the Director of Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace (ref. http://www.peace.ca ), a network of peace educators across Canada and around the world, that specializes in peace education resources and services. I am writing to summarize some of our current initiatives which came out of our recent meetings and Conferencing. Our mission is “to bring peace to the world” and our vision is “to significantly reduce the human cost of violence, in our communities and world”. Our inspiration is “community service and the example of servant leadership”. It is a long-term, holistic and systemic approach.

1. Winnipeg Centre for Teaching Peace/Peace Café

One of our primary initiatives is the creation of Community Centres for Teaching Peace/Peace Cafés. We started our first one last December in Hamilton, Ontario and we are about to open our second one in Calgary (where I am located). We are conducting meetings for Peace Centres/Cafés in Nelson B.C., Toronto and Winnipeg. We are also developing a strategy for a Yellowknife Centre involving Northern Aboriginal Peoples and developing the process to address the significant conflicts they face within their own communities, within themselves individually and with Other Peoples. We are currently traveling across Canada to promote this concept of Peace Cafés to other interested communities.

The concept is that it will be an education centre with amenities to make it comfortable, such as the availability of café type offerings. The theme is peace – and by that we mean building peace at the individual, family, community and world levels – it is all connected.. The mission is to raise social intelligence (i.e. the skills, abilities and behaviours to live together more successfully) and personal development (i.e. the skills, abilities and behaviours to personally live more successfully). Our approach is “constructivist” (i.e. a positive, building approach modeling the principles of peace set out by the U.N. Culture of Peace Program; ref. http://www.cultureofpeace.ca ). The goal is to significantly reduce the incidents of violence in the community. We will facilitate community Culture of Peace Assessments. We expect the Peace Café in each community will evolve attuned to special issues in that locale. Our plan is for community centres across the country and around the world. There could be more than one in a community. We think our initiative will be beneficial to each community. Our “products and services” would be books, videos, peace art, peace music and live music periodically, peace arts and crafts, conversation cafés, guest speakers, film nights, internet access, workshops, conferences, consulting, etc. We would initially take a simple approach to the café side of the business depending upon local regulations, and grow into it with experience (eg. maybe relying upon catering from outside to get around food preparation issues). We would like to work with local institutions of higher learning to attract people from across Canada and beyond to the community and area for peace education programs. We will carry literature from existing peace-related organization in the community and area (which means we will also develop an inventory of such organizations and individuals), and provide a focal point for any individuals and organizations that would like to meet and network. It will be governed by a local Board and use local skills (assets). It will also provide jobs for students of peace of all ages, who will act as guides to help people find related resources they require.

We are a not-for-profit organization, and our budget is limited. We recognize that it is a challenge to start up a new “business” such as this from scratch in any community. Depending upon the local economics, after doing our due diligence, we commit in the order of $20,000 to $30,000 annually towards rent and Manager’s wage until the Centre becomes self-sufficient (hopefully within a couple of years). We expect we will have to rely to a fair extent on volunteer efforts in staffing the centre from 7 am to possibly 11 pm, but over time and with creativity we expect to pay a fair wage to all involved and create “net income” which will be reinvested into peace education activities and infrastructure. No one is “personally profiting” from the centres. If you are interested to learn more, our Peace Café web site at http://www.peacecafe.ca – it is specific to the Peace Café/Community Centre for Teaching Peace initiative and will give you more information on our “philosophy” (specific references: http://www.peacecafe.ca/core.php?content=protocols ; http://www.peacecafe.ca/core.php?content=prospectus ; http://www.peacecafe.ca/core.php?content=how-to ).

With that background, I would ask you to consider the following:
a) I would like to invite you to consider some involvement as you may see fits with our local Community Centre for Teaching Peace/Peace Café. As a minimum, I can see carrying your information about existing peace programming. This would give you storefront exposure in one of the most popular areas of the community. In reality, there is no limit to the possibilities. This really is an idea who’s time has come.
b) If you think there is a good possibility of a Peace Café in your community and if you know of a good candidate to Manage the Community Centre for Teaching Peace/Peace Café, please let me know. It is important that the person have the “capacity” and character to do the job. Possibly someone retired with a social conscience, social entrepreneurship, respected and good organizational/leadership abilities, for example. I am sure there is a “right” person in the community for this challenge. We are currently paying the 3 co-managers of the Hamilton Peace Café $1,000 per month and encouraging/supporting them to develop sources of other revenues to grow to the goal of fair pay and sustainable cash flow.
c) The Community Centre for Teaching Peace/Peace Café will be seeking, and perfect for, placement of peace students as interns and service learning opportunities. This as an excellent way for local institutions of higher learning to reach out to the community, and learn through practical peace service. Our Hamilton Peace Café has been successful in getting government grants to help pay interns, and we would hope to duplicate this success.

2. A Conference in 2009, Building To a Major Conference in Winnipeg in 2010, To Address Peace/Violence Issues Involving All Key Stakeholders

We have been promoting the importance of holding a significant Provincial Peace Education Conference to ultimately get peace education integrated into all curricula and advance a Provincial Culture of Peace Program. We wish to involve all key stakeholders in a major conference to address peace and violence issues in our communities, and recognize it will take 2 year’s planning and work to bring all the right elements together to ensure a successful outcome – an holistic Action Plan addressing systemic issues and root causes of violence to build lasting peace in our community. A Conference in October 2009 will be a building block towards the Major Conference in October 2010. The resulting Action Plan is intended to be a model for other communities to consider. The inventory of organizations and individuals (in #1 above) and the Community Culture of Peace Assessment (in #1 above) will aid in the development of the Conference planning. The Conferences will be as inclusive as possible. Key stakeholders will include community leaders, municipal government, provincial government, social and justice agencies, peace officers, peace educators, business, unions, media, education, religion, aboriginal peoples, minorities, etc., etc.

3. Winnipeg Culture of Peace Program and Network

As you may know, I am also the Interim Director of the Canadian Culture of Peace Program (ref. http://www.cultureofpeace.ca ). We hosted our second Symposium October 3 – 5, 2008 at the Hamilton Centre for Teaching Peace/Peace Café (ref. http://www.peace-education.ca/core.php?content=symposium2008 ). We have done a lot of good work on the development of an effective national program, with a community focus – the Community Centres for Teaching Peace/Peace Cafés are a local manifestation of the Culture of Peace Program.

The work in developing the Conferences (#2 above) will help in the gathering and working together of a Winnipeg Culture of Peace Network, including key stakeholders exemplified above. The Network will be as inclusive as possible. The purpose of the Network is to create an organizational structure to activate a Winnipeg Culture of Peace Program, benefiting from and contributing to the cutting edge work done by the Canadian Culture of Peace Program. The organization structure will model the Culture of Peace of which we speak, and as exemplified by Servant Leadership (http://www.peace.ca/servantleadership.htm ).

4. Marketing and Communication Strategy

We have learned that we must reach out to various audiences in the community, and speak in language that they can relate to when it comes to building peace and addressing issues of violence. Having a well enunciated Marketing and Communication Strategy will be essential to enlisting the support of key stakeholders, human resources (paid and volunteers) and financial resources. An initial draft has been developed. Work will be advancing on this project.

I believe the Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace, Canadian Culture of Peace Program, Community Centres for Teaching Peace/Peace Cafés and the many organizations and individuals in Canada with a peace-related mission could have a mutually beneficial relationship, make a huge difference, and bring peace to our communities and world. I put this forth and ask if you would kindly discuss this with others of your institution and community who might see the potential – so that we may better achieve our significant potentials to build peace in our community and world. I would be happy to meet with any interested parties, however I will be traveling November 13 to 30 to attend the 7th Annual Peace Education Conference in Canada at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, which we host. In the meantime, I am available by email or cell phone at 403-461-2469.

Regards,
Bob Stewart, C.A., C.M.C.
http://www.peace.ca
ANNUAL PEACE EDUCATION CONFERENCE IN CANADA http://peace-education.ca

“The world is dangerous not because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything.” – Albert Einstein
WHAT FUTURE WILL YOU CREATE? – the Canadian Peace Initiative (“CPI”), which is based on the principle that peace starts at home, with ‘me’. CPI is a process to provide the venues, support and guidance to ‘Open Space to Open Minds and Hearts to Peace’. It is open, transparent, patient and committed, drawing people from all walks of life, freeing them from their stasis and mobilizing them. Understanding that everyone is a peace leader and peace educator, emphasis is placed on helping people to be more effective leaders and educators, drawing on their own potential and inner strengths, galvanizing, inspiring and energizing the peace movement. Peace education (raising social intelligence and building successful relationships) is our best investment and information our most important resource. As we take ownership of peace others will follow – because it will be uplifting and empowering, it will be infectious, and lead to sudden, massive, cultural change. The CPI process has led to the Canadian Culture of Peace Program. See http://www.cultureofpeace.ca and http://www.peace.ca .

Making an Impact: Your gift to the Canadian Peace Education Foundation will do much to reduce the human cost of violence in our communities and world through education about peace and the future in classrooms. Your gift will have a critical impact on future generations. You will enable youngsters to widen their sights by exploring alternate paths to transforming conflicts and building a better world. Gifts of cash, securities, and planned gifts are welcome and may be sent to the Canadian Peace Education Foundation, Box 70, Okotoks, AB, Canada, T1S 1A4. For more information, visit the website at http://www.peace.ca/foundation.htm