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Program Areas
Our Unique Organizing Framework
Peacebuilding luminaries from Gandhi and Mother Teresa to Aung San Su Chi and Martin Luther King, all demonstrated that enduring peace never comes from a single approach such as grassroots change or legislation alone. Instead, a community or society must pursue multiple avenues of change to create enduring peace. Building on these insights, the Summer of Peace has created an integral organizing framework for accelerating the shift to a culture of peace in the Bay Area: Top-Down, Bottom-Up, Inside-Out, Outside-In.
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Top-Down - leverages legislative, judicial and other mandated forms of change;
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Bottom-Up - focuses on grassroots community-oriented involvement in change;
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Inside-Out - cultivates practices for “inner” transformations that contribute to peace;
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Outside-In - leverages media & web technology to turn interest into engagement and enduring networks.
Click here for information on our "Summer of Peace 2012" events!
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Key Program Areas: |
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The Summer of Peace is currently pursuing one principal program in each area of our organizing framework highlighted above:
Top-Down: “Cities of Peace” Initiative
Over the last thirty years, several US cities have successfully undertaken bold civic engagement projects that have mobilized every sector of society in support of a common goal, from rebuilding decaying infrastructures and revitalizing downtown areas, to upgrading failing school systems and restoring fragile ecosystems. Such change efforts generally involve broad-scale citizen involvement through town hall meetings, task forces, roundtables of recognized leaders from every sector of civil society, and the like. However, no region has harnessed such an approach in support of peacebuilding – until now. The Cities of Peace Initiative has begun to galvanize the support of sector conveners – key leaders in business, education, grassroots communities, healthcare, labor, politics, religion and every other sector of civil society. These leaders will form a regional Steering Committee, which will work with citizen task forces to design and implement region-wide initiatives to engage all of society in policies, programs and activities supporting the shift to a culture of peace.
Peace Week will be a smaller version of the Summer of Peace Activities in 2012, demonstrating the power that comes from collaboration among many groups. Peace Week will consist of a broad range of public awareness and engagement activities culminating with the International Day of Peace—September 21. Events are still in development, but will likely include a Peace Film Festival, a Youth Hip Hop Rally for Peace, School Assemblies on Nonviolence, a Transformational Retreat for At-Risk Youth, an Anti-Bullying Training for Parents and Teachers, Workshops on Conflict Transformation, Participatory Community Theater for Conflict Resolution, Community Grief Rituals, Workshops & Trainings on Violence Prevention, a Social Artistry training, a Community Challenge Day, DreamCamp Weekend for At-Risk Youth, Community Altars, Sit-at-thons (Community Meditation Days) and more!
More than just a splash of activities, Peace Week will showcase best-in-class peacebuilding work; generate large-scale community involvement in peace practices and leadership development; and foster volunteer engagement through Web 2.0 tools and in-person opportunities, which will amplify the power of the activities to create enduring change. Additionally, Peace Week will invite municipalities to embrace a “Bold Goal for the Week”, such as dramatically reducing violent crime in certain districts, thus creating an inspiring template for what is possible. Peace Week events will be taped and released via major media outlets—including radio, internet, TV, and social networking sites – inspiring others around the globe.
Inside-Out: Peace Practices
“A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
The success of the Summer of Peace will, to a great degree, be gauged by the long-term establishment of proven peace practices in our culture. Our “Peace Practices” program area centers on this work, with three primary areas of focus:
- Most Vulnerable Populations (“MVPs”) - Addressing those most vulnerable to cycles of conflict and violence, as victims or perpetrators – such as youth, girls and women, seniors, the poor, probationers and parolees without support, groups most at risk for hate crimes and others. The MVPs program establishes strategic partnerships that amplify the impact of groups already doing leading-edge work with these populations – such as our flagship partnership with Urban Peace Movement (formerly the renowned Silence the Violence program of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.)
- Peace teams – Identifying and recruiting skilled healers, therapists and peace practitioners who can be mobilized to Bay Area “hot spots” as pressing needs arise.
- Educational work – Offering classes, retreats, workshops, etc. on peace-related issues. Core team members will lead several programs, and Summer of Peace will provide a clearinghouse for other such offerings.
Outside-In: Web 2.0 Platforms
Since a culture of peace begins with a shift in consciousness in citizens, an essential element of our approach will be to create powerful media and web platforms that encourage people to make shifts in their lives. Much of this will be citizen-generated and will include such things as viral videos, podcast interviews with peace pioneers, online music competitions, Twitter online messaging campaigns that mobilize the public for collective projects, and the creation of web infrastructure to support the formation of neighborhood peace circles. We will also include volunteer resource-matching for at-risk populations, akin to what some groups are doing with micro-finance in the developing world, pairing lenders with new entrepreneurs.
As the San Francisco Bay Area is the epicenter for new Internet technology and media, we will use Peace Week and the Summer of Peace 2010 as a way to prototype new applications of social media for social transformation, which will lead to a platform that can support peacebuilding work around the world through our partnerships with global peace organizations.
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Download our one-page Executive Summary (Printable):
[Adobe Acrobat PDF - 176 KB]
Download our Executive Overview:
[Adobe Acrobat PDF - 238 KB]
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