Organization name: Peace Education Foundation

Web site: http://www.peace-ed.org 

Where are they working?: They are based in Florida, but they do work and trainings throughout the United States and Canada. In addition, they publish material that is used internationally. They developed curriculum with teachers in Jamaica and the Virgin Islands for conflict resolution. In addition, some trainers have conducted workshops in Central and South America.

What professional development programs related to peace education do they offer?

 The two curricula on their website are for conflict management and peer-mediation. They have material for preschool through high school. They have developed curricula for each grade level with a specific theme.

1. Pre-K: Creating Caring Children

2. Pre-K/K: Peacemaking Skills for Little Kids

3. Kindergarten: Helping, Not Hurting: Teaching the I-Care Rules through Literature: using children’s stories to teach best practices for peace making

4. Grades 1 and 2: Peacemaking Skills for Little Kids

5. Grades 3-5: Scholars: Learning through Literature

6. Grade 4: Creative Conflict Solving for Kids

7. Grades 4-8: Fighting Fair: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for Kids

8. Grades 6-7: Creating Peace, Building Community

9. Grade 8: Conflict Resolution in American History

10. Grades 9-12: Win Win!

Most of the curriculum comes along with videos that provide students with situations to practice their conflict resolution skills with, and often literature that reinforces the skills. While completing the lessons, the students are also developing reading and writing skills.

The focuses of their content are in six areas:

1. Community Building

2. Creating developmentally appropriate rules: ground rules for problem solving at different age levels. There is a focus on I-messages, listening, and assertion

3. Understanding conflict: defining it and different elements of conflict and conflict management styles

4. Perception: understanding different points of views

5. Anger Management

6. Communication Skills

In addition, there are extra areas for focus once the core elements are covered. These include:

1. Affirming self-identity

2. Peer refusal skills

3. Self-empowerment

4. Dealing with bullies

5. Self control

6. Goal setting

7. Acting with courage and conviction

8. Understanding violence

9. Boyfriend/girlfriend relationships

10. Being a peacemaker

There are 5 Strategies for developing these skills:

1. Model: Students see how the skills are used in real-life

2. Teach: The teacher teaches the students the necessary skills

3. Coach: the teacher supports conflict resolution so students can understand how it works in real-life

4. Encourage: Remind students to use skills and support them when they do

5. Delegate and Export: Have more experienced students coach the less-experienced

They also do training in mediation; in the classroom, within the whole school, and adult intervention. They train teachers, administrators, support-staff, and counselors, as well as youth-leaders.

They identify one of the key components of peaceful conflict resolution as being reinforcement at home. Therefore, they have content designed for parents to use in the home, including posters and a resolution guide. They also offer training for parents and community members.

What are their best practices? What can we learn from them?

1. They have a pre and post test to assess the differences made by their program

2. They correlate their lessons with state standards

3. They incorporate peace education and conflict resolution into standard curriculum. They offer the example of the revolutionary war and how it could be solved through conflict resolution.

4. The components of their conflict resolution is taught in conjunction with other subjects, including language arts, social studies, and health

5. They train facilitators in schools who in turn train their colleagues

6. Their curricula is age appropriate. Although they follow similar themes, their skills and content are adapted for different age groups

7. They implement the program over a series of phases. They begin with a committee that assesses the needs and resources of the community. They then get the rest of the community to buy in and contribute what they can to the program. They then slowly begin to introduce the program and ramp up the efforts as it initially begins to take hold. They then monitor and evaluate the outcomes, and look for areas of improvement.

Do they charge for their services? If so, how much?

They are a non-profit, but they do charge for their services. Their standard fee is $2500 dollars and includes materials, as well as all their travel expenses.