Kirkridge Peacemaker Training Institute

January 3-10, 2006

The Nonviolent Youth Collective's Peacemaker Training Institute wants you to nominate young people to participate in a week-long training at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, PA.

January 3 -­ January 10, 2006
Application deadline 12/1/05

*Get your nominations in quickly ~ only 22 spots left*

The PTI is a dynamic program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation that introduces young people, ages 17-25, to nonviolence as a transformative lifestyle and powerful tool for social change. Participants will develop a solid foundation in nonviolence and anti-racist analysis.

The training also equips youth with: 

PTIs are facilitated by a core team of young people that includes FOR staff, local organizers, and experienced peace and justice leaders from affiliated organizations.

Professors and teachers - please send your name, title, school/college, e-mail, phone, address and the names of young people whom you’d like to nominate to danae@forusa.org. Also, include a 3-5 sentence summary of why this young person would be ideal for the Peacemaker Training Institute.

Connect FOR with the wonderful young leaders in your lives!

For more information click here or contact Danae Davis at danae@forusa.org or phone 651-647-4465.

In January of 2004 twenty-two young people gathered at the Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania for the annual week-long Kirkridge PTI. The participants came from Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Washington DC, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Texas, and included one Japanese woman, one Namibian woman, and one Palestinian man.

The facilitators were Maritza Valenzuela (MN), Kavitha Rao (NY), Alejandra Tobar (MN), David Rosen (NY), and Cindy Crowner, Director of Kirkridge. The theme of the PTI was “Creative Resistance and Transformation”, and throughout the week art, music, and creative expression were highlighted. Two other aspects that were unique to this PTI were a segment on the prison military industrial complex (based on workshops done during the 2003 Drop Beats Not Bombs Tour and led by Maritza and Dave) and a segment on organizing models (highlighting ACORN and led by Alejandra Tobar).

The week included sessions typical to a Basic PTI (Nonviolence 101 and 102, Racism, Privilege and Power, Globalization and Militarization, Organizing 101 and 102, Living Nonviolence, etc.) as well as three guest speakers, a special session with youth organizers from the local Stop Abuse group, and a special session on Israel and Palestine from a Palestinian participant’s perspective.

Yesod Knowles, an educator and activist from Connecticut who conducts workshops on creative expression and writing with his program “Self-Expressive Artistry”, participated in the first three days of the training and gave the group a presentation on conflict resolution and creative organizing, which included a performance of one of his original spoken word pieces.

Molly McClure, a sexuality educator and activist from Philadelphia, visited Kirkridge in the middle of the week and led a discussion on gender and sexuality and how to be a GLBTQ ally. Her presentation was a favorite of the participants.

Ibrahim Ramey, FOR’s Disarmament program coordinator, also visited Kirkridge for an afternoon. He spoke about the economic system as well as Iraq, US foreign policy, and US imperialism. He also discussed voting and the upcoming elections with the group, and succeeded in convincing even the most cynical that voting in November is important!

Haytham Safi, a current student in Minnesota, led an evening session on the Israel-Palestine conflict, including the history of the conflict, the current status of the wall, and his personal experiences living in Palestine for 18 years. It was a powerful and important session for everyone.

Finally, student activists with the local, high-school based group Stop Abuse visited and gave a presentation on their organizing and the work they do around the issue of sexual violence. After some thought-provoking exercises and a musical awareness video, the women discussed how their group is organized and the variety of things they do in the community.