INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY PEACEBUILDING
Cohesive communities are the foundation of society. As such the presence or lack of ‘positive peace’ in a community naturally has an impact on the local level as communities struggle to maintain connection and involvement, as well as impacting the larger society through ongoing polarization and disconnection.
Beginning with the viewpoints and assets of all participants in the room, this learning opportunity will open space for community members to explore together the structural and political causes of conflict at the local level, and the necessity of peacebuilding to address the underlying root causes of conflict within their communities. Through knowledge sharing and interactive activities grounded in participants’ local context, this learning gathering offers an opportunity to strengthen, integrate, and reflect on the ideas, skills, and principles involved in building positive peace and what those ideas mean to participants personally and as peacebuilders in their communities.
DATES
June 6 – 8, 2025
Class size is limited to 20 participants.
FACILITATOR
Digafie Debalke
DURATION
3 Days
COURSE TYPE
On Campus
This three-day, on campus course is open to Canadian applicants only.
Outcomes for community members will include:
▶ Increased understanding through engaging in an exercise that is designed to assist community members in identifying their community’s social, cultural, resource, and creative assets that are crucial for peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
▶ Through the learning and knowledge sharing process, community members will learn skills to develop an inclusive and community-owned definition of peacebuilding.
▶ Community members will identify key aspects and tools of community peacebuilding encompassing the community’s social dynamics, economic setting, and political environment.
▶ Community members will become familiar with some peacebuilding literature focused on community peacebuilding.
Who should take this workshop?
This course is for Canadian residents in a position of leadership in the community, community organizers, non-government organizations, community, students, those engaged in social justice and sustainable peacebuilding initiatives.
Fees
Accepted participants living in Atlantic provinces will receive full funding covering tuition, continental breakfast, lunch, and accommodation at the StFX Hotel. Participants from outside of the Atlantic provinces are required to pay a fee of $400.00. Hotel rooms are available for participants outside of the Antigonish area, and will be available from June 6 until June 8, 2025.
All participants are responsible for arranging and covering the costs of their own travel to and from the course venue, as well as their evening meals (supper).
The reason I would recommend a Coady course to others is because of the simplified method using an adult education approach... we learn from each other as well as ourselves... when we are invited to the table, we all have something to contribute, regardless of how big or how small that contribution may be And by doing so we can learn from our own lived experiences.
- Peter J. G osbee , 2024
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Coady Institute is committed to using asset-based and community-led development to support and collaborate with community leaders, organizations, and allies through adult education, co-learning and knowledge exchange, promotion of transformative leadership, and support for collective visions for change. The Institute is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People, on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
