Success at Building A Culture of Peace at Centennial College!

Peace of the Puzzle

A few months ago we posted a story about the Community Based Peacebuilding workshop series held at Centennial College as part of our Building A Culture of Peace programme. We are pleased to announce the workshop was a great success and we’d like to tell you about it!

The unique and customized 4-module workshop, which took place from April 2012 – June 2012, involved a diverse group of participants from a range of Centennial College departments from the different campuses across Toronto.  Participants included administrators, faculty and support staff; the first time people from these various roles had come together for an educational opportunity.

The workshops introduced participants to the core principles and concepts of peace building, and gave them the opportunity to explore effective and meaningful approaches for dealing with and transforming conflict in their lives and work. Other components of the workshop included expanding participants’ understanding of meaningful and deliberative dialogue, the application of circle training, and the use of creative arts to examine concepts of peace.

The workshops were designed to promote group discussion and participation, allowing each participant to play an important role in making the workshop a dynamic and meaningful experience. Given the different and unique perspectives in the group, the participants were able to learn from one another as well as to provide support and advice to others.

Participants were truly engaged throughout the 4 modules, actively participating in group discussion revolving around broader notions and concepts of peace.  Large and small discussion groups were used throughout, prompting thought-provoking dialogue about how participants could build a culture of peace in their own lives, workplaces and communities.

The final workshop culminated in participants creating their own Peace of the Puzzle.  The project was designed to engage the participants’ individual creativity as part of an eclectic and integrated mosaic.  The result was what you find in the image above: a vibrant tableau drawn together from individual concepts of peace.  To see more photos of the workshop photos, please click here for the 2012 Toronto Centennial Workshop Photo Gallery, or link here to see other InterChange galleries and the work we have done over the years in many different communities.

We would like to thank Centennial College for hosting the Community Based Peacebuilding workshop series and providing a great opportunity for InterChange to work with their community. We’d also like to thank the dynamic group of workshop participants for their role in making the workshops such a success.  We look forward to future opportunities to work with Centennial College!

If you would like to find out more about our workshops or are interested in having the InterChange team create unique workshops designed specifically to meet your community or organizational needs, please contact us at community@interchange4peace.org.