Dear colleague,
A San Francisco Bay Area tax exempt (501c3) NGO, Association Building Community (ABCglobal.net), received international funding in 2014 to launch a curriculum called Peace Practices (PxPx). Local launch sites have included schools in Oakland, Emeryville, and San Mateo, and we will expand to a national application in 2015-16 and an international application in 2016-17. Please see http://peacepractices.org. Thus far, at both Pacific Rim International School campuses, 97 children have participated of 103 possible and 17 faculty members have participated of 19 possible. We hope to include as many parents as possible as well, but this is our target group.
We hope to tell the story of our work and demonstrate the benefits of framing the practice of peace as a martial art: an ongoing repetition of physical, verbal, and co-creative practices which allow the practitioner to keep the bodies involved in a given situation safe while refraining from violence and domination of others, even in the face of physical, verbal, and systemic violence. The method within the Peace Practices curriculum is called Martial Nonviolence and combines aikido with language patterns aligned with specific techniques. The practitioner learns to apply whole system strategies to group awareness and participatory leadership.
A multi-phase study will accompany the project, beginning with a qualitative sample to generate a narrative that will both grow the program and form the appropriate questions for a quantitative study. ABC needs the help of an independent researcher to work with our staff and client sites to structure the study and guide it to completion. The work will begin as soon as the selection process is complete and we have a Study Director in place. If you would like to be a candidate, or know someone you would like to recommend, please contact our staff via (866) 236-0346 or administration at abcglobal dot net.
With gratitude for any suggestions you might offer,
Brandon Williamscraig Ph.D. 4th dan
CEO, Association Building Community