Vision

The Center for Peacemaking Practice is a relational home and supportive community of practitioners, guided by:

1) Reflective Practice, engaging self-evaluation, inviting insights, collectively envisioning emerging realities and facilitating reflective learning at the institutional level as well as the personal one

2) Intellectual Practice, fueled by curiosity, willingness to learn, commitment to questions, open to verification, supportive of competence, and courage to welcome change.

3) Collaborative Practice, creating a community of practitioners sharing mutual attentiveness to subtle shifts, inviting each other to learning and developing possibilities through fruitful engagement in a changing world, and

4) Integrative Practice, acknowledging and engaging holistic peacemaking practices enacted in varied contexts worldwide, while seeking the integration dimension of any generative peacemaking

Our mission is to strengthen peacemaking by focusing on its practice and practitioners. We seek to realize the potential of peacemaking as a transformative force by inviting practitioners to engage their whole selves and authentic presence in reflective practice as ambassadors of peace.

Towards this vision and mission, the Center has established the following Goals:

1) Actively Engaging Practice in the Education Process
Our methods for achieving this goal will include pioneering experiential knowing through writing, presenting, researching, and teaching, as well as engaging in evaluation processes. Emphasis will be placed on maintaining and supporting a learning community centered on practice open to faculty, students, partners, fellows and alumni. CPP will also work towards developing and making sustainable a course of study that fulfills our goals. CPP affiliates will offer credit and non-credit workshop series directly engaging with practitioners in the field.

2) Bringing Practice-Based Experience into Theory Development 
The Center continues the process of recognizing and acknowledging the existing experiences of both active and potential peacemakers worldwide provisionally titled: “From Practice to Theory”. This process hopes to open a space for practical knowledge to influence the theory within our field. We plan to engage with technological tools as methods for sharing stories, such as the creation of a story corps of peacemakers, or a Ted Talks series, as well as more traditional media (TV, radio, newsletter) and academic works such as books, chapters, and journal articles.

3) Foster Connections between individual Practitioners and Learning Communities
Within the field of conflict analysis and resolution, there is a substantial wealth of practical knowledge; however, this knowledge too often exists in isolation. Practitioners are alone and do not communicate well beyond the small circle of their direct experience. Their narrative is often constrained by an overly anecdotic genre and the sustainability of fruitful contacts is challenged by the lack of support. We believe that fostering meaningful connections between practitioners will enrich the creation of a global learning community of practice, which will have a far greater and more influential impact. This will occur through the formation of smaller Learning Communities in which the participants will recognize each other, welcome each other and support each other. The Center will serve the meta-connectivity among the many circles of learning.