EduCare’s Mission:
To inspire and empower young people
to become responsible citizens, compassionate leaders,
and to live their dreams.

Peace-Building and Tolerance Education

HIGHER GROUND

HIGHER GROUND is a pathway to TOLERANCE — UNDERSTANDING — COMPASSION and a process towards peace.

Conflict is part of life that can often escalate into violence. Through this unique program, HIGHER GROUND, conflict can be reduced and transformed into a learning opportunity through effective “win-win” approaches.

HIGHER GROUND is a workshop available to schools, colleges, churches/synagogues, youth organizations, educators, and community leaders in collaborative approaches to violence prevention, tolerance-building, conflict resolution, and peer mediation.

In HIGHER GROUND, participants learn how to move from positions of “againstness” to tolerance; from tolerance to understanding; from understanding to compassion — and through that process, find themselves in a process of peace.

Key topics in the HIGHER GROUND workshops include:

• Honoring our own uniqueness and gifts — and the uniqueness and gifts in each one we meet
• Building our self-trust — and trust and rapport with others
• Effective skills for enhancing communication and empathy
• Creative and teambuilding approaches to resolving disputes and differences in positive rather than destructive ways
• Managing anger, fear, rejection, and peer pressure
• Learning how to resolve the “places of againstness” we are holding inside ourselves against ourselves
• Looking at our “enemies” through the eyes of compassion

In addition to the above, the HIGHER GROUND EDUCATOR WORKSHOPS include:

• Approaches for teaching students the skills of tolerance-building and conflict-resolution
• Methods for assisting youth in expressing their feelings appropriately and managing anger
• Activities for increasing understanding and acceptance of different points of view
• Techniques for integrating conflict resolution into classroom management and disciplinary strategies
• Curriculum materials for teaching global ethics, moral courage and wise-decision-making skills

The Choices That Lead to Peace

The Choices That Lead to Peace program teaches our children the skills of tolerance-building and conflict resolution – how to move from positions of “againstness” to tolerance, understanding, and compassion. In The Choices That Lead to Peace program, students:

• Learn creative and teambuilding approaches to resolving disputes and differences in positive rather than destructive ways;
• Explore what peace is to them and discover that there are always choices that will lead them to that peace;
• Learn skills for enhancing communication and empathy;
• Acquire tools for managing anger, fear, rejection, and peer pressure;
• Personalize and deepen their own special gifts of being a peacemaker;
• Develop the awareness and ability to respect and value differences; and
• Identify next steps to use the power of these tools in their lives.

The Choices That Lead to Peace program design includes:

• A three-hour evening workshop for parents and teachers to prepare them to sustain the peace building activities taught to their children; this workshop is held approximately one week prior to the student’s workshop;
  
• A one and 1/2 day experiential workshop for 60 students; participants are selected by the schools;
  
• Follow up with students and adults to sustain peace building skills; over a 3-month period 10 hours of meetings and coaching sessions are held with key parents, teachers, and student leaders.

Facilitation of The Choices That Lead to Peace is a joint effort between EduCare Foundation and the Institute for Individual and World Peace. The Institute for Individual and World Peace (IIWP), founded in 1988 and located in Santa Monica, California, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the mission of identifying and presenting the processes that lead to peace. IIWP facilitates peace workshops and Internet classes, supports educational programs, and participates with other organizations to promote peace individually and worldwide.

Conflict Resolution Managers Training

The Conflict Resolution Managers (CRM) Training assists educators, youth group leaders, and students in learning ways to assist others in resolving conflict in cooperative, peaceful, and educational ways. These empowering practices for conflict resolution are based on EduCare’s years of work internationally in the field of transformational education.

In this inspiring and practical workshop, participants learn how to honor and teach the whole child. Participants acquire the tools, techniques, and resources to teach an additional 3 R’s — Respect, Resiliency, and Responsibility — and build “safe” and caring learning environments that foster tolerance, creativity, and an increase in student learning and achievement.

The CRM Training consists of 12 interactive hours of course material delivered in four, 3-hour sessions. The training prepares participants to become Conflict Resolution Managers (CRMs) as well as to assist in administering students who have already been trained in the CRM process. At the training, participants actively engage in role-playing and practical application of the CRM principles and strategies.

Key Topics:

• Nature of Conflict
• Duties of a Conflict Resolution Managers (CRM)
• Do’s and Don’ts of a CRM
• Effective Communication Techniques for Conflict Resolution
• The Twelve Step CRM Process

At the training, each participant receives a copy of EduCare’s Conflict Resolution Manager Training Handbook.