Collection for the Center for Nonviolent Solutions

This Sunday, May 2, the Prudential Committee has agreed to allocate $200 from our offering plate to the Center for Nonviolent Solutions, a new organization in Worcester that several of our church members are involved in. Bill Densmore and Paul and Marj Ropp have worked with an interfaith group for the past two years to form the Center for Nonviolent Solutions, an education and resource center devoted to the promotion of peace and nonviolent solutions to conflict at all levels of society.

Why the Need for Nonviolent Solutions?

1) Violence in local communities results in disruption of family life, the paralyzing of schools and education, and fear in neighborhoods. 2) Warfare between nations, civil war and genocide result in millions of deaths, permanent psychological damage to survivors, devastating destruction to infrastructure, and the violation of human rights. And 3) Warfare and preparations for war result in the diversion of resources from serving the needs of the people, and create havoc on national economic systems.

Goals and Accomplishments

In our first year of operation CNVS taught a pilot course on peacemaking and nonviolence for high school students at the University Park Campus School, and we are now working with the Worcester Public Schools to expand this initiative to other schools including South High School and Claremont Academy. We will teach skills in nonviolent communication, anger management, bystander training and peer mediation at the K-12 level. Students will learn of many successful examples of nonviolent social change as pioneered by leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela.

Memberships

In addition to institutional memberships, the Center for Nonviolent Solutions welcomes individual, student, and family memberships. For more information on the Center, visit our website at http://www.nonviolentsolution.org/.