The first week is called Peace and Freedom from the Inside Out.
Faculty: James O’Dea (full bio)

James will give an inspiring talk about what it means to be a Peace Ambassador. He wants us to take responsibility for cultivating inner peace while working in a place of integrity. James says that the peacebuilder must develop an impressive skillfulness in offering solutions, avoiding the blame game, and playing a mediation role between perspectives that are locked inside self-limiting definitions.

The Peace Ambassador doesn’t take him too seriously. James says that a world without laughter would be dangerous. The fundamentalists are not having fun.

You will in this session.

• Take careful inventory of your inner moral maps, belief systems and psychological perspectives and examine how they influence your relationship with the outer and vice versa.
• Identify the obstacles that prevent you from releasing your own essential qualities, talents and capacities
• Learn personal peace practices that help you tap into your deepest essence and create a solid foundation for authentic inner peace

The Science of Inner Peace is Week 2.
Guest Faculty: Cassandra Vieten , Director of Research at Institute of Noetic Sciences (full bio)

Scientific research supports the wisdom of ancient spiritual practices.

You will in this session.

• Learn about the emerging scientific research on the human capacity for experiencing deep inner peace and awakening compassion for others
• Gain tangible tools that can be applied on a daily basis to help you access a place of balance and equanimity, even in the midst of challenging situations and conflicts

Making Peace with Oneself is Week 3.
Guest Faculty: Aqeela Sherrills , celebrated peacemaker who brokered truce between the Crips and the Bloods in Los Angeles, now the Executive Director of YES! and advisor to peacebuilding projects worldwide (full bio)

Aqeela will give a glimpse into his own personal transformation, one that required taking responsibility for hidden fears and shames that were influencing his behaviors. His transformation allowed him to address the causes of violence that took the life of his son. Aqeela helped bring peace to warring gangs by going deeper into his peace practice.

You will in this session.

• Gain both inspiration and tangible tools for how to look inward to address your own shadows and to develop a daily personal peace practice

The fourth week ends the transmission of wounds.
Faculty: James O’Dea (full bio)

The problem of passing on intergenerational trauma is so overlooked that James O’Dea introduces the second pillar by calling us to interrupt the transmission of wounds from generation to generation precisely because their persistence is so disruptive to whole-system health and because the problem of passing on intergenerational trauma is

You will in this session.

• Begin to examine your relationship to personal wounding and its various subtle nuances
• Look at how your unconscious behaviours contribute to larger social wounding
• Examine what keeps you from truly living your highest ideas and dreams
• Learn tangible tools that you can use to deepen your own personal healing and help facilitate healing in others

Stories about Mahatma Gandhi are included in Week 5 of Non-Violence: A Path to Peace.
Guest Faculty: Arun Gandhi , the grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi (full bio)

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson wants you to be the change you want to see in the world. In this session, Arun Gandhi will tell intimate stories about how his grandfather taught him to examine his unconscious desires and to see their relationship to passive violence in the world.

You will in this session.

• Be inspired to step up your inner peace practice and tap into new levels of integrity and strength
• Learn the meaning of Mahatma Gandhi’s saying, “I can no more preach nonviolence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. Nonviolence is the summit of bravery.”

The Power of Forgiveness is transforming personal tragedy into life purpose.
Guest Faculty: Azim Khamisa , internationally renowned expert on forgiveness, hailed by the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh (full bio)

The most moving session of the Peace Ambassador Training is this one. Azim Khamisa is a master teacher. He will tell the story of how he lost his only son to gang violence and share his journey into the depths of trauma and despair.

You will in this session.

• Learn how to leverage the power of forgiveness to create transformation
• Discover how you can engage in forgiveness even when it seems impossible

Peaceful communication and energy mastery are the topics of week 7. (Jan 8)
Faculty: James O’Dea (full bio)

Effective communication as a Peace Ambassador involves energy mastery. Dialogue and listening are part of the other components. James says, If we were to learn that listening to each other was the key to opening each other’s hearts, we would listen until there was peace on earth.

You will in this session.

• Understand how the ability to listen deeply and consciously has transformed difficult conflict situations into peaceful resolutions
• Discover how to bring the power of conscious listening to your own conflicts
• Learn how you can process and transform energy for peaceful encounters
• Gain effective strategies for dealing with physical bullies, emotional bullies and intellectual bullies
• Understand your unique approach to processing energy – determine whether you are an energy bouncer, an energy sponge, an energy zapper or a peaceful energy transformer

The Common Ground Approach is in week 8.
Guest Faculty: Susan Collin Marks , senior vice-president of Search for Common Ground, one of the largest conflict transformation organizations in the world; served as a peacebuilder in S. Africa’s transition from apartheid (full bio)

One of the leading conflict transformation organizations in the world is Search for Common Ground. The embodiment of the Common Ground Approach is Susan Collin Marks.

You will in this session.

• Gain personal insights into how to help facilitate dialogues between perceived enemies
• Understand how to bridge inner work with effective outer communication tools.to apply to your daily life and with loved ones, as well as people in your community

One of the most respected authors and practitioners of effective negotiations is Dr. Ury.

You will in this session.

• Gain detailed insights into the science of communicating effectively in contentious situations, helping you to identify and address personal and shared needs
• Learn the art of negotiation you can apply to your life as well as to larger social issues

James said that to be an ambassador of peace, you have to be a representative of emotional and social intelligence. Creating a culture of peace is a whole-systems challenge.

You will in this session.

• Learn about systemic transformation and peace work in the context of complex adaptive systems
• Learn a new set of “simple rules” used for addressing and fixing complex systems

Louise Diamond is a peacebuilding pioneer who has initiated and led whole-systems dialogues in Washington, DC with military, government and nonprofit leaders. She is a brilliant peacebuilder who links the inner process and spiritual wisdom with practical approaches to transforming global situations. She will share her personal journey of a health crisis that led her into a spiritual relationship with nature, where she learned the whole-systems principles that she has introduced to world leaders.

You will in this session.

• Learn the “12 Simple Rules of Systems Thinking for Complex Global Issues”
• Look at how you can begin to link your daily life and personal peace practices to transforming larger systems challenges

James said: We are now witnessing the planet-wide devastation that results from thinking of the economy and ecology as separate systems. Peace is a peace issue.

While the global economic situation can seem overwhelming, David Korten provides common sense strategies and a sense of real hope to you, that you can do your part to evolve our economic model, starting in your own community.

You will in this session.

• Understand the realities of the economic and environmental challenges facing the planet and examine the underlying paradigms that have created this crisis
• Learn about the efforts emerging around the world to create new economic systems based on an understanding of interdependence and interconnectedness

James will show the strengths and capacities of an evolved peace leader during the Peace Ambassador Training. James will ask you to step up in your own way after reviewing your leadership skills. The Summer of Peace 2012 was a collaborative initiative that reached tens of thousands of people in 133 countries.

James writes, In a time of upheaval such as we are now witnessing on planet Earth, unprecedented opportunities arise for creativity and new leadership. The leader is you! There is no collective audacity to create the tipping point in human evolution without you.

You will in this session.

• Understand the leadership skills needed to be an evolved peace leader
• Activate your part in the larger global shift to a culture of peace
• Determine what role you may play in the Summer of Peace 2013

In this session, Velcrow Ripper will share insights into peacebuilding actions taking place on a global scale witnessed while filming his trilogy. Scared Sacred, Fierce Light: When action and love meet. The film will be released in April. There is a process of moving from personal despair to collaborative action inspired by deep spiritual wisdom and shared human values. You can find more info at VelcrowRipper.com.

A pioneer in peace education and community organizing, Dot Maver is a master at inspiring cooperation on behalf of the common good.

You will in this session.

• Discover the practical principles and processes you can apply in organizing your own peace work whether in your school and/or community
• Learn about successes from the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding in Gainesville, Florida, including activities you can join and/or replicate in your own community

The final class is an opportunity for you and your fellow Peace Ambassadors to interact and share what you have learned. You will be able to share your personal peace projects and initiatives for creating peace in yourself, family, schools, community and our world.