PeaceCaster's Camp A Success!

Our first PeaceCasters* Camp was a great success!  Fourteen youth, ages 11-16, came from all parts of town for a week long skills building camp.  Janene Shakir and Mark Steiner co-led the group. The young people applied their new experiences with listening, conflict resolution and respecting diversity** to the development of 3 word videos (look for our youtube page to be posted in about two week!).  The teen leaders also learned how to record, edit and produce these videos with the help of our wonderful cadre of experts: Rhody Streeter, Matt Sandercock, Laura Morton, Barbara West, Brett Marshall and Derek Poore.

Special thanks to to our PeaceCaster returnees who helped lead their small teams:  Savanna Leonard, Amari Dryden, Zach Snipes and Cydnee Locke.

This camp was made possible by the generous support of the following sponsors:
Center for Interfaith Relations                          Central Presbyterian Church
Epiphany 10% Committee                                George and Mary Lee Fischer
Harvey Browne Memorial Presbyterian Church      Human-kind Productions
J and L Foundation                                          Kertis Creative
Louisville Friends Meeting                                Margaret Thomas Memorial Fund
Mark Steiner                                                  The Nelson-Blanton Family
Universal Woods                                            The UPS Foundation

*Peace Ed inherited PeaceCasters from the Center for Interfaith Relations in December 2010.  They donated all of their video making equipment.  The UPS Foundation is helping us update and expand that equipment.

** Our diversity work is done in partnership with the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), www.ncbi.org.

The Missing Hat

If you were to pass by any community center in Louisville you might see large groups of teens and young men moving in, out or around the center building.  On the evening of May 9, 2011, I was leaving California Community Center just as a group of basketball players finished a game.  As the majority of the group stood on the steps out side of the community center, the Supervisor, Mr. William Lyle, ask them to move off the steps and move on.  Someone from the group told him that they were waiting for their friend. Shortly thereafter another young man emerged from the center; he walked directly over to one of the young men on the steps and forcefully demanded “WHERE IS MY HAT!”  To which the young man replied that he didn’t know where his hat was. Instead he sent the young man looking for his hat, back into the community center. After another search he emerged again frustrated and angry, with out his hat.  They all left the center steps.

Minutes later the same young man searching for his hat returned to look for it again. This time after not finding it again, Mr. Lyle asked him to describe the hat.  Almost in tears, the young man said it was blue and white with a UofK logo on it, and then he left again.  Five minutes later another young man from the group appeared with the hat. I suggested to Mr. Lyle that as a neutral party, he should take the hat, which he did. Five more minutes later, and for the fourth time, the owner of the hat came back and retrieved the hat. When I asked, “How did you know that the hat had been returned?” He told us, he went and talked to the father of the main person that he thought took his hat. Anger and frustration still apparent in his face and body language, I stopped him before he left the center again.

I ask him, “You know, it is obvious to me that this is a normal hat. Why is it so important to you? Did someone special give it to you?” To which he replied “Yes Mam, my Grand Ma.” He then reached for the lanyard and laminated card with a photo and writing on it, which was hanging from his neck. “Oh my God” I said “Did she pass away recently?” It is a modern custom to wear these cards as a memento describing the passing of a loved one. “Yes Mam, on April 30^th” (this was nine days earlier), he said almost crying again. The center Supervisor and I both console him. We both tell him we understand and that we are glad he got his hat back.  We even advised him not to wear it every day, but keep it for special occasions.

I tell him go rinse you face off and get a drink of water before he leaves. He did as I suggested, and upon leaving we could tell that he was calmer.

“Wow!” Mr. Lyle said, “I would have never thought to ask him that question.” I explained that most people have bigger reasons for their negative behaviors. This young man’s frustrated attempts at finding a hat had to be about more than a hat.  Two weeks later, while on another visit to the California Community Center, I asked Mr. Lyle if there had been any other conflicts between the young men involved in taking the hat, and he said “No, everything has been
great!”

     Mediation is Powerful

  Chance is a fifth grade student just graduating from Breckinridge-Franklin Elementary School. When he was in the second grade he was diagnosed with Asperger’s, a type of Autism. One of the symptoms of Chance’s Asperger’s is his difficulty reading social cues; every day at school brought more conflicts with classmates. Denise Baytree, the ECE Resource teacher at Breckinridge-Franklin, offered mediation to Chance. When Chance had an argument with a classmate, he would bring the conflict to Ms. Baytree. The mediation process allowed Chance and the classmate to hear out each other’s side of the story. Frequently, Chance would realize that he had taken a joke too far. “Without mediation I wouldn’t actually know what a jerk I can be.” Chance reflects.

     In the third grade, Chance would sometimes need mediations four or five times a day. “Mediation was like a missing nutrient to Chance”, said Denise Baytree “he latched onto the process and needed it every day.” As Chance sat in more mediations, listening to what his friends and classmates had to say, he was blown away by their perspective. Many of his classmates thought he was a mean kid. Chance says “I didn’t even realize I was doing certain things to make people mad.” In turn, his classmates learned about Chance’s experience with Asperger’s.

     Now finishing up his final year of elementary school, Chance relies on mediation once every three or four weeks. The mediation process has helped Chance develop signals with a couple of students who he has a particularly hard time with. “There were some people I needed to mediate with a lot at first, they really knew how to push my buttons.” Now Chance uses the skills he learned in mediation daily. Even though it is really difficult, he tries to always take responsibility for his actions; and he has become a much better listener both in and out of mediation.

     Chance is heading to Middle School in the fall. One of the items Ms. Baytree made certain was in his Individualized Education Plan is access to mediation. Chance says that the hardest thing about being diagnosed with Asperger’s is feeling like he doesn’t fit in. The mediation process has helped Chance create real relationships with his peers. Denise Baytree has been a teacher for 18 years, and a practitioner of mediation for almost as long. She feels as though mediation made a real difference in Chance’s elementary school success. Chance agrees.

  No More Violence

In my work at Peace Ed facilitating the Navigators Mentoring Program I hear many stories that broaden my understanding of the tribulations that some young people experience.  One story that stands out happened while we were discussing how behavior is passed along from generation to generation.  In this particular discussion the conversation was centered on violence and how sometimes it feels like you can't make it through some situations without using it.  As this conversation continued I was beginning to worry because despite my input it seemed that the conclusion of these conversations were trending toward the negative side of the spectrum.  As the conversation got close to a point where it needed to be ended one student who had been particularly quite during the conversation spoke up.  He disclosed to the group that he had experienced violence in his family and that he hated it.  This student expressed that he had come to the conclusion that he didn't want any part of it unless he had to and that he wanted to change the way these behaviors were passed through his family by stopping them.  At that moment I could see and feel the groups mood change and I knew that this young man had succeeded in a way that can be hard for the most seasoned of professionals that work with youth. 

Currently the Peace Education Navigators Mentoring Program is in its third year.  Over the course of the last two years, in conjunction with my masters level social work program, an investigation into what characteristics are needed in order to make the Navigators Program more effective has taken place.  To facilitate this investigation the Evidence Based Practice (EBP) model of research was used.  The EBP model utilizes a three-prong approach for gathering new knowledge, which includes knowledge from literature, knowledge from practice, and knowledge from the consumer’s experience

The EBP process greatly assisted the exploration of best practices for the mentoring program.  The EBP process helped to bring out pertinent data about what participants thought of the program (Fig. 2) and has led to several changes for the mentoring program that we feel will help this program have a greater positive impact on its participants such as an increased time length and pre-interviews just to name a couple.  Our immediate goals for the Navigators Program are to continue facilitation while incorporating the new strategies and to continue to engage in refinement of our process.