(Some of) what we learned at Constellating Peace

We’re thrilled to share the Event Report reflecting on so much of what we heard, saw, felt, and learned at Constellating Peace, our global gathering of learner-practitioners working in peacebuilding in ten different countries on four different continents.

We’ve collected the real-time reflections from the Event, as well as other resources from and for our time together, in an earlier blog post. In “Constellating Peace from the Inside Out,” we drew ….Keep reading this post >

Come learn more about the Wan Fambul Framework at the UNGA

Catalyst for Peace and the Government of Sierra Leone are working with the International Peace Institute to offer a side event about the Wan Fambul National Framework for Inclusive Governance and Rural Development at the United Nations General Assembly this month.

“An Agenda for the People by the People: Consolidating Peace and Advancing Development in Sierra Leone” will be held on September 27 at 8am at IPI’s Trove Lie Center for Peace, Security ….Keep reading this post >

An Overview of Constellating Peace

In April 2019, Catalyst for Peace brought 75 delegates from around the world to Sierra Leone for a week of dialogue, exchange, and embodied learning. Here are some of the highlights:

Constellating Peace from the Inside Out
An overview of the week spent together, highlighting key moments of learning and reflecting on how Catalyst for Peace strived to build a space not just for knowledge-sharing, but for transformation.

Building Peace from the Inside ….Keep reading this post >

“Community Healing from the Inside Out”

We’re pleased to share “Community Healing From the Inside Out: Systems lessons from Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone,” a chapter by Libby Hoffman that’s included in the book, Locally-Led Peacebuilding: Global Case Studies, edited by Stacey L. Connaughton and Jessica Berns, coming from Rowman & Littlefield in September 2019.

Enjoy!

 

At the heart of it all

What exactly IS #insideoutpeace? And what does it mean for leading transformational social change in the world?

We are happy to announce the release of our new publication Building Peace from the Inside Out: A Transformational Approach to Partnership, which traces the emergence-in-practice of #insideoutpeace as it has been embodied through the decade+ partnership of Catalyst for Peace and Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone, the partnership at the heart of it ….Keep reading this post >

A Transformed Tomorrow

I am full of gratitude for the week of rich learning we shared in Sierra Leone, living out Constellating Peace from the Inside Out. As part of that thanks, I offer the poem below. For me, our week together was an embodiment of the summons this poem offers.

A Transformed Tomorrow

As all around us torrents
of tears from suffering sisters
and brothers, from infants
to elders, drench the Earth
we are despoiling, and old
forms like ….Keep reading this post >

One Family

We twice had a bonfire on the beach we shared together during our week of Constellating Peace From the Inside Out.

Our last participants have left this beautiful beach for their homes, and now the work of carrying these lessons forward begins. There were so many new connections fostered, so much knowledge and experience shared, so many beautiful goodbyes — including this poem from Stephen Wicken, which he wrote ….Keep reading this post >

What Is Strong, Not What Is Wrong

The learning experience for Constellating Peace participants was especially deepened by the midweek visits to the communities that had engaged in the People’s Planning Process. It took several hours of driving to reach the different communities, and the group went to a variety of locations, to be able to witness different dimensions of the program in action.

The visits to the villages gave the participants a direct experience of the ….Keep reading this post >

Watching Inside Out in Action

“Imagine a community as like a bowl. Humanitarian aid, whether for peacebuilding, health, education, economic development or any other purpose is like a bottle of water. When there is a crisis, resources get poured into the bowl — but they just go right through. The bowl is cracked. And if you keep pouring water into a cracked container, it widens the cracks and can damage it further — while also ….Keep reading this post >

Starting Off In Sierra Leone With Song

Catalyst for Peace and Fambul Tok opened our first global learning event outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, today — or rather, the Peace Mothers of Fambul Tok, gathered from across the country, sang the event open from just after sunrise, a beautiful and joyous gesture of gathering that called everyone together for the day.

Throughout the day, the crowd of more than 80 people, gathered from 15 countries and doing work in ….Keep reading this post >