Peace Is a Journey, Not a Destination
On a balmy and breezy Saturday in early September, the fragrance of peace filled the air. The scent of patchouli and music of meditation greeted more than 200 residents as they entered Cooper Park located in the historic Maple Park neighborhood on Chicago’s far South Side. They journeyed to this urban ashram for a “Passport 2 Peace.”
Through a series of strategic, community engagement conversations, Maple Park residents acknowledged that community safety was their number one quality of life concern. Out of these conversations, a local design team was created composed of residents, the Maple Park Neighborhood Association, Chicago Police 5th District CAPS, the Chicago Park District and area communities of faith, and it was out of this team that a “Passport 2 Peace” was born. Significant collaborative input from the Goldin Institute’s Chicago Peace Fellows and the Chicago Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) Collaborative’s Neighborhood Interns helped shaped the event. The Maple Park Passport 2 Peace Neighborhood Summit is one of 3 such events in different locations on the South Side.
The concept behind the Passport 2 Peace is that peace is an “inside job” that begins within each of us. The Passport 2 Peace is an inward journey to promote the place of peace that resides in every person and an outward journey to build community. Massage therapy, mediation, yoga and tai chi demonstrations and reflexology stations staffed by certified experts provided the tickets on the journey to inner peace. One participant remarked, “It was amazing to see children doing tai chi.”
As participants moved from station to station, Peace Ambassadors clad in sky blue t-shirts applied stickers to individuals’ passports and served as hosts for each activity. The children played on the playground and did face painting while the adults explored their inner peace. After sharing a community meal to promote community peace and facilitate relationship building, more than 50 people participated in three Inter-generational Peace Circles led by Nehemiah Trinity Rising, a grassroots consultancy specializing in restorative practices leadership training.
On the Sunday prior to the Passport 2 Peace, a Peace Makers’ Sabbath Celebration was held at Maple Park United Methodist Church. The event organizers were invited to come and pray for peace. The Peace Makers’ Sabbath encouraged participants to pray, preach and act for peace. Passport 2 Peace was the action step.
Peace Fellows Tour University of Chicago Crime Lab
On Friday, August 30, the Chicago Peace Fellows toured the University of Chicago Urban Labs to learn more about the work of the Crime Lab, hosted by Kimberly Smith, associate director of criminal justice initiatives.
Kim talked about how the Crime Lab started with the idea to leverage the intellectual capital of the University of Chicago to address violence in Chicago. In 2007, the University was reeling from the shooting death on their campus of an international student during an attempted robbery. Their solution was to ask what the University’s faculty members were good at and how could they use their talents to serve their surrounding community.
[quote]The University of Chicago is the home of more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in the world, and the school is a hub for research of many kinds, scientific to historical. Could they use those techniques to encourage research on the causes and solutions to violence in the communities that surround the university?[/quote]
They began to work with community organizations to add value by providing research and evaluation support. They identified one organization that was producing tremendous results and helped them grow their programming, and they are working with several other groups across the city that are tackling issues of violence in the city to identify effective strategies.
Much of the meeting was spent fielding questions from the Chicago Peace Fellows about how the Crime Lab does its work. They asked about the Crime Lab’s work with the Chicago Police Department, particularly how the Crime Lab is working to support officers and their relationship to the community. Robert Biekman wanted to know about the Crime Lab’s analysis of the federal consent decree that is designed to change the policies and procedures of the Chicago Police Department.
Dr. Sokoni Karanja asked about accessing data on community policing programs, which began a conversation about data sharing and how the Crime Lab provides data to grassroots organizations to measure impact. Many of the Chicago Peace Fellows have been doing tremendous work in their respective communities for years and were open to utilizing the support of the University's researchers to document their efforts and learn more about what’s most effective.
The meeting was a great demonstration of how communities can work with institutions to solidify best practices and identify promising solutions to the myriad of issues that communities across Chicago face.
Peace Fellow Spotlight: Pastor Robert Biekman
How has Gather informed the work that you do? Have you made any meaningful connections between Gather and your work?
I am grateful to the Chicago Peace Fellows for not only increasing my personal capacity as a leader but also increasing the Chicago Alternatives to Incarceration’s Collaborative organizational capacity as well. The skills I have learned and been reminded of through the Chicago Peace Fellows have been invaluable.
The adage, “If I only knew then what I know now!” is so fitting for my experience as a Peace Fellow thus far.
It’s good to be at many tables but I have a deep desire to increase my effectiveness as a leader and that’s what being a CPF is allowing me to do. Chicago Peace Fellows has connected the dots on aspects, work and concepts of this that I had an intuitive knowledge of, but now I possess the language to do the kind of “code-switching” necessary to articulate and communicate it to others more effectively.
[quote]You had me at “community of practice.” This is one of the most profound concepts that I have embraced; especially since a goal of the Chicago ATI Collaborative is to have system/community stakeholders work together. We are creating a community of practice![/quote]
The people in the cohort are extremely gifted and tremendously passionate. I have learned the concept of mind-mapping from one CPF and received both direct and indirect affirmation from them all. I look forward to meeting with them at the “workshop watering hole” and being blessed as well as restored for the next leg of the journey.
In their own way, each of them I have spoken to are “making bricks without straw.” I am blessed to have met them. Several of them will be working with the Chicago ATI Collaborative youth as a means of exposing the youth to the programs and services they offer.
What are some important updates in your current work?
- Received grant from United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
- Received Safe and Peaceful Communities Grant
- Met with Cook County Juvenile Probation to develop summer cohort Planning an orientation with youth and program service providers on June 6th or 10th for the Summer cohort.
