The 2nd Annual
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Conerly Road Elemnetary School |
 Conerly Road Elemnetary School |
| Are you educators? No. We do, however, have several educators on our Advisory Board and on our Board of Directors who are actively engaged in guiding and developing our programs to fit within not only required criteria but also delivering powerful and effective programs that will leave a lasting impact on students. |
|
 United Nations, NYC 2007 |
 Conerly Road Elemnetary School |
| How do you know it will work? Is it successful? We say the answer to this always lies with the students themselves. Our student and teacher evaluation forms consistently show that the program has am impact on all those who participate not only in their school life but in their life. 100% of teachers responded that they would love to work with us and our programs in the future. |
|
| How does the exchange process work? How the mural exchange works is that once a school completes their mural they keep and can display their mural for three to four months in their school or organization. We begin the process of locating a sister school to exchange with as soon as a school begins their mural program. Once the sister school has been located and established we set up the shipping arrangements to have the sister school mural sent to your school and yours to theirs. |
|
| Why exchange the murals? Why we set up the exchange in the first place was to create a dialogue and opportunity for youth to engage in conversations with global neighbors, explore new ideas for conflict resolution and mediation, begin to create a new conversation for peace as a real possibility. During the exchange process there will be opportunities for open discussions, creative writing, and other activities that will begin to cause this cross cultural dialogue. |
|
| Can only schools participate? No. Although we work mostly with schools any youth organization whether it is a religious school, summer camp, boys and girls club, YMCA, club, or organized group can participate. What is necessary is at least one adult must choose to be the leader for the project. What is always required is at least one adult supervisor for the group who is responsible for the group at all times during all activities. |
|
| I want this at my school. How do I make that happen? Who do I talk to? If you are a parent or student and want to bring this project to your school the first step would be to contact us and get a package sent to you with important information and a DVD that you can present at the school or organization you are interested in having participate. There are no right answers for who to talk to. We suggest either discussing the idea with the art teacher or an art advisor. Other people would be the principal or a guidance counselor. Another suggestion is if you have a club at your school have the teacher who runs the club hear about it and work with you to speak with the administration. Rule of thumb be persistent but not pushy. This is a fun and big endeavor for a school to take on and can make a real difference if presented as a positive opportunity for the school community at large. Parents may want to bring up the subject at a PTA or PTO meeting or educational staff meeting. We find the best results come from being open and trusting that if you are commited to it it will happen. We are here to work with you and can do conference calls or if applicable we can meet with schools directly to discuss. If you are still uncertain we can put you in touch with on of our Advisory Board members who have brought the project to their school. |
|
| What happens after the mural is done and the exchange has happened? Once the murals are exchanged students will participate in some follow up activities to measure the impact the mural exchange has had on their views of peace and their views of their global neighbors. It is our goal to continue to work with and/or leave each school we work with with follow up activities and exercises that the school can engage in to further integrate and implement this new conversation into the community of students. Contact us for more information on how this might look for your institution. |
|
What's been happening at Where Peace Lives?
January 2009: Where Peace Lives traveled to Costa Rica to exchange murals between the Cultural Center, New Jersey and Nova Scotia. Where Peace Lives did presentations about the organization and its programs for the National Teachers Conference and the Central American Binational Educators.
February/March 2009: Where Peace Lives worked weekly with Conerly Road School in Somerset, NJ on the Reel Peace project to create movies about addiction and respect.
Projects will begin soon in Pakistan, Jacksonville, FL, Nepal, and through a peace corps volunteer in St. Vincent, Grenadines. Kenya, Uganda and Mt. Vernon in Newark, NJ just completed their murals and are awaiting exchanges.
April 2009: Where Peace Lives went to Nova Scotia to facilitate a mural exchange with Porters Lake Elementary School. They received a mural from Costa Rica (and their mural is currently hanging in the Costa Rican Cultural Center in San Jose, Costa Rica). The school held an assembly with the entire school to unveil the mural.
There were video presentations of the kids working on the mural and one of their teachers had gone to Costa Rica on vacation and sought out their mural and took pictures and video of it on her trip there. The 45 students choir sang a song about peace. This school would like to do the project again next year.
June 2009: Where Peace Lives premieres "Reel Peace" Kids teaching Kids Peace through Moviemaking films at Conerly Road School to parents and students. Foundation that funded the programs raves about the success and circulates film to entire county area.
June 2009: Where Peace Lives visits school in Greenpoint Brooklyn, NY and is honored by students and faculty at the unveiling of their peace mural that will be exchanged with students from Bulgaria in the fall of 2009.
June 2009: Where Peace Lives holds unveling of peace mural at Mt. Vernon school in Newark, NJ. Governor Corzine send letter of proclamation commending the students for their participation in the international peace mural exchange program. Guest speaker Dosso Kassimou, Preseident of the Newark African Commission was in awe of the murals and asked about having the program come overseas to his home along the Ivory Coast of Africa.Also in attendance were Janice Gabbidon and Carlos Rodriguez, Education Program Development Specialists for the State of New Jersey. A representative for education from the Mayor;s office in Newark was also in attendance.
