Workshops expected to include:

• Anti-racism work in schools—how history can be used to challenge people's perceptions of racism and identity.
• Developing children's skills for a peaceful classroom—peer mediation and conflict resolution.
• Exploring nuclear issues in the classroom
• Teaching the ethics of war
• Learning from the Peace Partners project— training teachers and youth workers in peace education in schools.

Following up last year's event, this will be a further chance to meet with people & hear expert speakers.
We shall be focussing on dialogue, community, participation and nonviolence as key themes.

- Philip Lewis of Bradford University's Peace Studies Department and writer on Muslim-Christian relations, and Shanaz Hussain, a lecturer and magistrate from Accrington, will be keynote speakers.

- Issue Workshops: asylum, responding to extremism, media, dialogue, nonviolent strategies & identity

They are also offering a programme for teenagers during the day

Course description

The Transformative Mediation course has been developed to help organisations, practitioners and mediators to enhance the quality of their work, to gain new perspectives into the Conflict Transformation field, and to develop new practices in mediation.

Transformative Mediation is the only course of its kind in the UK, specifically for organisations and individuals with experience in the mediation process locally in family and community settings or for those interested in applying a transformative approach to their mediation work in activities such as peacebuilding and conflict sensitive programming.

Course aims:

The Transformative Mediation course will teach participants how to structure mediation in a way that is most likely to empower the parties and encourage mutual recognition; it will also teach participants how to recognise and exploit opportunities for empowerment and recognition when they occur.

The course will emphasize relationship-building, empowerment, and recognition much more than obtaining a settlement.

What are the underlying causes of the conflicts? Who is involved directly? How do we break the cycles of violence? Can we build peace in the midst of violence? How do we move from violence to peacebuilding? Do you want to develop your capacity and skills to be more effective?

The aim of this course is to provide participants with a clear and comprehensive understanding of the causes and the dynamics of conflict, and enables participants to develop skills and strategies for change. This is an intensive, practical and participatory course for practitioners working for peace and justice in situations of instability, conflict and violence.
The course is designed for people who: work or live in a situation of conflict; want the opportunity to develop their skills and learn new methods; and those who want to draw on the experience of people working in similar situations.