Peacebuilding's 2016 Annual Report
by Donna L. Minter, PhD, LP, Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute
We are pleased to share with you that Peacebuilding continues to grow toward fulfilling our vision of Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State! This year we met all our strategic goals by expanding our training and events.
We now have over 6,000 Peacebuilding graduates from our Trainings:
While we’ve provided more than 50% of our trainees with tuition assistance of over $75,000 since 2010, our trainings continue to be attractive to those in our community who are able to pay the full tuition including mental health professionals, teachers, and nurses for continuing education credit. Our single day trainings are also approved for CLEs for attorneys.
Peacebuilding Research: For the past two years, we’ve been working to quantify the efficacy of our 4 ½ day STAR Trainings. In collaboration with Kathleen Harder, PhD, Director of the Center for Design in Health, University of Minnesota, we collected and analyzed data from our STAR Trainings. We are proud to announce that we now have statistically significant evidence that the STAR Training increases trainees’ confidence to:
In addition to offering our trainings for the general public in 2016, the STAR-Lite Training was contracted for nine trainings by:
Our new Resilience & Self-Care 101 Training has been requested for Anoka County Employees and Dakota County Deputies Office for 2017.
Recently we’ve been invited to apply for grants to fund 3-6 single day STAR-Lite Trainings in the Twin Cities East Metropolitan Area by partnering with multicultural community groups. So far we’ve had very positive response about this adventure. We’ll keep you posted as things unfold in 2017.
Our upcoming Minneapolis Trainings that are open for the general public are:
Our monthly free MN Peacebuilding Film Series is going strong at the social justice-oriented Birchwood Café in south Minneapolis. Our next film is Wed. Dec. 28, 2017 at 7pm: A Class Divided - a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. Directed by William Peters, the episode profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970 and reunited in the present day to recall the experience. Space is limited, so please reserve your seat! In 2017, we plan to instigate a free monthly showing of our Film Series at a café in North Minneapolis - stay tuned!
In June 2016, Peacebuilding provided financial support for my African American colleague Crixell Shell from Minneapolis, my African American/Native American colleague Donna Evans from Saint Paul, and me—a European American from Minneapolis—to attend the week long Coming to the Table (CTTT) Leadership Summit and 10th Year Gathering in Harrisonburg, VA. At CTTT, descendants of those who were enslaved and descendants of slave owners come together to envision the United States as a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal the racial wounds from the historical trauma of slavery, and the racism it continues to spawn. CTTT provides leadership, resources, and a supportive environment to dismantle racism that is rooted in the United States’ history of slavery. In 2017, Peacebuilding will instigate monthly CTTT groups in Minneapolis and Saint Paul for all who want to take Minnesota beyond the legacy of enslavement and be part of the solution.
In 2016, our LUNAFEST: Minneapolis and LUNAFEST: Saint Paul women’s film festival events raised over $16,000 for our tuition scholarship fund. In 2017, for the fourth year in a row, thanks to nationally known Luna Bars, Peacebuilding will bring LUNAFEST: Minneapolis on Wednesday April 26, 2017 to the Riverview Theater. And, for the second year, on Saturday, June 3rd, 2017 we are hosting LUNAFEST: Saint Paul at the SteppingStone Theater. These film festivals will raise funds to support local community members who request tuition assistance to attend Peacebuilding’s trainings. We look forward to having you and your friends and family join us for this fun, inspiring evening of 9 internationally curated short films by, for, about women. Men and youth love the films too, so come one, come all! Watch the LUNAFEST trailer here.
In November 2016, Thrivent Financial – West End hosted a Community Peacebuilding Soiree for 25 community leaders to learn about our organization and discuss ways to help share our mission with the broader community. We also did a Thrivent service project by sending copies of the Little Book of Trauma Healing (the book about the STAR model) by Carolyn Yoder to 100 Twin Cities Faith Community Leaders. A big shout-out to Thrivent for promoting how to be smart with money and generous with our community!
At the request of a Native American psychologist colleague, Peacebuilding has donated 100 Little Books of Trauma Healing to those impacted by the psychological trauma occurring now in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Together, we are exploring ways to provide trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative-focused training for interested parties associated with this national conflict.
Peacebuilding Friends, we have accomplished much in 2016 toward Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State!
As 2016 comes to a close, we face political uncertainties that already have created increasing psychological trauma in communities nationwide. Our peace has been stolen from us. We want to build peace back into our lives. Peacebuilding Friends, there is no shortage of need for this work.
We welcome your financial assistance to meet our fundraising goal of $25,000 by December 31, 2016. Giving at any level can happen in two ways:
Together, we are pursuing our mission to instigate, train, and support racially, sexually, religiously, ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse individuals and organizations to become trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative-focused empowering communities in Minnesota, the USA, and around the world.
We now have over 6,000 Peacebuilding graduates from our Trainings:
- Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience – the STAR Training
- STAR-Lite Training: Learning Strategies Awareness and Resilience in a Single Day
- Restorative Justice 101: Training for Practice in Everyday Life (RJ 101)
While we’ve provided more than 50% of our trainees with tuition assistance of over $75,000 since 2010, our trainings continue to be attractive to those in our community who are able to pay the full tuition including mental health professionals, teachers, and nurses for continuing education credit. Our single day trainings are also approved for CLEs for attorneys.
Peacebuilding Research: For the past two years, we’ve been working to quantify the efficacy of our 4 ½ day STAR Trainings. In collaboration with Kathleen Harder, PhD, Director of the Center for Design in Health, University of Minnesota, we collected and analyzed data from our STAR Trainings. We are proud to announce that we now have statistically significant evidence that the STAR Training increases trainees’ confidence to:
- Identify and address psychological trauma,
- Break cycles of violence with positive productive alternatives to revenge,
- Build resilience and self-care for the empowerment of themselves and their communities.
In addition to offering our trainings for the general public in 2016, the STAR-Lite Training was contracted for nine trainings by:
- Catalyst Initiative of the George Family Foundation, Minneapolis
- Horizon Homes, Inc. Mankato, MN
- The Trauma Recovery Project of North Minneapolis’ University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center (UROC)
- Minnesota Association of Community Mental Health Programs
- Restorative Justice Community Action, funded by the City of Minneapolis
- Metro Homeless Youth Services of Lutheran Social Services
- Minnesota Visiting Nurses Association/Hennepin County Medical Center
- US Foreign Diplomats and the wider community in Washington DC
- Hesston College, Hesston, KS
Our new Resilience & Self-Care 101 Training has been requested for Anoka County Employees and Dakota County Deputies Office for 2017.
Recently we’ve been invited to apply for grants to fund 3-6 single day STAR-Lite Trainings in the Twin Cities East Metropolitan Area by partnering with multicultural community groups. So far we’ve had very positive response about this adventure. We’ll keep you posted as things unfold in 2017.
Our upcoming Minneapolis Trainings that are open for the general public are:
- STAR-Lite Training on Saturday, February 11, 2017
- Restorative Justice 101 Training on Friday March 31, 2017
- Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience – the 4 ½ day STAR Training on Mon-Fri Aug 7-11, 2017
Our monthly free MN Peacebuilding Film Series is going strong at the social justice-oriented Birchwood Café in south Minneapolis. Our next film is Wed. Dec. 28, 2017 at 7pm: A Class Divided - a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. Directed by William Peters, the episode profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970 and reunited in the present day to recall the experience. Space is limited, so please reserve your seat! In 2017, we plan to instigate a free monthly showing of our Film Series at a café in North Minneapolis - stay tuned!
In June 2016, Peacebuilding provided financial support for my African American colleague Crixell Shell from Minneapolis, my African American/Native American colleague Donna Evans from Saint Paul, and me—a European American from Minneapolis—to attend the week long Coming to the Table (CTTT) Leadership Summit and 10th Year Gathering in Harrisonburg, VA. At CTTT, descendants of those who were enslaved and descendants of slave owners come together to envision the United States as a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal the racial wounds from the historical trauma of slavery, and the racism it continues to spawn. CTTT provides leadership, resources, and a supportive environment to dismantle racism that is rooted in the United States’ history of slavery. In 2017, Peacebuilding will instigate monthly CTTT groups in Minneapolis and Saint Paul for all who want to take Minnesota beyond the legacy of enslavement and be part of the solution.
In 2016, our LUNAFEST: Minneapolis and LUNAFEST: Saint Paul women’s film festival events raised over $16,000 for our tuition scholarship fund. In 2017, for the fourth year in a row, thanks to nationally known Luna Bars, Peacebuilding will bring LUNAFEST: Minneapolis on Wednesday April 26, 2017 to the Riverview Theater. And, for the second year, on Saturday, June 3rd, 2017 we are hosting LUNAFEST: Saint Paul at the SteppingStone Theater. These film festivals will raise funds to support local community members who request tuition assistance to attend Peacebuilding’s trainings. We look forward to having you and your friends and family join us for this fun, inspiring evening of 9 internationally curated short films by, for, about women. Men and youth love the films too, so come one, come all! Watch the LUNAFEST trailer here.
In November 2016, Thrivent Financial – West End hosted a Community Peacebuilding Soiree for 25 community leaders to learn about our organization and discuss ways to help share our mission with the broader community. We also did a Thrivent service project by sending copies of the Little Book of Trauma Healing (the book about the STAR model) by Carolyn Yoder to 100 Twin Cities Faith Community Leaders. A big shout-out to Thrivent for promoting how to be smart with money and generous with our community!
At the request of a Native American psychologist colleague, Peacebuilding has donated 100 Little Books of Trauma Healing to those impacted by the psychological trauma occurring now in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Together, we are exploring ways to provide trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative-focused training for interested parties associated with this national conflict.
Peacebuilding Friends, we have accomplished much in 2016 toward Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State!
- We have done all this work with a 2016 operating budget of $80,000, and we have a projected budget of $100,000 for 2017.
- We now have a Communications Coordinator, Marcia Siggelkow who started working for Peacebuilding in January 2016 for 5 hours/week. She is FANTASTIC! Because of growing work demands and increased revenue, Marcia now works 15 hours/week.
- We are grateful for the commitment of our three co-trainers, Crixell Shell, Judy Pilz, and Michele Braley, as Peacebuilding grows toward sustainability.
- We are pleased with our strong diverse Peacebuilding Board Members who know how to “get it done!” Check out who has joined us at www.mnpeace.org/leaders--partners.html.
- We look forward to the time when the Peacebuilding Board can hire an Executive Director at a sustainable salary to take this organization to the next level so I can develop new Peacebuilding trainings that are constantly rattling around in my head and heart!
As 2016 comes to a close, we face political uncertainties that already have created increasing psychological trauma in communities nationwide. Our peace has been stolen from us. We want to build peace back into our lives. Peacebuilding Friends, there is no shortage of need for this work.
We welcome your financial assistance to meet our fundraising goal of $25,000 by December 31, 2016. Giving at any level can happen in two ways:
- via our online portal
- a check made payable to MN Peacebuilding and mailed in the enclosed envelope (this method ensures that we receive the full contribution amount).
Together, we are pursuing our mission to instigate, train, and support racially, sexually, religiously, ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse individuals and organizations to become trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative-focused empowering communities in Minnesota, the USA, and around the world.
