Peacebuilding's 2017 Annual Report
by Donna L. Minter, PhD, LP, Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute
Greetings! I am pleased to report that “Peacebuilding” continues to grow toward fulfilling our vision of
Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State for All.
This year we met many of our strategic goals by expanding our trainings and events. As in the past, approximately 80% of our training graduates are women, 33% are from communities of color, and the LGBTQ community are well represented. From June 2010 - December 2016 we had 1001 graduates. In 2017 alone, we had 460 Peacebuilding graduates. This is a 46% increase over the first six years of Peacebuilding’s existence as an organization. Here’s the breakdown per trainings:
# Attendees
2 - 4 & ½ days Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience – the STAR Training 43
10 - 1 day STAR-Lite Training: Learning Strategies Awareness and Resilience in a Single Day 321
3 - 1 day Restorative Justice 101: Training for Practice in Everyday Life (RJ 101) 34
3 - ½ day Resilience and Self-Care 101 (Res 101) 30
1 – Introduction to RJ from Trauma Informed Approach - 2 hour 30
Total 460
In addition, we conducted six 60-90 minute presentations about STAR and RJ for over 100 people.
To assure financial accessibility to Peacebuilding’s trainings, in 2017 we provided $11,000 in scholarship assistance for a total of over $85,000 to over 50% of our trainees since 2010. The majority of these funds were awarded to STAR Trainees.
The STAR Training: Our August and October 2017 STAR Trainings were positive, powerful experiences. The August STAR was completely full a month before the start date. This is the first time we had a full STAR since the initial STAR in June 2010. Our October 2018 training had 14 trainees from Minnesota, one from New York City, one from Iowa, and one from Nepal. Several of our STAR graduates have expressed interest in being on our Board of Directors or Community Peacebuilding Ambassadors.
In 2018, our first 4 ½ day STAR Training will be Saturday, August 4 - Wednesday, August 8, 2018 to coincide with the August 9-11, 2018 International Conference on Restorative Practices at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul. We have signed on as a sponsor for this Conference. We are planning a second STAR Training for October 2018. We are looking for comfortable, inexpensive spaces for these trainings with free parking if you have ideas that might be a good match.
STAR-Lite Trainings: Three STAR-Lite (SL) Trainings were offered to the general public in February, May, and September 2017 with positive results. We conducted two contract SL Trainings with MN Visiting Nurses Association and Thrivent Financial-Stonebridge Group, a third contract SL in Washington, DC with US Foreign Service Officers, and a fourth contract SL at Hesston College, Hesston, KS, where they had a mass shooting in 2016.
Thanks to The Saint Paul Foundation and the F. R. Bigelow Foundation, we were awarded $30,000 in grant funds to conduct six STAR-Lite Trainings in the East Metro for communities of color with our Community Partners:
Ain Dah Yung (Our Home) Center
Camp Noah
Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio – CLUES
Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota
Filipinx for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice in Minnesota
Friends for a NonViolent World
Hnub Tshiab (Hmong Women Achieving Together)
Metro Homeless Youth Services Network - Streetworks
Minnesota AIDS Project
Minnesota Communities Caring for Children
Minnesota Food Association
Neighborhood House
Oromo Community in Saint Paul
Pan-Asian Voices for Equity (PAVE-MN)
Rainbow Health Initiative
Sarah's....an Oasis for Women
Third Way Church
UpWorks
Washington County Community Circles
These trainings have been very well received. One hundred sixty-seven registered for the first three trainings on September 29, October 21, and November 15, 2017. In only four days, 60 people registered for the January 27, 2018 East Metro STAR-Lite Training and we have 51 people on the waiting list. This shows a deep hunger for STAR concepts and strategies! The additional East Metro trainings will be Friday, February 23 and Friday, March 23. If we have grant monies remaining, we will conduct a fourth training on Saturday April 21, 2018. The Saint Paul and F. R. Bigelow Foundations have invited us to apply again for $30,000 for East Metro STAR-Lite Trainings for June 2018 - May 2019.
Recent contact with several senior grant officials have encouraged us to apply for grant funds for STAR-Lite Trainings in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area and with Minneapolis Public Schools administrators, teaches, and staff. The foundations were impressed with Peacebuilding’s capacity to work collaboratively with a wide variety of community partners who wish to have their staff and clients attend the training. If funded, together with the East Metro grants, these foundations will provide 14 STAR-Lite Training for up to 840 people. This is fulfilling our Peacebuilding mission!
In 2018, we will plan to offer SL at least three times to the general public. The first one will be January 12, 2018. The other two SL trainings will likely be in late Spring 2018 and early Fall 2018.
We recently had a very productive phone call with the a local public library administrator who expressed interest in having their staff receive our trauma-informed, restorative justice-focused trainings, possibly in collaboration with other city departments.
Restorative Justice Training: In 2017 we offered RJ 101 in March and November 2017 and both were completely full with 18 trainees months ahead of time. Because of the growing popularity of our Restorative Justice 101 Training, we are offering this training specifically for higher education professionals in January 9, 2018 and it is nearly full. Our March 9, 2018 RJ 101 Training is completely full with 18 trainees, and our April 13, 2018 RJ 101 Training already has registrants.
Resilience and Self-Care Training (Resilience 101): This 2-hour training was originally created for and offered to Anoka County Employees by contract arrangement and was very well received. This training was further developed into a 3-hour training for the general public. Although Resilience 101 was offered three times for the general public, only the June 16, 2017 training had the minimum required number of trainees. We likely will offer this training at least twice in 2018 for the general public.
Continuing Education for Peacebuilding Training: Our trainings continue to be attractive to those who are able to pay the full tuition including mental health professionals, teachers, and nurses for continuing education credit. Our single day trainings are approved for CLEs for attorneys. In 2017, about 15% of our graduates opted to pay for continuing education or continuing legal education for our trainings. This is an increase over previous years.
MN Peacebuilding Film Series: As of December 12, 2017, we completed our 5th year of our free monthly MN Peacebuilding Film Series. Since January 2013, we have shown 60 unique, social justice-oriented films to an average of 20 people at each event. In addition to offering great discussion toward community peacebuilding, these monthly events provide promotion for Peacebuilding’s mission, trainings and events, and requests for contributions. Since October 2016, we have shown the films at the Birchwood Café in south Minneapolis and we have an excellent working relationship. As resources become available, in 2018, we want to instigate a free monthly showing of our Film Series in North Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Coming to the Table (CTTT) After Crixell Shell and Donna Minter attended the June 2016 CTTT leadership training in Virginia, Crixell Shell took leadership to offer the first monthly CTTT group in May 2017 in North Minneapolis. Generally 12-18 people register and typically the group size is 4-12. 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 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. We want to take Minnesota beyond the legacy of enslavement for all who want to be part of the solution. Thanks to Board Director, Ernie Belton, we have a “permanent” CTTT-Mpls home the 3rd Saturday of each month at the Sumner Library on Hwy 55! As resources allow, in 2018, Peacebuilding will seek to instigate monthly CTTT gatherings in Saint Paul and South Minneapolis.
LUNAFEST: Minneapolis: In 2017, our April and September LUNAFEST: Minneapolis events netted over $11,000 for our Peacebuilding Trainee Scholarship Fund. In 2018, for the fifth year in a row, thanks to nationally known LUNA Bars, Peacebuilding will host LUNAFEST: Minneapolis on Wednesday April 25, 2018 at the Riverview Theater. Notable Minnesotan, Patty Wetterling has graciously agreed to be our Honorary LUNAFEST Chairwoman for the evening! As before, we’ll have bountiful gift baskets to raffle, and the LUNAFEST After Party at the Riverview Café. We hope to offer this event again at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis’ Theater in Fall 2018.
Peacebuilding Research: Since January 2017, we have collected pre/post data at all our STAR and STAR-Lite Trainings to continue to quantify their efficacy. In collaboration with Wendy Brunner, MPH, PhD, Minnesota Department of Health, we are proud to announce that we now have strong statistically significant evidence that the STAR and STAR-Lite Trainings increase trainees’ confidence to: (1) identify and address psychological trauma; (2) break cycles of violence with positive productive alternatives to revenge; and (3) build resilience and self-care for the empowerment of themselves and their communities. Along with quotes from energized graduates, these research findings are providing the backbone of solid evidence that potential funders and contracting groups require and request. We plan to submit an article for publication of these research findings to the international professional journal Intervention.
Organizational Assessment: At the request of Northwest Passage Ltd. (NWP), an assessment and residential treatment center in NW Wisconsin for adjudicated youth, I conducted an organizational assessment to determine staff’s knowledge of being trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative justice-focused. This assessment also collected staff’s confidential opinion of strengths, challenges, and suggested improvements for the organization. After collecting on-line survey data from 47 staff and conducting hour-long interviews with 13 staff, Donna analyzed the data, wrote and submitted a report. This NWP organizational assessment process took about 75 hours. Overall NWP administrators and board of directors were impressed with the report’s findings. They are now in the process of developing a strategic plan for staff training in 2018. We hope this includes contract trainings from Peacebuilding.
We have accomplished much in 2017 toward Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State for All!
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 justice-focused, empowering communities in Minnesota, the USA, and around the world. Thank you for being part of the answer with Peacebuilding.
We welcome all to our trainings and events, and to join Peacebuilding as volunteers and donors. To contribute to Peacebuilding financially, checks can be made payable to MN Peacebuilding and mailed to MN Peacebuilding, c/o DL Minter, PhD, PO Box 3717, Minneapolis, MN 55403 or by giving online at https://givemn.org/organization/Minnesota-Peacebuilding-Leadership-Institute
Courageously, warmly instigating justice, peace, and hope together,
Donna L. Minter, PhD, LP
Founder and Executive Director
The Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan public charity nonprofit organization
transforming psychological trauma into nonviolent power with positive, productive alternatives to revenge.
Our mission is to instigate, train, and support racially, sexually, religiously, ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse individuals and organizations to become trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative justice-focused, empowering communities in Minnesota, the USA, and around the world.
Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State for All.
This year we met many of our strategic goals by expanding our trainings and events. As in the past, approximately 80% of our training graduates are women, 33% are from communities of color, and the LGBTQ community are well represented. From June 2010 - December 2016 we had 1001 graduates. In 2017 alone, we had 460 Peacebuilding graduates. This is a 46% increase over the first six years of Peacebuilding’s existence as an organization. Here’s the breakdown per trainings:
# Attendees
2 - 4 & ½ days Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience – the STAR Training 43
10 - 1 day STAR-Lite Training: Learning Strategies Awareness and Resilience in a Single Day 321
3 - 1 day Restorative Justice 101: Training for Practice in Everyday Life (RJ 101) 34
3 - ½ day Resilience and Self-Care 101 (Res 101) 30
1 – Introduction to RJ from Trauma Informed Approach - 2 hour 30
Total 460
In addition, we conducted six 60-90 minute presentations about STAR and RJ for over 100 people.
To assure financial accessibility to Peacebuilding’s trainings, in 2017 we provided $11,000 in scholarship assistance for a total of over $85,000 to over 50% of our trainees since 2010. The majority of these funds were awarded to STAR Trainees.
The STAR Training: Our August and October 2017 STAR Trainings were positive, powerful experiences. The August STAR was completely full a month before the start date. This is the first time we had a full STAR since the initial STAR in June 2010. Our October 2018 training had 14 trainees from Minnesota, one from New York City, one from Iowa, and one from Nepal. Several of our STAR graduates have expressed interest in being on our Board of Directors or Community Peacebuilding Ambassadors.
In 2018, our first 4 ½ day STAR Training will be Saturday, August 4 - Wednesday, August 8, 2018 to coincide with the August 9-11, 2018 International Conference on Restorative Practices at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul. We have signed on as a sponsor for this Conference. We are planning a second STAR Training for October 2018. We are looking for comfortable, inexpensive spaces for these trainings with free parking if you have ideas that might be a good match.
STAR-Lite Trainings: Three STAR-Lite (SL) Trainings were offered to the general public in February, May, and September 2017 with positive results. We conducted two contract SL Trainings with MN Visiting Nurses Association and Thrivent Financial-Stonebridge Group, a third contract SL in Washington, DC with US Foreign Service Officers, and a fourth contract SL at Hesston College, Hesston, KS, where they had a mass shooting in 2016.
Thanks to The Saint Paul Foundation and the F. R. Bigelow Foundation, we were awarded $30,000 in grant funds to conduct six STAR-Lite Trainings in the East Metro for communities of color with our Community Partners:
Ain Dah Yung (Our Home) Center
Camp Noah
Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio – CLUES
Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota
Filipinx for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice in Minnesota
Friends for a NonViolent World
Hnub Tshiab (Hmong Women Achieving Together)
Metro Homeless Youth Services Network - Streetworks
Minnesota AIDS Project
Minnesota Communities Caring for Children
Minnesota Food Association
Neighborhood House
Oromo Community in Saint Paul
Pan-Asian Voices for Equity (PAVE-MN)
Rainbow Health Initiative
Sarah's....an Oasis for Women
Third Way Church
UpWorks
Washington County Community Circles
These trainings have been very well received. One hundred sixty-seven registered for the first three trainings on September 29, October 21, and November 15, 2017. In only four days, 60 people registered for the January 27, 2018 East Metro STAR-Lite Training and we have 51 people on the waiting list. This shows a deep hunger for STAR concepts and strategies! The additional East Metro trainings will be Friday, February 23 and Friday, March 23. If we have grant monies remaining, we will conduct a fourth training on Saturday April 21, 2018. The Saint Paul and F. R. Bigelow Foundations have invited us to apply again for $30,000 for East Metro STAR-Lite Trainings for June 2018 - May 2019.
Recent contact with several senior grant officials have encouraged us to apply for grant funds for STAR-Lite Trainings in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area and with Minneapolis Public Schools administrators, teaches, and staff. The foundations were impressed with Peacebuilding’s capacity to work collaboratively with a wide variety of community partners who wish to have their staff and clients attend the training. If funded, together with the East Metro grants, these foundations will provide 14 STAR-Lite Training for up to 840 people. This is fulfilling our Peacebuilding mission!
In 2018, we will plan to offer SL at least three times to the general public. The first one will be January 12, 2018. The other two SL trainings will likely be in late Spring 2018 and early Fall 2018.
We recently had a very productive phone call with the a local public library administrator who expressed interest in having their staff receive our trauma-informed, restorative justice-focused trainings, possibly in collaboration with other city departments.
Restorative Justice Training: In 2017 we offered RJ 101 in March and November 2017 and both were completely full with 18 trainees months ahead of time. Because of the growing popularity of our Restorative Justice 101 Training, we are offering this training specifically for higher education professionals in January 9, 2018 and it is nearly full. Our March 9, 2018 RJ 101 Training is completely full with 18 trainees, and our April 13, 2018 RJ 101 Training already has registrants.
Resilience and Self-Care Training (Resilience 101): This 2-hour training was originally created for and offered to Anoka County Employees by contract arrangement and was very well received. This training was further developed into a 3-hour training for the general public. Although Resilience 101 was offered three times for the general public, only the June 16, 2017 training had the minimum required number of trainees. We likely will offer this training at least twice in 2018 for the general public.
Continuing Education for Peacebuilding Training: Our trainings continue to be attractive to those who are able to pay the full tuition including mental health professionals, teachers, and nurses for continuing education credit. Our single day trainings are approved for CLEs for attorneys. In 2017, about 15% of our graduates opted to pay for continuing education or continuing legal education for our trainings. This is an increase over previous years.
MN Peacebuilding Film Series: As of December 12, 2017, we completed our 5th year of our free monthly MN Peacebuilding Film Series. Since January 2013, we have shown 60 unique, social justice-oriented films to an average of 20 people at each event. In addition to offering great discussion toward community peacebuilding, these monthly events provide promotion for Peacebuilding’s mission, trainings and events, and requests for contributions. Since October 2016, we have shown the films at the Birchwood Café in south Minneapolis and we have an excellent working relationship. As resources become available, in 2018, we want to instigate a free monthly showing of our Film Series in North Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Coming to the Table (CTTT) After Crixell Shell and Donna Minter attended the June 2016 CTTT leadership training in Virginia, Crixell Shell took leadership to offer the first monthly CTTT group in May 2017 in North Minneapolis. Generally 12-18 people register and typically the group size is 4-12. 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 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. We want to take Minnesota beyond the legacy of enslavement for all who want to be part of the solution. Thanks to Board Director, Ernie Belton, we have a “permanent” CTTT-Mpls home the 3rd Saturday of each month at the Sumner Library on Hwy 55! As resources allow, in 2018, Peacebuilding will seek to instigate monthly CTTT gatherings in Saint Paul and South Minneapolis.
LUNAFEST: Minneapolis: In 2017, our April and September LUNAFEST: Minneapolis events netted over $11,000 for our Peacebuilding Trainee Scholarship Fund. In 2018, for the fifth year in a row, thanks to nationally known LUNA Bars, Peacebuilding will host LUNAFEST: Minneapolis on Wednesday April 25, 2018 at the Riverview Theater. Notable Minnesotan, Patty Wetterling has graciously agreed to be our Honorary LUNAFEST Chairwoman for the evening! As before, we’ll have bountiful gift baskets to raffle, and the LUNAFEST After Party at the Riverview Café. We hope to offer this event again at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis’ Theater in Fall 2018.
Peacebuilding Research: Since January 2017, we have collected pre/post data at all our STAR and STAR-Lite Trainings to continue to quantify their efficacy. In collaboration with Wendy Brunner, MPH, PhD, Minnesota Department of Health, we are proud to announce that we now have strong statistically significant evidence that the STAR and STAR-Lite Trainings increase trainees’ confidence to: (1) identify and address psychological trauma; (2) break cycles of violence with positive productive alternatives to revenge; and (3) build resilience and self-care for the empowerment of themselves and their communities. Along with quotes from energized graduates, these research findings are providing the backbone of solid evidence that potential funders and contracting groups require and request. We plan to submit an article for publication of these research findings to the international professional journal Intervention.
Organizational Assessment: At the request of Northwest Passage Ltd. (NWP), an assessment and residential treatment center in NW Wisconsin for adjudicated youth, I conducted an organizational assessment to determine staff’s knowledge of being trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative justice-focused. This assessment also collected staff’s confidential opinion of strengths, challenges, and suggested improvements for the organization. After collecting on-line survey data from 47 staff and conducting hour-long interviews with 13 staff, Donna analyzed the data, wrote and submitted a report. This NWP organizational assessment process took about 75 hours. Overall NWP administrators and board of directors were impressed with the report’s findings. They are now in the process of developing a strategic plan for staff training in 2018. We hope this includes contract trainings from Peacebuilding.
We have accomplished much in 2017 toward Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State for All!
- We have done all this work with a 2017 operating budget of $113,600, and we have a projected budget of $182,000 for 2018. Grants will increase our organizational budget accordingly.
- In August 2017, our new Communications Coordinator, started working 25 hours per week and now is averaging 32 hours per week. In addition to completing all promotion and marketing tasks via social media, assisting with all aspects of LUNAFEST, preparing, organizing, and assisting with administration of all the trainings and events, she will develop a content calendar for blogs and in collaboration with me, write blogs for weekly publication about issues related to Peacebuilding’s work in the community.
- We are grateful for the commitment of our three co-trainers Crixell Shell, MS; Judy Pilz, MSW, LICSW, and Michele Braley, MSW, LICSW as Peacebuilding grows toward sustainability. We are pleased that four of our graduates who are women of color have expressed interest in becoming STAR Trainers as time permits and as the demand for trainings grow.
- We are pleased with our strong diverse Peacebuilding Board of Directors who know how to “get it done!” And we have an increasing number of Peacebuilding graduates who want to be Community Peacebuilding Ambassadors. Several of our outgoing Directors will now be Ambassadors.
- Hire an energizing, enterprising, forward-thinking full-time Assistant Executive Director (AED) with experience in fundraising, grant-writing, public relations, community organizing, and administration. Our succession plan is that this AED will eventually become Peacebuilding’s Executive Director. We are seeking $75,000/year for this position for three years. When our AED becomes the Executive Director, I will focus my energies on training trainers, program development, and conducting trainings across the state.
- Increase our Communications Coordinator position to full-time with a competitive salary with benefits.
- Increased our Office Space. Currently, we rent storage space for $100/year in the education wing of a local church where we have access to a printer, Wi-Fi, and flexible shared work space to prepare for community trainings and events. We are seeking a dedicated office space with a minimum size of 50’ x 40’ to allow for administrative work, training and events supplies storage, training and event preparation, and board and committee meetings.
- Expansion of Peacebuilding’s programs and trainings throughout the Twin Cities Metro Area and in Greater Minnesota.
- Expand Peacebuilding’s trainings, events, and programs throughout Minnesota and the region.
- Increase our number of high quality, multi-cultural, multi-racial STAR, STAR-Lite, Restorative Justice, and Resilience trainers.
- Develop additional Peacebuilding trainings.
- Strengthen Peacebuilding’s research program to continue to demonstrate our programs’ evidence-based effectiveness.
- Have a dedicated Peace Building office and training space in Minneapolis.
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 justice-focused, empowering communities in Minnesota, the USA, and around the world. Thank you for being part of the answer with Peacebuilding.
We welcome all to our trainings and events, and to join Peacebuilding as volunteers and donors. To contribute to Peacebuilding financially, checks can be made payable to MN Peacebuilding and mailed to MN Peacebuilding, c/o DL Minter, PhD, PO Box 3717, Minneapolis, MN 55403 or by giving online at https://givemn.org/organization/Minnesota-Peacebuilding-Leadership-Institute
Courageously, warmly instigating justice, peace, and hope together,
Donna L. Minter, PhD, LP
Founder and Executive Director
The Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan public charity nonprofit organization
transforming psychological trauma into nonviolent power with positive, productive alternatives to revenge.
Our mission is to instigate, train, and support racially, sexually, religiously, ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse individuals and organizations to become trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and restorative justice-focused, empowering communities in Minnesota, the USA, and around the world.