What is a Peace Circle?
Creators of Peace Circles are small gatherings of (usually) women who meet weekly or over a weekend with trained facilitators to explore what it means to create peace in the heart, home and community. It is a series of deep conversations that build community and connection, develop resilience, and ignite our capacities to build peace.
Why Creators of Peace Circles?
Creators of Peace Circles guide participants through personal reflection and dialogue to an awareness of the needs in their own lives and communities. It encourages participants to explore paths toward creating peace. Peace Circles invite participants to move beyond blame to responsibility and creativity to find their unique contribution.
Participants connect with each other on a deep level and are guided toward the possibility of individual or joint action that they can take to meet the needs of their selves, families or communities.
Our Peace Circles are facilitated and create a space where women from diverse backgrounds or faiths can share their life stories in an atmosphere of trust and respect. Each Peace Circle intentionally seeks to reflect the diversity of the community from which it comes.
Impact assessments have shown that our Peace Circles can be deeply healing and transformational to both individuals and communities. Through personal transformation, individuals experience inner peace and find a voice, sometimes for the first time, which leads to an awareness of a shared humanity with the ‘other’.
Download our Story Booklet to hear how Peace Circles have impacted lives. These stories were shared at the 2016 25th Anniversary Conference of Creators of Peace at Caux, Switzerland.
Why Creators of Peace Circles?
The format is designed to adapt to the cultural and social needs of each community. Peace Circles are usually facilitated by two women who have experienced Peace Circles and been trained to be a facilitator.
The session schedules may vary depending on community needs and the number of participants, though the duration is approximately 20 hours. Peace Circles may be weekly 3-hour sessions over 8 weeks, 3 nonconsecutive days a week, 3 consecutive days (weekend retreat), or 2 days (consecutively or not) plus 2 evenings.
Creators of Peace offers some guiding principles and each group develops and agrees upon their own operating agreements for their time together. Key to these is listening openly while not giving advice. The program is based on 10 Gathering Points and story sharing.
The Gathering Points explored are:
- What is peace anyway?
- Circles of concern
- What destroys peace & what builds it?
- Qualities of a peace creator
- Inner peace
- Listening to others
- Inner listening
- The power of forgiveness
- Peace in practice
- Evaluate & commit
Are Peace Circles for Women Only?
As Peace Circles are designed to adapt to the needs of the community they are facilitated for, the genders of participants will also reflect those needs. We encourage all genders or non-gendered people to explore their roles as peace creators.
In some situations, it is essential to maintain the safety of a women-only space where women may feel more freedom to express themselves. Peace circles are women-led, and originated as women-only spaces. They are evolving in many contexts to include all genders and respond to the needs of the community in which they are hosted.
Are there virtual Peace Circles?
Yes! Our facilitators have increasingly led remote, virtual Peace Circles. We are excited about the opportunity provided by virtual gatherings to connect people across physical distances. Email us at creatorsofpeaceintl(at)gmail.com to ask when the next virtual Peace Circle will be held.
Are Peace Circles Facilitated in Different Languages?
Yes. Many facilitators are bilingual. All facilitators across the network follow the same manual, which is available in English, French, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese and Spanish.
Experience a Creators of Peace Circle
Our Peace Circles have reached 50+ countries on 6 different continents. Contact us to find out if there is a Peace Circle in your area or let us know if you’d like to initiate one.
Facilitate a Peace Circle
We have trained over 500 facilitators to lead our Peace Circles. Once you’ve participated in a Peace Circle, there are opportunities to train as a facilitator. Contact us to learn more about the training process.
Host a Peace Circle
In-person Peace Circles bring together about 8-12 participants and are held in comfortable and private spaces. You may host a Peace Circle in your home, a local community centre or workplace.
Book a Peace Circle
Book Creators of Peace to facilitate a Peace Circle for your company or organisation or ask us how we can partner to bring Peace Circles into your programming.
Looking to self-host a small discussion group of your own? Check out this guide: Advocating for a New Story for our Shared Humanity.
