VICTORIA CENTRE FOR TEACHING PEACE & PEACE CAFE
Below please find a summary proposing a new Victoria, British Columbia Centre. We are still working on what to call ourselves. Everyone seems to like the name Peace Cafe, and that is certainly a significant part of the concept.
We are hosting dialogues/meetings
as follows:
VICTORIA CENTRE FOR TEACHING PEACE – Nelson Guedes will be facilitating the info and discussion meetings on the new Centre. Please contact Nelson to share your ideas of what you would like to see happening with the Centre. For more info:
Nelson Guedes
E: nelsonfguedes[at]gmail.com
P: 778.433.4147
C: 250.884.0097
Web page: www.peace.ca/victoria.htm
This will be part of an ongoing set of gatherings and information, to be posted here.
VICTORIA CENTRE FOR TEACHING
PEACE AND PEACE CAFE PROJECT SUMMARY
My name is Bob Stewart. I
am a Chartered Accountant and Certified Management Consultant in Canada. I
am also Director of Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace ( www.peace.ca
) and initiator of Peace Cafés across the country ( www.peacecafe.ca
). I am interested in doing a feasibility study on the creation of a
Centre for Teaching Peace in Victoria, following our Peace Café model (but more
encompassing).
I see this as a Victoria
Resource Centre (with informational and human resources, training, etc.) to help
people with their self development, empowerment, and to help with the
community’s development. It would provide the space for people to come
together, explore what we can do individually and collectively to help in our
evolution. It would attract organizations and people involved in
development, life skills coaching and the healing arts. It would be a
resource for the other communities of British Columbia as well.
We are currently looking for a physical space or spaces to host the Centre.
I believe this is an amazing
and very positive initiative, and would love to share thoughts on what is
possible in Victoria. A number of years ago, I learned how much I had to
learn to be more successful in life, relationships and career, and find peace,
despite my formal education and training. It seems like our school systems
and parents did not teach us some of the most important things to succeed in
life (no fault of our parents – no one taught them). It also seems like
stress has become the major dis-ease today. I have spent the last 15 years
on the path of learning, informing and empowering people and organizations to be
more successful (however they measure success for themselves). And while I
have lots of my own thoughts, I also believe that the wisdom exists within
Victoria to evolve higher individually and collectively. In fact, I
believe each Member of the community has a unique piece of the puzzle to bring
to the party, and is to be honoured for that. So my hope is to create
spaces where people can come together to share information, develop their
visions, plan ways forward, inspire action and help “build people”.
People building people, following a self-help model with mentors. We wish
to collaborate with existing organizations and people (i.e. enhance and not
duplicate), akin to a Barefoot University (eg. http://www.barefoot-university.org.za
).
In preparation for making Community Connections, we plan to develop an inventory of organizations and people in Victoria that would be supportive of this initiative. If you are interested to discuss this initiative or know of others that should be added to the list, please let us know. I used the term “Peace” (while many may not self-identify as a “Peace” organization or person) because of my background and I believe it is a good description for me for the time being. Personally, I believe the vast majority wish for peace in their lives, communities and world but may not know what they can do about it, and I see an important role to help as visionaries and guides on the path to Peace. (In fact, at Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace, we use the Inukshuk as our symbol as guides to safe passage.)
Bob Stewart
403-461-2469; fax 309-407-6576
Email stewartr[at]peace.ca
VICTORIA
CENTRE FOR TEACHING PEACE AND PEACE CAFE EMAIL
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
[To come]