Learning from Ebola: Lessons from Sierra Leone for COVID-19

Many nations are facing a dangerous, wide-spread infectious virus for the first time in recent memory and are scrambling to learn and respond from day to day. I recently talked with my colleague and CFP’s long-term organizational partner in Sierra Leone, John Caulker, Executive Director of Fambul Tok about lessons learned in Sierra Leone from the Ebola virus disease outbreak that took place in his country between 2014-2016 with 14,000 ….Keep reading this post >

As Our Work Grows, So Too Is Our Team

As our team continues to support the growth of a global community of learning and practice building peace from the inside out, we have also needed to grow our team. Beyond skillful administrative skills, we were looking for someone with experience and background in grassroots organizing, communications, and coalition building. Our new addition comes with that and more. He brings multi-cultural and multi-lingual resilience and spiritually-based formation that enriches our ….Keep reading this post >

In a time of closings, a Sacred Opening

Bruce Springsteen has a rousing rendition of the classic folk anthem “This Little Light of Mine” on his Live in Dublin album, which opens with Springsteen calling out to his keyboardist, “Charles, bring us home!” Charles Giodarno then jumps into play with a galvanizing rendition of the tune, setting the stage for The Boss, his band, and ultimately the whole audience to join in singing, dancing, and letting our light ….Keep reading this post >

The transformative experience of wholeness

My life has been blessed and guided by transformative experiences of wholeness.

Here’s a brief story about one of them:

Scarcely a year after the 9/11 tragedy shattered the world we thought we knew, I hailed a cab at 4:30 AM on the empty streets of lower Manhattan.

I learned that the driver was from Pakistan. Informed him that I had many friends there.
Soon he was sharing about his life.

He had recently lost ….Keep reading this post >

Whole Systems Peacebuilding and Development

In Constellating Peace, the global gathering CFP hosted this past April in Sierra Leone, one of the central purposes was to name the importance of and actually convene representatives of the “whole global system” working on peace and development. We invited people to participate and to present who were coming from communities, civil society, local government, national government and international organizations. Building on eight years of the fambul tok process ….Keep reading this post >

CFP at UNGA Side Event

Catalyst for Peace partnered with the Government of Sierra Leone and the International Peace Institute to hold a side event in September at the United Nations General Assembly entitled: An Agenda for the People by the People: Consolidating Peace and Advancing Development in Sierra Leone.

The event included a panel presentation that featured the National Framework for Inclusive Development and Local Governance. The Framework grew out of long-term work Fambul ….Keep reading this post >

(Some of) what we learned at Constellating Peace

We’re thrilled to share the Event Report reflecting on so much of what we heard, saw, felt, and learned at Constellating Peace, our global gathering of learner-practitioners working in peacebuilding in ten different countries on four different continents.

We’ve collected the real-time reflections from the Event, as well as other resources from and for our time together, in an earlier blog post. In “Constellating Peace from the Inside Out,” we drew ….Keep reading this post >

Come learn more about the Wan Fambul Framework at the UNGA

Catalyst for Peace and the Government of Sierra Leone are working with the International Peace Institute to offer a side event about the Wan Fambul National Framework for Inclusive Governance and Rural Development at the United Nations General Assembly this month.

“An Agenda for the People by the People: Consolidating Peace and Advancing Development in Sierra Leone” will be held on September 27 at 8am at IPI’s Trove Lie Center for Peace, Security ….Keep reading this post >

An Overview of Constellating Peace

In April 2019, Catalyst for Peace brought 75 delegates from around the world to Sierra Leone for a week of dialogue, exchange, and embodied learning. Here are some of the highlights:

Constellating Peace from the Inside Out
An overview of the week spent together, highlighting key moments of learning and reflecting on how Catalyst for Peace strived to build a space not just for knowledge-sharing, but for transformation.

Building Peace from the Inside ….Keep reading this post >

“Community Healing from the Inside Out”

We’re pleased to share “Community Healing From the Inside Out: Systems lessons from Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone,” a chapter by Libby Hoffman that’s included in the book, Locally-Led Peacebuilding: Global Case Studies, edited by Stacey L. Connaughton and Jessica Berns, coming from Rowman & Littlefield in September 2019.

Enjoy!