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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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!
What exactly IS #insideoutpeace? And what does it mean for leading transformational social change in the world?
We are happy to announce the release of our new publication Building Peace from the Inside Out: A Transformational Approach to Partnership, which traces the emergence-in-practice of #insideoutpeace as it has been embodied through the decade+ partnership of Catalyst for Peace and Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone, the partnership at the heart of it ….Keep reading this post >
I am full of gratitude for the week of rich learning we shared in Sierra Leone, living out Constellating Peace from the Inside Out. As part of that thanks, I offer the poem below. For me, our week together was an embodiment of the summons this poem offers.
A Transformed Tomorrow
As all around us torrents
of tears from suffering sisters
and brothers, from infants
to elders, drench the Earth
we are despoiling, and old
forms like ….Keep reading this post >
We twice had a bonfire on the beach we shared together during our week of Constellating Peace From the Inside Out.
Our last participants have left this beautiful beach for their homes, and now the work of carrying these lessons forward begins. There were so many new connections fostered, so much knowledge and experience shared, so many beautiful goodbyes — including this poem from Stephen Wicken, which he wrote ….Keep reading this post >
The learning experience for Constellating Peace participants was especially deepened by the midweek visits to the communities that had engaged in the People’s Planning Process. It took several hours of driving to reach the different communities, and the group went to a variety of locations, to be able to witness different dimensions of the program in action.
The visits to the villages gave the participants a direct experience of the ….Keep reading this post >
“Imagine a community as like a bowl. Humanitarian aid, whether for peacebuilding, health, education, economic development or any other purpose is like a bottle of water. When there is a crisis, resources get poured into the bowl — but they just go right through. The bowl is cracked. And if you keep pouring water into a cracked container, it widens the cracks and can damage it further — while also ….Keep reading this post >
