“To have faith in the power of dialogue is to believe in the promise of humanity.”
PeaceBread builds community through gatherings where people with conflicting views literally break bread together.
Are you deeply concerned about the rise of violence, discord and unrest in our nation and abroad? Are you deeply concerned about partisan and international gridlock standing in the way of human progress? Are you deeply concerned about increasing divisiveness expressed as racism, sexism, tribalism?
Do you want to take meaningful local action to reduce extremism and increase understanding, brotherhood and sisterhood, thereby creating a foundation for peace, leading to creativity, collaboration and shared prosperity?
If so, consider becoming a PeaceBread Fellow with the Genership Institute at I-LEAD. The team at I-LEAD has invested more than twenty years working with leadership thinkers, scholars, practitioners and learners in Pennsylvania’s most challenged communities through grassroots educational empowerment.
What does a PeaceBread Fellow do?
PeaceBread Fellows will help organize and host PeaceBread gatherings and develop the PeaceBread movement. Through a unique social venture strategy, PeaceBread Fellows will receive ongoing stipends to support the cost of PeaceBread activities. Successful Fellows will have:
- A strong interest in conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation and peacebuilding
- Familiarity with conflict resolution methods and a willingness to learn and develop new, creative strategies
- Capacity to open their homes (or arrange for safe spaces) to host small PeaceBread gatherings supported through the initiative (the typical gathering will involve 4 to 6 people)
- A passion to promote dialogue, relationship-building and understanding that leads to collaboration, creativity and shared positive actions.
The movement is just getting started. Early Peace Bread Fellows will have a significant impact on the design and development of this project, which is committed to real grassroots action in support of positive social change.
What inspires the PeaceBread Project?
The PeaceBread project captures the essence of genership: a commitment to transcend our differences in favor of collaborative, productive creativity in the service of community. Traditional leadership practices entail one person leading others toward a particular destination often in opposition to other “leaders.” The practice of genership provides an opportunity to shape a shared future by engaging and stimulating creative collaboration rather than conflict. We move from guns to gifts, from bullets to benefits, from missiles to missions, from destruction to dancing, from conflict to creativity.
To learn more about the rationale behind the PeaceBread Project, read this essay published on Genership.org.