On March 1, Kit Miller, Director of the Gandhi Institute, David Sanchez, Youth Program Coordinator, and Joel Gallegos Greenwich, Nonviolence Educator and doctorate student at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester were thrilled to give a presentation to the Warner School program.
The presentation included an overview of the Gandhi Institute’s Nonviolence Programming being offered at Monroe Middle and High Schools, NorthWest College Academy, and Pittsford-Mendon and Brighton High Schools. It also included an interactive to engage students in a similar exercise done in area schools. Participants were introduced to Gandhi & Nonviolence Cards and dialogued using prompts on the cards.
The Gandhi Institute values it’s partnership with the University of Rochester and other area universities and educators in Rochester by working in collaboration to create innovative curricula that caters to the needs of each demographic to support youth and adult learners to reach their full human potential.
Emotional Life Support for Middle School Students: Gandhi peace educators work with 80 at-risk middle school students for an hour each day. The curricula incorporates mindfulness and meditation, Nonviolent Communication, Dr. King’s Principles of Nonviolence, Civil Rights Movement history, and Gandhi’s history and philosophy. Topics include:
- understanding violence on the internal, interpersonal, and structural levels
- understanding nonviolence as both a philosophy and practice
- transforming a negative situation into a positive one
- preventing and responding to bullying
- creating healthy lifestyle habits
Nonviolence Clubs: Gandhi staff offer weekly sessions in 4 local schools and a local library incorporating the same ideas as the above programming. Students identify and work on projects focused on improving the climate of their schools while also developing their own tools and leadership skills. In 2015-2016 we want to continue this programming and add a section in the local youth detention facility in nearby Rush, NY at the request of that facility.
Data Collection: Using quantitative survey developed by RIT’s Center for Public Safety that measures attitudes toward violence, perceptions of safety, ability to empathize with others and ability to manage conflict. Students participate in a pre-survey at the start of the program and a post-survey at its completion to measure difference in skills and attitudes. Qualitative data is collected via student reflections and video interviews by Gandhi Institute staff persons.
For a glimpse at what some program framework and photos, click here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TtlvhTHttubKRfNS_lDZ1C_uNC9o8n8cWRkJK0PzEyA/edit#slide=id.p
