True to our commitment to building the Beloved Community, East Point Peace Academy works with people from all walks of life. We believe that working for justice for all people requires that we work with all people, on all sides of the conflict.
Incarcerated Community: We conduct regular workshops inside our country’s criminal justice system. We believe that the 2.5 million men and women behind bars know better than anyone the impact that violence has had on our society, and have as much ability as anyone to change the culture of their communities – both inside and outside the prison walls.
Law Enforcement: Few people have more of a need for conflict training than those whose job it is to engage in conflict situations. Click here to read more about how Kingian Nonviolence has been used within law enforcement.
Young People: Every movement for social change has always included leadership from young people. We firmly believe that young people are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today. We engage and empower young people by partnering with schools, colleges, universities and youth groups.
Movement Organizers: Too often our movements focus on short-term tactics and lack the long-term strategy to produce the large-scale changes needed throughout society. Protesting is not a goal, something that the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement understood well. Our trainings explores the strategies used in the Civil Rights Movement, shows how direct action was part of a broader strategy for change, and demonstrate the power of a movement grounded in nonviolence.
Violence Prevention Activists: It is not enough to simply “prevent violence.” If we arrest and incarcerate all young people, for example, it would “prevent” a lot of violence in our communities. That does not mean, however, that we are creating peace. Our trainings not only provide concrete skills in conflict management, but explore the difference between “negative” and “positive” peace, and an understanding that “peace is not merely the absence of violence, but the presence of justice.”
Anyone & Everyone: The reality is that every single human being deals with conflict on a daily basis. Conflict within our hearts, conflict within our families, conflict in our workplace, conflict with our friends, partners, neighbors, pets. At the heart of nonviolence is a philosophy on responding to conflict in ways that do not sow the seed for future conflicts. Whether those conflicts are big (rich vs. poor) or small (you vs. a coworker), the same universal principles apply. Anyone and everyone will learn something new from our workshops.
