Annual Report 2009‐2010 Contact Information: Peaceful Schools International PO Box 31296 Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3K 5Y5 Telephone: 902‐220‐26235 Toll‐free in North America: 866‐532‐0228 Facsimile: 902‐405‐1221 E‐mail:
[email protected] Website: www.peacefulschoolsinternational.org PSI is a registered with Revenue Canada as a charitable organization. Charitable number: BN86599 8215 RR0001
OUR MISSION AND VISION PSI’s mission is to provide support and recognition to schools that have declared a commitment to creating and maintaining a culture of peace. PSI’s vision is to build a global network of peaceful schools.
FOUNDING PRINCIPLES OF PSI PSI is non‐prescriptive: PSI is founded on the belief that each school’s journey to create a culture of peace is unique. Membership criteria are intended to be used as a guide rather than a strict evaluation measure. Each school must be given the freedom to set its own course based on its vision and timetable. Membership is voluntary: Schools join because they have already expressed a desire to create an ethos of peace. As we have learned from recorded history, mandating or imposing peace is not an effective means by which to achieve it.
PSI MEMBERS As of June 30, 2010, PSI had 319 members in 16 countries. 71% of PSI members are in Canada. PSI also has members in Cameroon, Finland, India, Jamaica, Liberia, Nepal, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Philippines, Serbia, Sierra Leone, St. Kitts, Trinidad and the USA. 170 elementary schools (K ‐ grade 6) 4 adult learning centres 86 middle schools (K – grade 8) 1 university 37 high schools (grades 9 – 12) 1 school board 13 other schools (K – 10 or K – 12) 1 children’s centre 5 non‐governmental organizations 1 health centre
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GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 1. Peace education is part of the core curriculum in all educational institutions that are members of PSI. • The curriculum for elementary, middle and high schools contains an explicit peace education component. • PSI and PSI member schools work to encourage the appropriate authorities to include peace education in the curriculum of elementary, middle and high schools. 2. Within PSI member schools there is a secure, welcoming and respectful culture where all forms of violence* are unacceptable, setting an example for the community at large. • Member schools report an improvement in school climate and/or a reduction in incidents of violence. • Member schools report providing conflict resolution strategies for students and staff. 3. PSI provides practical and effective peace education resources that are used by staff and students in its member schools and by others. • Member schools report their use of and satisfaction with the resources provided by PSI. • PSI holds events and provides professional development opportunities (workshops, symposia, conferences, etc.) that are well‐attended and receive positive evaluations. • PSI member schools report networking with other members to share ideas and increase knowledge and resources. 4. There is a greater awareness of PSI and its positive impact within communities. • There is an increase in the number of PSI member schools around the world. • PSI actively engages in peace‐ and education‐related events and activities in the community (for example, fairs, special days like anti‐bullying day, conferences, Dept. of Education PD days, etc.). • Organizations and individuals express support for the work of PSI. *PSI defines violence as the intentional use of physical force or power that threatens or results in physical or psychological harm. These goals form the basis of PSI’s strategic plan.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS PSI is privileged to have a dedicated and hard‐working Board of Directors. Current members are: Hetty van Gurp Heather Harris President Vice‐President Founder of PSI Principal, Kingston and District School Teacher and principal (retired) Ward Carson Greg Albers Secretary/Treasurer Member‐at‐large Accountant (retired) Teacher, Citadel High School Alexis Allen Bridget Brownlow Member‐at‐large Member‐at‐large President, Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union Conflict Resolution Officer, Saint Mary's University Terry Kelly Ian McAllister Member‐at‐large Member‐at‐large Inspirational speaker, musician, songwriter Professor, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS Joe Morrison Lynn Winter Member‐at‐large Member‐at‐large Principal, Oxford School Principal, Champlain Elementary School
STAFF Clare Levin, Executive Director (902) 220‐2635 or 1‐866‐532‐0228 (toll free in North America)
[email protected] Office Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am ‐ 4:30 pm
PSI Board members from L to R: Terry Kelly, Ward Carson, Clare Levin (Executive Director), Hetty van Gurp, Greg Albers, Bridget Brownlow, Ian McAllister, Alexis Allen. Missing: Heather Harris, Lynn Winter, Joe Morrison
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REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR This year, PSI surpassed the 300 member mark. We now have member schools in 16 countries around the world, and interest and engagement in creating peaceful schools continues to grow. This year, our members celebrated peace in their schools with flag ceremonies, school assemblies, drama and art, and many other activities! This year also marks a turning point for PSI as we enter an exciting new phase with the hiring of our first ever Executive Director. PSI now has greater capacity to develop and implement ideas for new projects that will support our members in building a culture of peace in their schools. We plan to expand the activities, programs, and training opportunities that we offer to member schools and to others. Our key work over the past year includes: •
•
•
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Support for Members – PSI continued to support its member schools through the development and sharing of new resources, our monthly activity ideas, and the member newsletters. We also continued to provide training to teachers and students in a range of areas. Twenty‐six new members joined PSI this year. Projects – PSI carried out work on its active projects in countries around the world, including Canada, Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone and Pakistan. These projects focus on expanding peace education and providing support for teachers and students committed to creating a culture of peace in their schools. Public Engagement – PSI improved and expanded its communication tools last year: we updated the website, joined Facebook, and continued to attract new subscribers to the Peace Signs monthly e‐newsletter. PSI also held several public events that were well attended and engaged our supporters. Governance – The PSI Board continued to work together collaboratively to fulfill the mandate of PSI. The Board held its second annual planning retreat in March 2010. Organizational Development – This year has seen a major transition with the hiring of an Executive Director for PSI. Diversifying and expanding funding are also major priorities.
Without the tireless work of PSI volunteers, the Board of Directors and our member schools, the accomplishments of this year would not have been possible. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to PSI’s work, especially PSI’s volunteer Board of Directors. Hetty van Gurp President of the Board Clare Levin Executive Director
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SUPPORT FOR MEMBERS Building a Global Network of Peaceful Schools Twenty‐six new member schools joined the PSI network over the course of the 2009‐10 school year, many of them from Sierra Leone and Pakistan. A school from New Zealand also joined, our first member from New Zealand. A big welcome to all of our new member schools! New PSI member schools, June 30, 2009 – June 30, 2010 School or Organization Afshan Academy Agha Primary & Secondary School Al‐Makhadoom Public School Beaver Valley Community School Capital City Grammar School Christian Home Mission School System Cranmore Integrated Primary School
City Karachi Karachi Karachi Thornbury Karachi Monrovia Belfast
Derrydown Public School Gbonkelenken Christian High School Golden Career Primary & Secondary School H.M. Iqra Academy Makambray Community Primary School Mapaki Primary School Maso Community Primary School Mathombo Primary School Mayagba Primary School Mi'Kmawey School / Potlotek Adult Learning Program
Toronto Ontario Makonkorie Gbonkelenken Karachi
Canada Sierra Leone Pakistan
Karachi Makambray Paki Masabong
Pakistan Sierra Leone
Mapaki Maso Mathombo Mayagba Chapel Island First Nation Pefferlaw Mapaki
Paki Masabong Paki Masabong Paki Masabong Paki Masabong Nova Scotia
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Canada
Ontario Paki Masabong
Canada Sierra Leone
Bumban Laval Sudbury Bareilly Up Tamilnadu Saint‐Lazare Wanganui
Paki Masabong Quebec Ontario South India Quebec Aotearoa
Sierra Leone Canada Canada India India Canada New Zealand
Morning Glory Public School Paki Masabong Junior Secondary School R.C. Bumban Primary School Souvenir Elementary School St. Michael School St. Xavier's College Stars Model Matriculation School Westwood High School Whanganui Awa School Wainui‐a‐rua
Province or State Ontario
Country Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Canada Pakistan Liberia Northern Ireland
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Professional Development In October 2009, Rick Lewis, PSI Regional Coordinator in Florida, facilitated a workshop in Halifax to help teachers address aggression in school. The workshop explored the roots of student aggression, taught a variety of strategies to increase the self‐understanding and self‐control of students using aggressive behaviors, and discussed ways of empowering student leaders to address aggression and mistreatment that occurs outside the areas of adult supervision. Each workshop participant also received a copy of the 30 page booklet entitled, “Who Are You Calling Aggressive?” created by Hetty van Gurp and Rick Lewis. School Twinning PSI continued its school twinning activities in 2009‐10, connecting schools in Sierra Leone with schools in Canada. PSI sees the twinning work as an important service for member schools; it is a way of allowing students and teachers to connect directly with one another and learn more about themselves and the world around them. Students in Sierra Leone showing messages they received from their friends in Canada Resources PSI continued to develop resources that can be of use to our member schools. This year we produced the following resources: • Yearbook: The 2008 – 2009 PSI Yearbook was distributed and posted on the PSI website in the fall of 2009. The yearbook is a celebration of what our members have achieved and provides ideas and inspiration for other schools. • Newsletters and Monthly Activities: PSI continues to send out the PSI newsletters ‐ Peace Talks International and Peace Talks Jr. four times during each school year. Each month, PSI also sends out an idea for a school‐wide or classroom activity that will help to build peace in the school. • The Whole Village Toolkit: As part of the Whole Village project (see below), a toolkit and video were created based on the presentations that were carried out. These resources offer parents and educators tools to help children learn strategic communication techniques to de‐escalate problem situations and deal with verbal abuse and unfair treatment in a respectful and assertive manner. These resources are available in PDF format on the PSI website. Annual Report, July 2010
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PROJECT ACTIVITIES CIDA project in Sierra Leone The two year Education for Sustainable Peace and Development in Post‐war Northern Sierra Leone project wrapped up in March 2010. The project was designed to improve the well‐being and quality of life of marginalized children and adults in the post‐war Northern Province of Sierra Leone through support for integrated basic and peace education and agricultural and economic development, enabling community members to become active change agents who advocate for good governance and respect for human rights. This project was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and was a partnership with the Sierra Leonean NGO, the Centre for Development and Peace Education (cdpeace). The second and final year of this project saw PSI and cdpeace continue to work with teachers, students, and communities in Sierra Leone on peace education, gender equity, and rural development. In 2009‐2010, cdpeace/PSI volunteers Clare Levin and Carolyn van Gurp carried out work for this project including workshops for teachers, school twinning, and providing support to women’s groups. We are pleased that 8 of the schools we worked with in Sierra Leone have now become members of PSI! Now that this project is complete, PSI will continue its support of and work with schools and communities in Sierra Leone through the Nakamah Kawaleh Peace Education Fund. Nakamah Kawaleh Peace Education Fund In January 2009, Peaceful Schools International established the Nakamah Kawaleh Peace Education Fund to support educational work in Sierra Leone. The establishment of this fund was the natural evolution of PSI’s work on the Education for Sustainable Peace and Development in Post‐war Northern Sierra Leone project. The work carried out through this fund is supported completely by individual donors to PSI. Donors to the Nakamah Kawaleh Fund have already made a tremendous difference in the lives of students and teachers in rural communities in Sierra Leone. In 2009‐10, we supplied West African books for eight schools (along with training for teachers on integrating literacy and peace education), provided Annual Report, July 2010
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scholarships for further learning for both students and volunteer teachers, supported a community library (the Paki Masabong Learning Resource Centre) and helped volunteer teachers to continue teaching by assisting them with health care costs. In 2010‐11 we will continue this programming and are in the process of raising funds to support this work. We look forward to another productive year and count on your ongoing support to continue to empower the people of Sierra Leone to improve their lives through education.
PSI in Northern Ireland For the fifth year in a row, students from Saint Mary’s University, led by Bridget Brownlow, PSI Board member and Conflict Resolution Advisor for Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, travelled to Belfast in February 2010 to work with students and teachers to address issues surrounding peace and the importance of conflict resolution. Students began in Canada with basic conflict resolution training and “The trip to Northern opportunities to facilitate conflict resolution workshops I reland was a defining with children and youth at Oxford School in Halifax, Nova experience for me.” Scotia, a PSI member school. - student participant PSI also continued to support Barnardo’s children’s Charity in Northern Ireland in their efforts to institutionalize PSI’s approach in schools there. PSI in Pakistan PSI has been working for the last 2 years with schools in Karachi, Pakistan, under the enthusiastic leadership of Nadeem Ghazi, PSI Regional Coordinator for Pakistan. This year, PSI applied for and was granted funding from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) to expand our work in Pakistan. The From Peaceful Schools to Peaceful Communities in Pakistan project is designed to provide school‐age children in at least 25 schools in and around Karachi, Pakistan, with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about the behavioural changes that will enable them to prevent conflict and violence; to Nadeem Ghazi with peer mediators at Dorval Elementary resolve conflict peacefully; and to in Montreal. create conditions conducive to peace, whether at a personal, interpersonal or inter‐group level. It will also increase
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awareness, understanding and appreciation of diversity in participating schools, and will strengthen the capacity of schools in Pakistan to teach these essential skills to their students and in the broader school community. In April 2010, Nadeem visited Canada for training on peace education tools and techniques. He will be passing on this training to the pilot schools we are working with in Karachi over the course of the project. Nadeem and Clare (PSI’s Executive Director) also visited a number of schools in both Montreal and Nova Scotia while he was here. Keeping Our Children Safe: The "Whole Village" Project In the fall of 2009, PSI launched the Keeping Our Children Safe: The “Whole Village” Approach project. This was a dual track initiative to help keep our children safe at school. The program offered families: • Practical strategies to share with their children focused on alternatives to the typical fight, freeze, or flee response to mistreatment by peers. • Strategies for working in collaboration with their child’s school to deal with the insidious problem of bullying. PSI President Hetty van Gurp travelled around Nova Scotia delivering the “Whole Village” presentations to parents, teachers and community members in St. Peter's, Halifax, Baddeck, Kingston, Truro, Aspotogan, Hebbville, and Digby. In addition, a film of the presentation was also produced. This film is now available in hard copy as a DVD, or for free on PSI’s YouTube page. This project was funded by the Sheonoroil Foundation of the Nova Scotia Teacher’s Union and by the Community Grants Program of the IWK Children’s Hospital. The Art of Peace Summer Camp During the summer of 2009, PSI hosted the Art of Peace Summer Camp for 8 ‐ 13 year‐olds. The camp offered children an opportunity to creatively explore the meaning of peace – within ourselves, in our communities and in the world. Local artists and peace activists visited and made presentations throughout the week. Children learned about peace through activities such as drama, puppetry and writing. They made solar cookers, they tie‐dyed and they did some guerrilla gardening! Participants also had the opportunity to learn about global peace by discovering what life is like for children their age in Sierra Leone. The peace camp was a huge success, and we are planning to run a similar camp each year. Annual Report, July 2010
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PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PSI believes that all children have the right to feel safe in school. In addition to our work with member schools and on specific projects, public engagement about the importance and value of peace education is also a critical part of what we do. This year we continued to increase our public profile through various mediums: • Peace Signs: Peace Signs, the monthly PSI e‐newsletter continued to be used as a popular tool to share ideas, news from PSI, and peace education resources. We now have approximately 1,000 subscribers from all over the world. • Presentations: PSI held several public presentations this year, including one on our work in Sierra Leone and a panel presentation on peace education around the world featuring our Regional Coordinator in Pakistan, Nadeem Ghazi. In addition, PSI Founder Hetty van Gurp gave presentations at a number of conferences and events, including UNESCO’s Power of Peace Network conference, which took place in Thailand in October 2009. • Media: PSI continues to share its work and that of its members via the media. A number of articles were published over the course of the year, mostly focusing on the accomplishments of our member schools. Articles are posted on the PSI website, in the “News” section. • Facebook: PSI joined Facebook in the last year and already has several hundred fans of its page, a number that continues to grow each week. Facebook is an excellent way of communicating with donors and supporters on a regular basis. If you are online, look us up! • YouTube: PSI expanded the videos posted on its YouTube channel, increasing exposure for our work, and using it to share resources and ideas with members. • PSI website: In the summer of 2009, PSI did an extensive review and update of the content and organization of our website. This has made the website easier to use and added information that was previously missing. We are now tracking visits to our website, and average about 10,000 visits each month.
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FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the 2009‐2010 fiscal year, total revenues were $156,101, and total expenditures were $155,107, giving PSI a small excess of revenues over expenditures for the year of $994. PSI Sources of Revenue: April 1, 2009 - March 31, 2010 1% 2% 5%
Funding from government (CIDA)
3%
3%
Funding from individual donors Other external sources of funding School member fees Events
45%
In-kind donations Product sales
41%
1% 1%
PSI Expenditures: April 1, 2009 - March 31, 2010 10%
1%
3%
Sierra Leone project
8%
Whole Village project Salaries and wages Cost of goods sold
7%
Peace camp Workshops Administrative expenses 69%
Pakistan project
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Staff PSI experienced a major staffing transition this year as Clare Levin, the new Executive Director, took over the day‐to‐day management of PSI from Hetty van Gurp, PSI’s founder, and Ward Carson, PSI’s CFO in March 2010. This transition represents both an opportunity and a challenge: increased staff support will allow for the development and Annual Report, July 2010
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implementation of more projects and better support for our members, but also places a greater financial burden on the organization in paying a salary and other costs associated with having staff. PSI’s Board of Directors is certainly up to the challenge though, and believes that this is the right approach to take to expand PSI’s work. PSI would like to recognize the many years of support and dedication of its founder, Hetty van Gurp. Although she is less involved in the daily management of PSI, Hetty will continue in her role as President of the Board of PSI, and will continue to be involved at that level in developing PSI resources and future projects. Fund Development Last year, PSI applied for and received funding from several new funders including the United States Institute of Peace, the IWK Community Grants Program, and the Sheonoroil Foundation. We continue to seek new sources of project funding and are researching different possible options. PSI also implemented an annual fee for member schools in 2009‐10 in order to generate additional own‐source revenues to support our work.
LOOKING FORWARD This year has truly represented a transition to a new stage of development for Peaceful Schools International. PSI has grown over the last nine years with the guidance and hard work of many volunteers. Having a full‐time staff member will now enable us to leverage the time and energy of our volunteers to develop and implement more peace education projects, and to take on new opportunities, such as carrying out research on the effectiveness of PSI’s approach. Looking forward, we hope to welcome many new member schools, and to continue to strengthen peace education in Nova Scotia’s education system and beyond. In addition, we must think carefully about how to build our organizational infrastructure and capacity in order to ensure the long‐term sustainability of PSI. We plan to do this by investing in our staff and volunteers, expanding our fundraising efforts, and diversifying our sources of funding. All of this goes hand in hand with meeting our goals and objectives and expanding the reach of our work so that more and more schools become part of a global network of peaceful schools.
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