Building Peaceful Families
Training for Community Peacebuilders
Peace Bridges , Phnom Penh ,
Cambodia
I. Pilot Program Development Summary
Project title: Building Peaceful Families
Name of implementing agent(s):
Project location:
Project dates: Program Development: July – December 2009
Program Implementation: January – June 2010
Program Mobilization: from July 2010
A. Project Description & Problem
Project description: Development of a 6 unit (3.5
days, monthly) training program that equips community peacebuilders to: 1) apply conflict transformation KASH (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Habits) to family conflict; 2) gain new KASH relevant to understanding and cultivating healthy family systems and for facilitating family reconciliation; and 3) explore options for integrating this KASH into new and/or existing community peacebuilding programs. This pilot program will be implemented and participants mobilized from January 2010.
Problem: There is a need for more culturally appropriate and transformative training that supports community peacebuilders to engage family conflict. Baseline data indicates that this training should: 1) encourage participants to explore key values and attitudes relevant to family conflict and violence (e.g., gender, power, trust, etc.); 2) be provided with an awareness of the needs of everyone in the family (men, women, children, and extended family relationships), including exploring ways to include multiple family members; 3) develop family reconciliation models, acknowledging both the widely held value of keeping families together and important limitations when aggravating factors are involved; and 4) include KASH that equips peacebuilders to integrate family reconciliation/family conflict transformation programs into their organizations and communities in a diversity of ways.
B. Pilot Program Development Timeline/Milestones:
July 2009:
· Completion of case study research provides
baseline data for: 1) the context and type of family conflict that community peacebuilders have experienced; 2) identifying and exploring what KASH from Peace Bridges’ long-term training has been useful to community peacebuilders in transforming family conflict; 3) understanding what skills/strategies peacebuilder families are actually implementing during their conflicts; and 4) identifying continued needs for peacebuilder families for building healthy family systems and transforming family conflict.
· Facilitation of 2 staff learning days begins the process of sharing key learning from the research process Peace Bridges’ staff and key partners.
· PFP development team forms and begins meeting weekly.
· Completion of action plans, including calendar dates for advisory group meetings and pilot program training (January – June 2010) to set milestones for the program development.
· Formation of a standing advisory group with experience and expertise in related areas (e.g., family issues, gender-based violence, transformative training practices, etc.) to provide feedback on program content.
August 2009:
· Presentation of PFP program concept to the Peacebuilder Alliance
· Development and submission of the first draft PFP goals and KASH to management team and advisory group (and cultural advisory groups as appropriate).
· Ongoing development of Action Research proposal.
· Advisory group meeting: Friday 28 August.
September 2009:
· Revision of PFP goals and KASH.
· Development and submission of the first draft Unit 1 lesson plans to management team and advisory group (and cultural advisory groups as appropriate).
· Begin process of identifying key partners and participants for the pilot program.
· Plan public workshops to present case study research.
· Finalize Action Research proposal
· Advisory group meeting: Wednesday 23 September.
October 2009:
· Revision of Unit 1 lesson plans.
· Development and submission of the first draft Unit 2 lesson plans to management team and advisory group (and cultural advisory groups as appropriate).
· Complete final drafts of the full case study report (English) and summary reports (English and Khmer) and print
· Conduct Public Workshops (?)
· Ongoing partnership and participant selection process
· Ongoing action research
· Advisory group meeting: Thursday 22 October.
November 2009:
· Revision of Unit 2 lesson plans.
· Development and submission of the first draft Units 3 and 4 lesson plans to management team and advisory group (and cultural advisory groups as appropriate).
· Ongoing partnership and participant selection process
· Ongoing action research
· Advisory group meeting: Tuesday 1 December.
December 2009:
· Revision of Units 3 and 4 lesson plans.
· Development and submission of the first draft Units 5 and 6 lesson plans to management team and advisory group (and cultural advisory groups as appropriate).
· Final participant selection and administrative preparations for pilot program.
· Ongoing action research.
· Advisory group meeting: TBA.
Pilot Program Training Dates:
Unit 1: 19-22 January
Unit 2: 16-19 February
Unit 3: 16-19 March
Unit 4: 20-23 April
Unit 5: 18-21 May
Unit 6: 15-18 June
C. Expected Impact:
To design learning goals and KASH and develop culturally appropriate lesson plans that encourage and equip peacebuilders to develop programming to support healthy family systems in their communities, particularly in transforming family conflict.
D. Project Beneficiaries
Direct: 20 peacebuilders participate in the Building Healthy Families training pilot program. These participants will have: 1) demonstrated application of KASH they gained during Peace Bridges' long-term training, 2) selected from key partners, and 3) indicated a commitment to develop and/or integrate family conflict transformation/reconciliation training into their organizational and/or community programming.
Indirect: peacebuilder families and communities (75% of those trained make plans with the mobilization team to employ the KASH in their circles of influence through new or existing programs)
II. Program KASH & Unit Descriptions
A. Program KASH
We have identified three key areas, corresponding to our research recommendations, which each unit will consider in its development. These Program KASH are inter-related and will provide accountability for each unit's development to ensure that activities are included that address these priorities. By the end of the training trainees will have considered –
1. Healthy Family Qualities:
a. Identified the feelings, needs and strategies associated with their commitment to each other as a family, and to the well-being of individual members.
b. Explored their own attitudes, values and needs related to gender, especially with meeting needs of fairness among the spouses (equitable sharing, respect and support)
c. Deepened their understanding and application of Identity, including respect for individual differences and needs.
d. Identified and practiced key principles for cultivating parental leadership that includes nurture, protection, and guidance for children.
e. Understood the importance of trust in transforming family conflict and practiced key attitudes and skills that develop trust, supported by predictability and stability in family interactions.
f. Considered the impacts of crises on family relationships and the importance of flexibility in adapting to both internal and external demands of life.
g. Applied key skills related to empathetic listening to cultivate open communication between family members.
h. Developed a working model of family conflict transformation based on shared life values.
i. Understood the significance of networking with larger social circles (relatives, friends, community, and other social systems) in providing resources for both physical and psycho-social support, and applied this understanding to developing potential peaceful families programs for their context.
2. Family Reconciliation Models: One healthy family quality, effective problem-solving strategies, allowing for conflict resolution, is itself a key priority. This relies on applying KASH from Peace Bridges' training in Conflict Counseling and Mediation Training to the family setting.
a. Identified and applied key learning from Peace Bridges' training in Conflict Counseling and Mediation that is relevant to family reconciliation.
b. Explored traditional Cambodian models and their own practices for family reconciliation, with awareness of relative strengths and weaknesses.
c. Reconstructed a family reconciliation model that takes into account strategies for removal, management and transformation of families / family members because of conflict
d. Practiced related skills with the needed attitudes to enable them to train, coach and mediate families in conflict based on the reconstructed model
e. Practiced related skills with needed attitudes, to support good outcomes in intra- and interpersonal conflicts within their families (as parents, spouses and wider members of their family)
f. Reflected and integrated key biblical and theological concepts within the Christian tradition for supporting peaceful families.
3. Engaging Circles of Influence: Peacebuilders will be encouraged in developing healthy family qualities and applying the family reconciliation model to multiple family relationships. Homework for each unit will include interactions with family members and self-reflection.
a. One's own knowledge, attitudes and skills
b. Intimate relationships
c. Relationships with Children
d. Relationships with the Extended Family
e. Community Peacebuilding Programs
B. Unit Topics & Descriptions
The curriculum will be based on the reconciliation model developed by Peace Bridges. Each unit will develop key Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Habits that equip the peacebuilder both to understand the diverse needs of families in conflict and to provide training and/or services appropriate to the circumstances of the family (their own or another).
1. Unit 1: Exploring Healthy Family Relationships
This unit will introduce the family reconciliation model and begin with an exploration of the participant's own understanding of healthy family qualities. In this needs-based approach, peacebuilders will explore their values and attitudes about the type of family habits and qualities that meet the needs of everyone in the family. Key attitudes for consideration will include gender, power and trust.
Key Resources include:
2. Unit 2: Understanding Family Conflict & Violence
This unit will explore sources of family conflict, including the role of crises and aggravating factors. Peacebuilders will then consider different models and tools for understanding family conflict and violence, as well as reflect on their own experiences of family conflict and key challenges for Cambodian families today. Attention will be given to the impact of family conflict and violence on men, women, and children. Although this training program will be limited in its ability to explore and develop interventions for chronic abusive situations and aggravating factors (e.g., substance abuse, trauma recovery), peacebuilders will also identify key concerns and explore the limitations of conflict transformation. This will include an exploration of the options available to families suffering conflict and violence, summarized as: removal, containment, or transformation.
Key resources may include: Galtung’s Triangle, Walker's Cycle of Violence, Heise's Ecological Model, Johnson's Typologies of Domestic Violence, Walker's Social Indicators, Wineman’s Power Under, Perry’s Incubated in Terror, documentation of Cambodian experiences of family violence (e.g., the 2005 Baseline Survey); and CCMT lessons on conflict analysis, sources of conflict, negotiation, and 5 responses to conflict.
3. Unit 3: Grieving Tragic Expressions of Unmet Needs
This unit will contrast the 'loving contrition' that is often part of the cycle of family violence with expressing grief as a step toward reconciliation. Following Marshall Rosenberg's definition of destructive behaviors as "tragic expressions of unmet needs," peacebuilders will explore models and tools that help connect their experiences, social/community structure, and values.
Key resources may include: Galtung's Triangle, Linn et al’s Don’t Forgive Too Soon; and CCMT lessons on rational emotive therapy, 12 steps of forgiveness, conflict styles, Shalom, and accepting without agreeing
4. Unit 4: Cultivating Empathy for Self and Others
This unit will help peacebuilders consider how empathy provides a foundation for constructive engagement with family members. Focus will be given on moving from blame to empathy, and skills for identifying feelings and needs will be related to generating and exploring options. This will also include building awareness of the limitations of empathy and forgiveness and the importance of self-care.
Key resources may include: Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, Neff & Gilbert’s Self-Compassion models; and CCMT lessons on empathy, identity, accepting without agreeing, responses to conflict, and sources of conflict,
5. Unit 5: Restoring Relationships
This unit will be an exploration of moving from coercive to connective family relationships. Skills will focus on how to rebuild relationships based on empathetic understanding, including moving from making demands to requests. Special consideration will be given to trust and power dynamics in families.
Key resources may include: Winslade & Monk’s Narrative Mediation, Bush & Folger’s Transformative Mediation,
6. Unit 6: Building Community-Based Help Structures
This unit will build on earlier explorations of the socio-cultural and community contexts of family conflict and violence. The emphasis will be not only on structures that need transformation, but also on: 1) identifying community resources for positive change (including religious institutions and ideas), 2) building referral networks, and 3) integrating family peacebuilding programs into the community. Peacebuilders will also explore ways to integrate peaceful families KASH into their current organizations. Issues of ethics and confidentiality while working with families will be considered.
Key resources may include: Heise’s Ecological Model, Walker’s Social Indicators, MacNair’s Approaches to Peace Education, various models and biblical concepts from the Christian tradition; and CCMT Training of Trainers lessons. Peace Bridges’ Partnership and Mobilization policies and practices will also be key resources.
III. Project Monitoring and Evaluation
Program and lesson design relevant to the pilot program will be monitored in the following ways.
1) The Peace Bridges Management Team.
2) A standing advisory group: This group consists of a balance of expatriate and Cambodian members with experience and expertise relevant to family conflict/violence issues, transformative training methodologies, community peacebuilding, etc., will monitor the theoretical foundations, content and design.
3) Cultural advisory groups: Lesson design will also be checked by special meetings with Cambodian community members and/or key community stakeholders to monitor the program and lesson design for cultural appropriateness.
Further, the training design will taken into account evaluation and action research needs by including pre- and post-test instruments to measure changes in participant KASH (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Habits) relevant to family conflict/violence.
Other monitoring and evaluation processes will be named as the action research protocol is completed.
** Please refer to our Project Proposal for our program’s:
Project Summary; Background & Justification;
Goals, Objectives, and Activities; and Bibliography.**
