Goals and Objectives

The ultimate goal of CGPP is to realize peace within ourselves, our families, schools, communities, nations, and throughout the world through the understanding of three peace skills:

Accessing Peace Within - Understanding of our own feelings and needs, learning to find peace inside, and realizing how to bring a peaceful presence to any situation.

Being Peaceful Towards Others – Developing connection skills and awareness of feelings and needs of others.  Learning to be an open-hearted and non-judgmental. Practicing kindness.

Living Together Peacefully - Understanding and practicing empathy, understanding, and compassion.  Learning to work together in a manner that honors and empowers everyone.



Classroom Partnership

The project starts through collaboration with interested school districts to plan the most effective strategy to introduce or expand their peace curriculum.  The program involves two parts:

Part I:  CGPP personnel and volunteers typically work in elementary and middle school classrooms of twenty to thirty children over the period of a week for 1 to 1½ hours each day.  During this time students and teachers learn about and experience a peaceful classroom through the following activities:

  • Introduction to CGPP and the three peace skills.  Learning about and appreciating cultural diversity and understanding our foreign classroom connection.
  • Visual relaxation exercise - finding the peaceful place inside.  Talking about and drawing pictures of our peaceful place and collaborating to create a peace banner.
  • Dancing and singing Dances of Universal Peace – fun and simple circle dances from all over the world that are inspired by different wisdom traditions.
  • Other exercises chosen by the school, including writing letters to pen pals.

Part II:  CGPP coordinates with schools to help implement a long-term peace program or curriculum of their choice that best supports their needs.  This involves planning with the school and up to 30 minutes of classroom time each week with CGPP personnel and volunteers.  Possible peace curriculum partners include The Journey for Kids, Glowmundo, Pennies for Peace, Action for Peace and Conflict Transformation, Peace Jam, Teaching Tolerance, O Ambassadors, The Dalai Lama Foundation, The Center for Non-violent Communications, and other custom designed programs using approved curriculums.  Often these partners work with us in the classroom.  Our intention is to expand throughout the US and the world.

History

In the Fall of 2004 Theresa (Tajali) Tolan volunteered to work with her daughter’s 1st grade class in Evansville, WI. Over a two-week period, 150 children participated in a Peace Project. They met in groups of 30 to 40 to create the peace banners and participate in Dances of Universal Peace. The culmination gathered all groups dancing together. The Peace Banners were sent to four schools in Sweden, Bangkok, and Jakarta. The project impacted the school at its heart, and the facility began implementing other measures to grow peace in their school.

Tajali then had a dream of a peace banner in every classroom and was holding that dream when she met Kevin Lockwood in 2007.  He had been traveling in Thailand, India and Uganda, had written his own grants to promote the growth of indigenous businesses, and was volunteering with children and teaching Dances of Universal Peace. Tajali and Kevin began collaborating, and in January 2008 a small grant and fiscal sponsorship from Oneness Project allowed the launch of CGPP. Within weeks brilliant and talented heart-centered people began showing up to help. 

In May of 2008 CGPP held its first fundraiser, which was attended by over 220 people and netted over $8,000.  In 2008 CGPP worked with over 1600 children in over 50 classrooms, and sent peace banners to connecting classrooms in the US, Uganda, Uruguay, Tanzania, Norway, India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.