Creating Cultures of Peace

a movement of love and conscience

Ordinary people transforming our private and public lives
in a movement of love and conscience.

BOOKS
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Engage with others

Join in-depth  face-to-face training for adult and teen citizen leaders who believe peace is possible and work for it!

Register by sending a letter of interest.

Online facilitator training provides ongoing support to local community groups.

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Learn with others

Creating cultures of peace requires training and practice over time and spreading the message of peace broadly.

Creating Cultures of peace:
A movement of love & conscience

A toolbox of ideas and practices for citizen leaders to:

  • Get started with orienting ourselves, creating a context and investing in principled friendships. 
  • Love life, both oneself and others, transforming power, practicing peace, tending emotion and learning to play. 
  • Act on conscience being aware of and available to life, forming community, experimenting with conscience, liberating ourselves from oppression, and practicing mutual discernment.
  • Create culture by creatively responding to human needs that have no universal solution, speaking up, caring for others, investing in living wealth, and documenting love and conscience.
THe power of goodness:
stories of nonviolence & reconciliation

Stories that inspire deep respect for the dignity of self, others and the natural world, in all our diversity, and embolden us to act peacefully. These stories show how peace and nonviolence work even under the conditions of war and violence.

  • Collection of short stories from around the world loved by young children and adults, with questions to spark reflection, conversation, insight and application.
  • Study Guide to using the stories in mini-workshops for youth and adults.
  • Teachers Guide to using the stories with students, teachers and counselors. 

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What you’ll learn

Gain tools for personal and social transformation that prepare us for creative cultural work of peace.

Personal Transformation: empowerment, resiliency & play

1
affirmation & safety

Learn to set expectations and follow a roadmap to make principled friendship, listen, speak positively, get to know and care for oneself and listen to, discharge, regulate and speak about emotion.

2
Transforming power

Learn to talk about violence, understand nonviolence and recognize transforming power in our private and public lives.

3
commitment to practice

Make personal commitments to live in accord with love and conscience allowing life’s transforming power to shape and guide our lives.

4
communication & cooperation

Learn to listen, speak, find our authentic voice, talk about feelings and needs, interact and balance needs with generosity, humility and empathy.

5
remembering & reconnecting

Learn to identify stress, distress and trauma, reprocess memories, grieve, mourn, reintegrate and create narrative timelines.

6
studio play

Engage in developmental play activities that reconstitute gaps in cognitive skills eroded by stress or violence: playing, patterning, creating, constructing, etc.

Social Transformation: conscience, liberation & discernment

1
conscience & conviction

Learn community dialogue that recognizes the equal dignity of all life, gets in touch with humility and conviction and values the simplicity of acting in accord with our conscience.

2
prejudice & privilege

Learn to break our own participation in inter-generational patterns of oppression and overcome prejudice and privilege with equality and simplicity.

3
personal transformation

Make a plan to transform our personal and public lives in accord with love and conscience that allows life’s transforming power to guide and shape our decisions.

4
feedback &
consensus

Learn to exchange feedback, make decisions alone and together in pairs and small groups, and develop our public voices.

5
expression & reflection

Learn to listen to conscience, write a statement of conscience, and plan steps towards continuous private and public transformation.

6
studio time

Engage in ongoing companion and community groups to creatively address human problems that have no universal response: respect, greeting, language, cooking, packaging, building, interacting, art, expression, curriculum, law, etc.

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About the author

Nadine brings a bold, vital message that peace is possible and essential for us all.

Nadine clare hoover
Nadine has worked with thousands of people, primarily in the U.S. and Asia, to recover from extreme violence and create peaceful, nonviolent communities. Over decades she has seen whole communities shift from despair, revenge and hatred to enthusiasm, confidence and genuine love for themselves and others, even reaching out to include people they formerly considered enemies. Together they identified tools that have worked across diverse cultures, languages and religions. They witnessed astonishing transformations of violent, destructive communities into peaceful, productive ones.
Nadine shares these simple, practical tools grounded in historic Quaker peace work while continuing to incorporate new learning.
 
Nadine grew up in the Appalachian foothills with a holistic, resourceful approach to life and work, placing her faith in the power of the Living Spirit to allow love and conscience to guide her life. She coaches community leaders, offers workshops, trains facilitators and documents practices that have worked for many.
 

Testimonials

What practitioners are saying about this work.

“Nadine is easily the most passionate Quaker I have ever met–when she speaks about the importance of conscientious objection right here and now; how we need to stand up and make our voices heard if we believe, as she does, that war is illegal, war is immoral and don’t let anyone tell you any different–well, you can’t help feeling stirred and emboldened.” MICHAEL MEARS, LONDON, UK, author of This Evil Thing (2016)

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I began working with Nadine on this training in Indonesia in 2005. It reconnected us to our ability to take right actions based on our conscience and reconnected our souls to a sense of value and capacity. This training emboldened my family and friends to start a peace movement in Pati, Central Java. Thank you Nadine for your dedication to peaceful society on the earth and willingness to document the work for our use.

Petrus, Central Java, Indonesia

Social activist and founder of Peace Place school and training center, Pati, Central Java, Indonesia

Creating Cultures of Peace unpacks the tools for practicing peace in crystal form. Theory and practice effectively interweave through stories of years of community work. I am pleased to have a book that virtually instructs and grounds me through these stories. I have followed the instructions and see it work! I have seen how the constancy in practice builds peace in my life and in many of the scenes in the book, as I accompanied Nadine on several visits in Indonesia.

Alma "Kins" Aparece, Bohol, Philippines

Human rights and environmental attorney and Dean of Planning, Bohol University, Tagbilaran City, Philippines

This training gave the courage and perspective to live ruthlessly aligned with integrity and peace. I notice the life and beauty inside everyone and everything, stay in my core self, and when listening, expect to be changed. The truth has its own power, let it go through us, but no matter how much we know, the first step is to love. 

Rosie Remmerswaal, Auckland, Aotearoa/NZ

Filmmaker, student of Te Reo Māori and peace activist, Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand

 

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Get started now

Join this experiential learning through activities, practice and reflection, affirming the goodness and capability of each person, understanding every person’s journey is different. We participate voluntarily, as teachers and learners, to change ourselves and society. Register for in-person introductory workshops or online training for facilitators.

Personal Transformation

any Donation up to $300
  • for active facilitators of
    social & ecological peace & justice
  • 3-hour internet sessions 2x/month
  • 10 sessions over 5 months
  • plus assignments
  • April - August
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Social Transformation

any donation up to $300
  • prerequisite:
    Personal Transformation
  • 3-hour internet sessions 2x/month
  • 10 sessions over 5 months
  • plus assignments
  • September - November
    February - March
register

The Power of Goodness

any donation up to $300
  • prerequisites:
    Personal & Social Transformation
  • 3-hour internet sessions weekly
  • 6 sessions over 6 weeks
  • plus assignments
  • March-April • June-July • Sept - Oct
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