For the last year and a half, EPTO has been developing a partnership with the PeaceJam Foundation to expand a PeaceJam award-winning peace education programme in Europe. The Peacejam Foundatæion mobilises Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to lead life-changing inspiration & peer mentoring events linking them to young people from many different backgrounds. The programme engenders mutual respect, intercultural dialogue and inclusion for all. To meet Europe’s challenges of extremism, division, radicalisation & exclusion, we need to change the context for young people, teachers, schools and the communities they co-create.

In partnership with the Learning for Well-Being Foundation, EIMAI, PeaceJam UK, AMO Reliance, 4motion and Offensiva Tinerilor, EPTO was granted by the European Commission’s Eramus+ programme to consolidate a European network of youth-serving organisations implementing the PeaceJam year-long programmes in the UK, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania and Luxembourg over the next 3 years.

Peacejam’s “Compassion in Action” Curriculum is providing Education, Inspiration & Action based on the life stories of 14 Nobel Peace Laureates from all around the world. The curriculum opens up engagement for young people (aged 12-18) and their unique potential to shape and create their environment. To enhance the acquisition of social & civic competences we will work with 900 diverse, incl. disadvantaged & at risk of radicalisation pupils in 47 schools, 130 teachers across 6 EU countries. We will pilot, evaluate and adapt the curriculum for Europe. Then we will scale-up a curriculum that has created inclusive communities for 21 years in 40 countries.

To foster active citizenship and engagement, we will implement a proven service-learning model supporting positive youth development actions. With local actions pupils are internationally connected with their peers across the globe through the One Billion Acts of Peace initiative. Also a new format of training will provide 40 peer trainers a methodical support and certification process to support teachers and youth in building peaceful communities.

Thanks to the partners, we count on disseminating and scaling up to 4770 pupils and 517 teachers in 126 EU schools. The school pilots will provide policymakers with uniquely scaleable tested curriculum tools/methods/materials linked with grassroots. The EU@60 as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate may play a unique role in scaling up this opportunity to change the social inclusion context where it is most needed.

In this project, EPTO will be coordinating the organisation of the overall project, ensuring the operational and financial management together with the help of the partners. EPTO will also be the provider of training and pedagogical tools and linking the PeaceJam Foundation to the national Chapters that implement PeaceJam in their respective countries. EPTO will facilitate the exchange of experience between all the partners and lead the development of a new peer education programme based on the PeaceJam Curriculum that is existing for teachers.

To know more about PeaceJam, please follow the link : http://www.peacejam.org/

or join us on social media : https://www.facebook.com/peacejambelgium/