Nonviolence Training: A Brief History
A brief history of nonviolence training around the world, Australia and in the Pacific by a group called Pt’Chang.
Author
Pt'chang
A Collection of Nonviolence Quotes
A collection of quotes to be used as part of training on strategic nonviolence and nonviolent direct action.
Pt’chang Volunteers Manual
Resources for inducting new volunteers into a peacebuilding community project. Includes insights into how one voluntary group operated, consensus decision making, and internal conflict resolution processes.
Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacekeeping Trainers’ Manual
Training resources by Pt’chang for practical ways to intervene in violence, to transform conflict and to build peace.
Nonviolence Trainer’s Resource Manual
Nonviolence training manual to support the work of people working to increase the power and effectiveness of grassroots social movements.
Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacebuilding Handbook
Resource for activists engaged in work for peace including practical ways to intervene in violence, to transform conflict and to build peace.
Active Listening Roleplay
A process guide for training workshops focused on working in groups, communication, conflict resolution, community organising and conversation frameworks. The objective of the session is to practice active listening and assertive communication.
Consensus Decision Making
Consensus is a nonviolent decision-making process that aims to create the best possible decision for the group. The input and ideas of all participants are gathered and synthesized to arrive at a final decision that is acceptable to all. Through consensus, we are not only working to achieve better solutions, but also to promote the growth of trust and respect within the group.
On Conflict and Consensus
Making collective decisions and navigating conflict and are core activist skills. Conflict is usually viewed as an impediment to reaching agreements and disruptive to peaceful relationships. However, it is the underlying thesis of Consensus that nonviolent conflict is necessary and desirable.
Principles of Co-operative Conflict Resolution
Navigating conflict is a core activist skill. These tips from peacebuilding have the potential to depolarise and de-escalate tense and challenging situations. This is an excerpt from the Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacebuilding Trainers’ Manual which is also available for download on the Commons.
The Pt’chang Games List
Games are great for energising a group, lightening the mood, promoting playfulness, and building morale. This list is an excerpt from the Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacebuilding Trainers’ Manual which is also available for download on the Commons.
Maintaining Group Morale and Motivation
Group morale is a key contributor to the success of a group, increasing cohesion, reducing burnout and preventing activist turnover. Build team relationships; resolve conflicts and improve communication; and celebrate success.
Activist Support and Debriefing
Activists need to individually and collectively deal with feelings such as loss, grief, frustration, anger and despair. We can set up our groups to provide support to each other including emotional support, support for action, and educational support.
Group Strategies to Prevent Stress and Burnout
A group’s culture can have a big impact on the likelihood of stress and burnout for members and staff. It’s possible to create a group culture that supports self-care, balance and sustainable work loads and patterns.
Stress Management and Burnout Prevention
Physical, emotional & spiritual renewal is crucial to looking after ourselves for the long haul. Tips on how activists can manage high stress.
De-escalate, Manage and Transform Conflict
Many conflicts get worse than they actually need to be because the participants lose control of themselves and retreat into self-reinforcing patterns of attack and counterattack. Here are some suggestions, drawn from the literature of conflict resolution and psychotherapy, that can be used to de-escalate conflicts.
Giving and Receiving Feedback
‘Feedback’ is a communication to a person or a group which gives that person information about how they affect others. It is important to be able to give feedback in such a way that people can hear it, take it in, evaluate it, and change behaviour which affects their relationship with others.
Active Listening
Active listening is a fundamental skill for peacebuilding and social change. It is more than hearing, it involves processing what has been heard and skilfully selecting a response. Active listening serves to encourage the person to tell more and most importantly, communicates to the person that you are interested and listening.
Nonviolence
As a means of radical social change, nonviolence draws on a rich history of people’s struggles from around the world. Grassroots people’s movements have brought down dictators, stopped armies, undermined corporations and halted entire industries with nonviolent resistance.
3 Strategies For Peace
Learn about the three major approaches to peace identified by Johan Gultung: peacekeeping, peacemaking, peacebuilding.