Peace For All Canada
Goals, Vision & Philosophy

Peace For All Canada (PAC) is an incorporated Community-based Conflict Transformation initiative established in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.  Through grassroots activism, PAC addresses socioeconomic, political, racial, religious and cultural conflict and intolerance, utilizing the Conflict Transformation model.  At the heart of our work is beginning the dialogue between people who have the capacity to learn from each other’s shared experiences and beliefs in order to move towards education and confrontation of issues and inequity. PAC utilizes the creative energy, imagination, skills and commitment of individuals and communities to promote community well-being.  Our vision is to build united and prosperous communities, living peacefully side by side.  Our mission is to inspire individuals, families and communities to confront all types of violent extremism and discrimination and promote socio-economic empowerment and peaceful co-existence between communities.  We work closely with immigrant and racialized communities but are committed to helping to unite all populations.

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Goals

• To prevent violent conflict and promote peace and conflict resolution

• Facilitate social cohesion

• Promote community trauma and support healing

• Engage in deliberate reflection and actions

• Promote social entrepreneurship

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Philosophy

Community Participatory Peacemaking (CPP) aims to inspire community members to participate in collaborative and coordinated social dialogue and action. And to facilitate reflective thought and meaningful social, cultural, spiritual and economic action. Community volunteers will manage it.

 

PFAC will invite everyone to come together to dialogue and take collective action about ways and means to expand our sense of community and diversity, shared values, norms and interest. Included will be individuals, family, community, groups, governmental and non-governmental organizations, refugees, immigrants, newcomers, current residents and natives. We hope to create a new space for community dialogue, collaboration and partnership.

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We will listen to each other, enhance our mutual respect, and work to bring the best out of every individual, family and community. With our shared purpose we will be able to dream together to support our mutual growth and our aspiration for peaceful co-existence and social, cultural, spiritual and economic transformation. We will learn to celebrate and treasure our individual and collective qualities and talents and work together to improve them. We want to walk together toward a path where we all feel that our humanity and diversity is recognized, cherished and celebrated.

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This community engagement space will be a place where we can invite “otherness” into our lives – a place where we can nurture a belief that we are profoundly interconnected with one another. We will learn how to acknowledge our dependence on each other and how to be accountable to one another. We will be able to bond together to confront our challenges and celebrate our blessings. We will stand together and take practical steps that will help us enhance our appreciation for the value of “otherness”. This will be the place where ordinary people with extraordinary passion for the value of love, kindness, respect and good work can find the ultimate collective truth that “we are part of otherness and otherness is part of us”

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Community engagement is also a space where we can tap into our creative mind and soul and collectively learn to transform our contradictions that emerge from the gap between our aspirations and our perceptions, attitudes and behavior which run contrary to our convictions. This is an opportunity where we can learn to restrain our contradictions so that they cannot hold us back from our desire to live life fully, love passionately, care tenderly and respect generously, and work to enrich others’ lives. It’s been said that, “The genius of human heart lies in its capacity to use these tensions to generate insights, energy, and new life”.

As we pursue the path of compassion and humility this is an opportunity to broaden our moral and ethical imagination in order to imagine someone else’s life. This is the path that holds the potential to prevent violent conflicts.

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Community engagement is an opportunity to examine reasons why many of us lack confidence in our own voices and in our power to make a difference. We can learn how to generate a sense of personal and collective voice and urgency so that we can shed light on our concerns and hopes. We hope we can reflect on each other’s insights and energy as we speak and act together. Unity radiates hope and gives rise to new life.

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The community engagement space is founded on the belief that a community allows us to exercise “the power of one”. There is urgent need to mobilize ourselves to think and reflect on root causes of our social, cultural, economic and structural challenges, and so confront them. In deed there is urgency to come together and discuss our problems while strengthening our capacity to create community and release our collective insights and energy.

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Through the community engagement space we can discover our path to fairness and inclusion – we can learn to think and launch our cooperative drive as we build a new space for citizenship. We will learn to share and use our talents, abilities and resources for the common good of our communities.