The forum, which takes place in the Caux Palace overlooking Lake Geneva above the city of Montreux, began in post World War II Switzerland. It welcomes approximately 1,500 people to its annual events from across civil society, government and business sectors to be inspired, equipped and connected, and promotes building bridges across societal and other divides with the aim of building “a just, sustainable and peaceful world,” its website says.

Its approach includes reflection and storytelling – and inviting participants to serve the community by helping with tasks at the center. The sharing of menial tasks at the Caux Forum gives participants “a unique way to connect with each other …, places everyone on equal footing and breaks down silos,” its website says.

The forum’s conferences, which took place between June 28 and August 11, included titles such as “Addressing Europe’s Unfinished Business,” “Towards an Inclusive Peace” (TIPS), “Just Governance for Human Security,” and “Ethical Leadership in Business.”

CJP professor and Caux Scholars Program academic director Carl Stauffer was the restorative justice keynote speaker for TIPS.

Other CJP staff and alumni who participated in this summer’s Caux Forum conferences and programs included:

• Mohammed Abu-Nimer, a former Summer Peacebuilding Institute instructor and a professor at the School of International Service at American University and founder of the , also spoke at the TIPS conference.
• Aaron Oda MA ‘16 was a lead facilitator for the Peace and Leadership Program, which offers training and experience for addressing global change.
• Jonathan Rudy GC ‘01, SEM ‘01, senior advisory of human security for the Alliance for Peacebuilding, was a speaker during the “Just Governance for Human Security” conference, for which Ferdinand Vaweka Djayerombe MA ‘06, president of Pax Christi Montréal, served as a technical liaison.
• Diana Tovar Rojas MA ‘17, CJP’s peacebuilding network coordinator, led a circle processes training in the TIPS conference and represented CJP at a peace fair.

Professor Barry Hart previously served as academic director of the Caux Scholars Program and is a current member of the International Council of (IofCI), a worldwide movement seeking the transformation of society. The Swiss IofC organizes the forum.

At least eight other CJP graduates have participated in past Caux events, according to Stauffer and Hart.

The event — which includes speakers and interactive arts-based opportunities for reflection, learning and healing — is Saturday, March 19, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in 91����Ƶ’s Suter Science Center. It is free and open to the public as well as the campus community.

“Sexual violence doesn’t just impact individuals,” Stauffer says. “It is a breach of relationship. How can we rebuild community in the face of violence? If we can build toward a healthier definition of community, I think we’ll all feel safer and provide an environment for profound healing.”

Stauffer’s project, titled “,” began in 2012 with research among domestic abuse survivors from within communities of homeless women, undocumented Latinas and Mennonite women from Old Order or conservative church communities. Stauffer employed a strengths-based approach, with particular focus on the resilient ways in which women survive in spite of gaps in societal support networks. Her project employed strategies that empowered study participants, integrating storytelling interviews with circle processes and healing arts workshops.

Last spring, MA in biomedicine students were integrated into the project with a about adverse childhood experience. Most of the students are future health care providers, and the experience asked them to reflect on the symptomatic and diagnostic implications of personal narratives as they participated in storytelling, communication activities and playback theater events with co-facilitators, some of whom were domestic abuse survivors.

Stauffer and the planning committee have included some of these same components in the symposium, she says. “This is an interdisciplinary event with planning, support and participation coming from various groups and departments across campus,” she added, the representation of which is important to the idea of both community response and support.

Plenary presenters include , assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and University of Notre Dame doctoral researcher Sheila McCarthy. Turner will speak on “Healing in Community” and McCarthy on “Sexual Violence through the Lens of Moral Injury.” , an 91����Ƶ graduate whose published writing has explored her identity as a survivor of sexual abuse, will share her poetry. Inside Out, a campus theater group which has also participated in other parts of Stauffer’s multidisciplinary project, will host a session on the innovative and healing art of playback theater.

“To me, this type of witness moves our peace stance from the rubric of a privatized individual journey to a much more collective awareness of the church’s role in embodying the challenge to ‘speak truth’ to abuses of power,” Stauffer says. “It invites us as a community of faith to higher levels of transparency, truth and grace for all parties involved.”

Afternoon breakout sessions in two 90-minute blocks options provide attendees with a variety of options, including:

• “How to Appropriately Respond to Disclosures,” by Mike and Lavonne Yoder of in Milton, Pa.;
• “Body Work and Response Mechanisms of Memory Storage and Release,” by , director of 91����Ƶ’s (STAR) program;
• “Arts Approaches to Trauma Recovery,” with Janine Aberg;
• “International Perspectives on Sexual Violence,” by Diana Tovar Rojas and Myriam Aziz of 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding;
• ”Unpacking Consent, Unhealthy Relationships and Sexual Assault,” by Chris Ehrhardt and Laurel Winsor of James Madison University’s (CARE) program;
• “Safe Church Protocols of Prevention,” by Ross Erb and Jackie Hieber of , which provides sexual assault crisis services and other programs in Harrisonburg;
• “Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA),” by Sarah King and Daniel Foxvog;
• “Restorative Justice Dialogues in Crimes of Severe Violence,” by , restorative justice coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee;
• “LGBTQ Perspectives on Sexual Violence,” by , assistant professor of education at 91����Ƶ;
• “I Am Your Broken Place: The Grief of Sexual Violence,” by , director of at 91����Ƶ.

Stauffer says the project has involved “many hands coming together.” Members of the faculty and staff planning committee include Mansfield, the STAR director; Comer, director of counseling services; Roger Foster, co-founder of playback theater troupe; , history professor and department chair; Teresa Haase, director of the graduate program in counseling; and , professor of social work. The student-led has also helped to advise and support the symposium, and students are being encouraged to attend.

“Having students as an integral part of what we’re doing is key,” Stauffer says. “The investment and energy that students bring adds huge value to the whole process.”

A final educative component, designed for 91����Ƶ faculty and staff and focusing on institutional dynamics, is being planned for this coming fall.

The “Silent Violence” project has been funded by a JustPax Fund grant since 2014. focuses on individuals and organizations working for effective change through innovative approaches to societal challenges relating to gender, environmental and/or economic justice. The fund is administered by through the Everence affiliate, Mennonite Foundation. Due to that support, the event is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required.

“Kay Pranis is a one of the best teachers of circles in the world,” says (CJP) program director . “We are very fortunate to have her working with us.”

Used in many settings

Pranis is an international leader and freelance trainer in restorative justice and peacemaking through circle practices, which bring together victims, offenders, community members, and police officers to discuss how best to respond to a crime. Moving beyond cases of crime, she has worked with others to facilitate the use of peacemaking circles in schools, social services, churches, families, museums, universities, municipal planning and workplaces. (For an overview of her work and her background, view her 2013 Chautauqua Institution lecture on “.”)

The circle process is one of the core foundational concepts of CJP’s training for peacebuilders and has been used with positive results in many regions with a history of long, entrenched conflict, Docherty says.

“This is an important, transformative and deceptively simple process for engaging people around really hard issues,” she added.

The course begins Friday, Feb. 5, from 6-9 p.m. and continues Saturday from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday from 1-6 p.m.

Pranis has taught a 1-credit course on circles at CJP every year for the past 13 years. She returns to teach a second course for CJP in response to high demand. (Pranis is currently a member of the CJP , a group of expert advisors who help guide and shape the mission and work of the center.)

Circles ‘balance needs’

Diana Tovar Rojas, a CJP graduate student and political scientist from Colombia, took Pranis’ class in November. The course was a “wonderful learning and healing experience,” she said. “Not only is Kay a highly experienced circle keeper, but also a warm and spiritual one.”

Rojas has worked with UNICEF Colombia and within the juvenile justice system in the United States. She sees a great value in utilizing circles to “develop the ability to create a space for emergence and unlock the potential for collective knowledge sharing.”

Pranis first encountered peacemaking circles in the mid-1990s when studying with Barry Stuart, a judge in Yukon, Canada and also with Mark Wedge and Harold Gatensby, First Nations people of Yukon. Before that time, she worked six years as the director of research services at the Citizen’s Council on Crime and Justice.

From 1994 to 2003, she served as the restorative justice planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections. Since 1998, Kay has conducted circle trainings in a diverse range of communities—from rural farm towns in Minnesota to Chicago’s South Side.

Of her own journey learning about and working within the circle process, Pranis says: “The circle became a way for me to see how humans can live more successfully with each other and the natural world, balancing group and individual needs and gifts. The circle became a way to move to a kind of world that I want to live in.”

Pranis has written widely on the subject: two recent publications are Circle Forward: Building a Restorative School with Carolyn Boyes-Watson (Living Justice Press, 2014), and Doing Democracy: Engaging Communities in Public Planning with Jennifer Ball and Wayne Caldewell (Living Justice Press, 2010).

More information about course content is

For more information and registration, email , CJP academic program coordinator, at bennerj@emu.edu.