Peacebuilders Making A Difference!

Eastdale CI is fortunate to have an official partnership with Peacebuilders. Here is just one story of the difference Peacebuilders is making:

"On Thursday, April 6^th, Peacebuilders joined Keele Street Junior Public School to introduce Peacebuilding Circles into two classes. While this has happened regularly the past few years, this was the first year that it was decided to bring a student leader along. Josh, a Grade 10 student from Eastdale, joined our two staff in order to co-facilitate Classroom Circles in two classrooms.

The first class was a Grade 3/4 split, which can make for a busy class when there are so many students! The topic for this class was friendship, with a focus on being part of a group. Josh (Eastdale student) led the group in a few icebreakers which were very well received. The funniest moment of the morning was when the students were asked,  “if you could have any superpower, what would it be?” and one student jumped up and said that he would be “Condiment Man” – bringing the power of condiments to hotdogs and burgers everywhere!

The second class posed a bit more of a challenge as it was a Grade 7 class, who all seemed much larger after being with the younger students. This Circle was focused on dealing with conflict and strategies to help us through tough times. At the end of the Circle a few of the students began asking questions of the two Peacebuilders staff and the Eastdale student, looking for strategies for specific examples of bullying and drama that they were experiencing.

It was a great morning, and wonderful to have Josh present and take the lead on much of the morning. He was well spoken, represented Eastdale, Peacebuilders, and the Circle process incredibly well, and did a great job at supporting the other students within the Circle. He was given positive feedback from both teachers in regards to how he chose to respond to the questions, and was thanked by many of the students.

Thank you again for the opportunity to have Josh part of facilitating our Peacebuilding Circles. He is a natural leader and we look forward to engaging him further in taking on a peer mentorship role!"

 And thank you to Erica Lalonde (Peacebuilders, manager) for sharing this story and providing  Josh with this leadership opportunity.