at the service of Artisans worldwide with the goal of equipping them in their efforts
to rethink peace and propose new modes of action
Ecole de la Paix (School of Peace) of Grenoble (EPG), France
The Ecole de la Paix of Grenoble, France, is born of a two-fold conviction : on the one hand that peace is not simply the absence of war, but rather the result of an assortment of conditions that make it possible - among which one needs to underscore the promotion of dialogue and the combat for justice; and on the other hand that education is a privileged instrument for effecting the necessary changes.
website : www.ecoledelapaix.org/
Officially instated since 1998, with the support of the city of Grenoble and various founding organizations (the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind, Comité Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Développement (Catholic Committee Against Hunger and for Development), Ligue de l’Enseignement (Education League), Médecins du Monde (Global Doctors),…), it conducts three principle types of action, on three levels – local, national, and international.
Education and training
Through the use of exhibitions, (« The paths of war, or how to avoid it » is used by 20,000 children each year), tools and pedagogic demonstrations (notably in priority-zoned schools of the city of Grenoble, in partnership with the concerned institutions), as well all sorts of internships (it houses twenty or so interns every year).
Research and documentation to better understand, resolve and prevent conflict
Interventions in ten university modules ; analytical work of peace processes and construction of democracy ; dialogue with soldiers.
Mediation and solidarity
By being present « in the field », in order to, in particular, count on the sharing of experience with the goal of becoming aware of international co-responsibility (aid in the adaptation of certain pedagogical tools on different continents ; support of civic initiatives for building peace, particularly in Columbia).
Encouraged by these advances that result in so many of its own initiatives that the expression of an increasing demand for learning to live together, the Ecole de la Paix today has the ambition succeed, most notably, in establishing « peace classrooms », in various forms, for different concerned audiences (adolescents, ordinary citizens, authorities, executives, et cetera …) and to create an instrument of measure - « indicators of peace » - that will serve to prevent conflict.
Richard Pétris
Director of the Ecole de la Paix of Grenoble