June 2009 News from
The Dalai Lama Foundation

Building Blocks of Peace

Project Clear Light ~ Prison Outreach

Combined Federal Campaign

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Building Blocks of Peace

Developed by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the Building Blocks of Peace is a series of downloadable teaching materials that offer a fresh perspective to the issues surrounding global peace.

Available as separate modules or a combined curriculum, these comprehensive teaching aids will guide students to understand global peace and discover their own solutions to violence and conflict.

Unlike traditional peace education materials, these modules go beyond conflict resolution to explore the broader meaning of global peace and its impact on our daily lives.

By working through each module and the extensive supporting information provided, students will learn how to define peace for themselves and gain an understanding of the key factors that encourage peaceful society.

These education modules are not restricted to any single curriculum area. Schools can easily customize activities to meet their needs and teachers have complete flexibility to offer learning within a range of subjects, or through special projects and theme days.

The Building Blocks of Peace offer:

• Four free peace education modules designed for 14 to 16 year olds;
• Unique breadth of coverage – built on the latest global peace research;
• Exclusive links to information sources in-cluding the Global Peace Index and video clips from the acclaimed documentary Soldiers of Peace;
• Comprehensive curriculum guides, com-plete with teacher notes, student handouts, assessment suggestions and extension activities.

This 4-module series can be accessed as a complete series or downloaded individually. Building Blocks of Peace is composed of four thematic modules:

• “An Understanding of Peace” explores the factors that influence a country’s peacefulness and why peace is more than simply the absence of war;
• “Peace and Sustainability” the impact of peace on global sustainability, with a focus on water access and management;
• “Education and Peace” investigates the fundamental role of education in supporting a country’s peacefulness;
• “The Peace Industry” examines the benefits of peace to business and the economy For more information visit the Institute for Economics and Peace on the web.

For more information visit the Institute for Economics and Peace on the web

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For the past year the facilitators of Project Clear Light have been meeting with a group of about 20 maximum security inmates at the Mark Stiles Unit in Beaumont, Texas, holding an “Ethics Class” to study “Ethics for the New Millennium” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  The first class was lead by inmates that had spent three months in preparation for their role as facilitators. During that session, the facilitators had been using the Study Guide for Ethics for the New Millennium developed by the Dalai Lama Foundation realized that a more “prison centric” study guide was needed.  In response, a completely new “Discovering Ethics: A Path to Virtue, A Study Guide for Inmates” has been written by the inmates for the next class to begin in June, 2009. By using examples of prison culture, the inmate Study Guide promotes greater participation in the discussions of the Key Concepts presented in each chapter of the Dalai Lama’s book.

A companion piece, “An Ethical Toolbox” is also being developed that sets out the homework assignments for each chapter, again, relative to experiences and situations common to life in prison. Each week the class will receive a task for each Key Concept that will better prepare them for the next weeks’ discussion. During class, the group breaks into four or five discussion groups for each Key Concept. Each group is lead by a facilitator. The role of the facilitators is to keep the groups on task without attempting to teach or dominate the conversation. To better prepare the facilitators, the group is also writing a “Facilitators Training Guide.” 

Project Clear Light is currently working with the Foundation to make all of these materials available through The Dalai Lama Foundation web site.   For more information on Project Clear Light please contact Terry Conrad CVCA Director, Project Clear Light, or visit them on the web.

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The Foundation has once again been accepted to participate in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) for 2009, making it easy for over 1.3 Million Federal employees in the United States to make tax deductible donations to the Foundation through payroll deductions. 

The Foundation’s CFC Code is: 12179

For more information please visit Human and Civil Rights Organization’s website.

To make a non-CFC contribution directly to the Foundation, please visit the Foundation website.

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