Through its relationship with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement (CPA) has been able to make connections with peacebuilders around the world.
It’s not every day that you find professional peacebuilders, social entrepreneurs, and impact investors gathering to engage in conversation.
Since its inception 40 years ago, the Peace and Conflict Studies Program (PACS) at the University of Waterloo has remained a leader in peace education. Through its innovative approach to learning, the PACS program creates the opportunity for students to express their engagement with peace in diverse and powerful ways.
At the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement, we know that innovation is more than creating a program or technology that solves one problem. It includes nurturing an ecosystem which collectively catalyzes change, both on the ground and within systems.
Tomorrow, September 21, marks the International Day of Peace and World Alzheimer’s Day. Although not typically connected, both peace and Alzheimer’s disease deeply touch the lives of many Canadians. In fact, many of us are grappling with the complexities of both!
EPOCH, the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement’s newest Epp Peace Incubator member, overcame daunting odds to compete for $1 million at the 2017 Hult Prize Global Finals held at the United Nations in New York City on September 16.
Peace has been an important value in the lives of Aden and Joanne Bauman and their sons Barry, who passed away in 2016, and Michael. Lifelong members of the Elmira Mennonite Church, Aden and Joanne were fixtures in the community at their Arthur street jewelry store. “Peace is a Mennonite thing,” observed Joanne.
From a student design project to solving global issues, the Landmine Boys are changing their name to Demine Robotics. As Richard Yim and co-founder Christian Lee expand their social venture, they continue to work to achieve their mission to create a future without landmines.
As many are aware, World Refugee Day took place this past Tuesday, June 20. On Wednesday, CPA Director, Paul Heidebrecht, wrote a letter to the editor of the Waterloo Region Record reflecting on
the demonstrated potential of this region to innovate solutions to the refugee crisis. Perhaps most significantly, he called readers to continue our innovative legacy, noting the desperate need for more breakthroughs, considering the complexity and scale of the problem.
In the Fall of 2017, CPA Director Paul Heidebrecht will once again be teaching a special topics course in Peace and Conflict Studies on Engineering and Peace. Meeting weekly on Wednesday evenings, this course is built on the conviction that the kinds of problems engineers seek to address, and the ways they seek to address them, should matter for anyone interested in advancing peace in the world.
As past students have noted:
"This course put my work as an engineer in context! I think that by taking this course, I grew both as an engineer and as a person."