News

For the fourth year in a row, the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement is hosting the Map the System competition at the University of Waterloo. As students and faculty across campus begin their systems thinking journeys, buzz about this year’s competition is growing. Read on to learn more about how this interdisciplinary competition brings together student researchers from around the world.

In the Fall of 2019, artist Yasmeen Nematt Alla was finalizing preparations to install Not Traumatic Enough for a Shock Blanket onto the crisp white walls of the Grebel Gallery. The bright orange blankets with words stitched onto them would surely stand out in the thorough-fare space, a stark contrast from the drones and weapons of warfare exhibit that covered the walls for months prior.

Since 2014, The Grebel Peace Incubator has supported two dozen peace start-ups as they innovate solutions to address local and global community challenges. During the fall term, the Centre for Peace Advancement was overjoyed to welcome two new ventures: Green Care Farms Inc. and BeBlended.

Envisioning a world without nuclear weapons has been a goal of the United Nations since 1945. In its first Resolution, the newly created UN made a commitment to eliminate nuclear weapons. In the 76 years since, the world has seen tens of thousands of nuclear weapons take over security landscapes alongside promises of deterrence and mutually assured destruction. At the same time, peacebuilders and those concerned with the effects of nuclear weapons have worked tirelessly  to limit the potential for nuclear war.

Earlier this fall, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)—the world’s largest technical professional organization—held their annual International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) in partnership with the Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). The 2021 symposium was a four-day virtual affair, bringing together speakers from across the world under the theme of “Technological Stewardship and Responsible Innovation.”

On September 23, 2021, Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement participants and staff and faculty from Conrad Grebel University College gathered in the Grebel Gallery for an evening of reflection and community in honour of Peace Week 2021.

Since the launch of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement in 2014, our staff, participants, and partners marked the United Nations International C by celebrating innovative solutions to complex problems, advocacy to press decision-makers to work for justice, and efforts to bring communities together around the world. While the Centre encountered unanticipated challenges along the way, we never wavered in our mission to catalyze collaboration.

Community collaboration is key to advancing expansive and innovative understandings and practices of peace at the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre has heard from many youth about the growing needs they are observing locally and their desire to work collaboratively with their peers and community members to deliver innovative solutions for these problems.

For Grebel Peace Incubator participant, Union: Sustainable Development Co-operative (Union Co-operative), summer 2021 has been marked with progress. As Union Co-operative moves closer to purchasing its first property, Member Engagement Coordinator, Melissa Bowman met with Centre for Peace Advancement Communications Assistant, Katie Fry to discuss Union’s recent and upcoming developments.

“What are you listening to right now?” has become a popular topic at Centre for Peace Advancement coffee breaks, and with good reason. As a popular medium for storytelling, podcasts have become instrumental in provoking nuanced and multidimensional dialogue around peacebuilding and conflict. Available on a wide variety of free and paid platforms, podcasts make peace dialogue more accessible, consumable, and enjoyable for many.