WATERLOO – The Ripple Effect Education (TREE) is a peace education initiative based out of the Frank and Helen Epp Peace Incubator in the MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement. Starting in the classroom, TREE aims to create peace-literate citizens with demonstrable conflict resolution skills and awareness of justice issues locally and globally. TREE programming will empower youth to think critically and evoke change in their communities. They will hone soft skills like communication, teamwork, and empathy.
Katie brings learnings from Peace Camp into her work with TREE, including feedback from educators. In 2015, Peace Camp found that teachers wanted to hold conflict resolution and social justice programming in their classrooms earlier in the year, and more often. To that end, TREE is developing a curriculum-based workshop series with pre- and post-workshop resources for teachers to use throughout their school year to further develop concepts in their classroom. Additionally, TREE will offer custom programming for Waterloo Region’s students, beginning with the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union Peace in Action scholarship program.
The MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement is located at Conrad Grebel University College on the University of Waterloo campus. The Centre recognizes the value of collaborative, inter-disciplinary, and multi-sector approaches to the advancement of peace and houses a range of peace scholars from the University of Waterloo, as well as practitioners from local peace building organizations.
To find out how to invite TREE into your school, contact:
Katie Gingerich
TREE Director
katie.gingerich@uwaterloo.ca
519-885-0220 x24205
Conrad Grebel University College
Waterloo, ON Canada