Jean Best, a Rotarian that has spoken to the United Nations, has been working with a group of young people from Northampton Academy training Peace Advocates.
A group of students from Northampton Academy took part in two Peace Advocates training days at school, led by the Rotary e-club of District 1070. The sessions were led by Jean Best, a Rotarian that has spoken to the United Nations about the Peace Project.
The event was organised by Year 13 student Jasmine, along with her mum Angela who is involved with the Rotary e-club of District 1070. The students were the first to receive this valuable training in Northampton, and are paving the way for many others to follow. The first training session took place back in July and concluded with another in November.
Using engaging methods of role-play and discussion, the Peace Advocate training equipped the students with the essential skills they need to make the right choices in life, improving their social skills, at home, school and in the community. This, in turn, gave them the self-confidence to cope with issues of conflict, such as bullying in any form, or peer pressure.
The training also taught them how to be good listeners, how to be listened to and how to be exemplary role models to their peers. The students engaged in the ‘Six steps to success’ to enable them to conquer conflict, transform into success, create and lead peace service projects.
Step 1– Setting Up
Step 2- Developing and Achieving Peace Advocate Skills.
Step 3- Conquering Conflict in Ourselves
Step 4- Conquering Conflict in School, in our Community.
Step 5- Conquering Conflict in our Home.
Step 6- Conquering Global Conflict
The Peace Project is a skill-based programme, written by Jean Best, to empower young people with the confidence to become the leaders of the future. It was developed by the Rotary Club, taking into account the views and ideas of young people and is facilitated by Rotarians, teachers and community workers.
Teacher Miss Ellie Duncan said, “This project fits in well with our ‘Education with Character’ initiative. It has been brilliant to see the students grasp this opportunity. Throughout this project, the students have shown utmost determination in embracing these new skills, I am incredibly proud of the way they have approached this workshop.”
Jasmine said, “When I first went along to a taster session about promoting the Peace Advocacy programme, I was the only young person in a room full of Rotarians. I immediately felt that this was such an important project for young people to have access to and to learn about. I decided to approach the anti-bullying team at school, I thought this was the perfect place to start, as they already have in place ways of helping others. The programme has really given them a deeper understanding of how to empower others to fix their problems and encourage them to go about resolving their own issues, rather than relying on others or letting the issues develop.“
Peace Advocate Director, Keith Best said, “We returned to Northampton Academy to conclude our training and were greeted with enthusiasm and expectation that had grown from the initial training in July 2018. These are highly motivated young people who have a passion to continue to develop a conflict resolution school “