For 30 years Cincinnati and suburban school children were given the opportunity to learn about peer mediation, conflict management, cooperative discipline, bias awareness, and diversity through the efforts of the non-profit organization Center for Peace Education.
The Archives and Rare Books Library is excited to announce that the Center for Peace Education (CPE) finding aid is now available to view online at the Center for Peace Education records.
CPE’s history
Cincinnati Coalition for Peace Education (the original name of CPE) was formed in 1979 to spread peace among youth and adults. CPE would later change its name to the Center for Peace Educaiton in 1982. As a non-profit organization, they hosted workshops in public schools, private schools, county and city offices, mental health boards, churches, and other community organizations.
Much of CPE’s curriculum was focused on two national training programs to promote conflict management nonviolently, Children’s Creative Response to Conflict and Student’s Creative Response to Conflict. These programs were evaluated through multiple research studies conducted by the University of Cincinnati. CPE funded their programs through local and national grants starting in 1994, which enabled them to bring the workshops to more youth.
Besides bringing the trainings to youth, CPE hosted conferences and trainings for adults to teach educators and administrators their programs. In 2009 CPE formed an agreement with local non-profit Bridges for a Just Community to incorporate their trainings and CPE dissolved later that year.
CPE’s records at ARB
The collection is comprised of 51.4 linear feet of administrative documents such as meeting minutes, newsletters, financial records, fundraising efforts, correspondence, and board of directors’ material. Program specific planning materials account for the majority of the collection with correspondence between partner organizations, handouts used in workshops, and evaluations by the youth or adults receiving the training. There is also a great quantity of photographs that document specific programs and events hosted by the Center. The collection does include many different types of media such as VHS tapes, floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs of the various programs and marketing material used to advertise the work of the Center for Peace Education.