Students learn communication skills by working
together at Camp Farwesta on the Peace Unlimited challenge course. |
Tangible Love grants ensure that Community of Christ Oblation
Fund dollars champion the cause of Christ in communities. “In providing
ministry, we in our congregations often do things to someone or
for someone,” said Ken Schnell, Tangible Love Committee co-chair.
“The focus of Tangible Love ministry is to help congregations do things
with someone.”
Peace Unlimited in St. Joseph, Missouri, is a three-year
recipient of Tangible Love funding. Far West USA Mission Center created Peace
Unlimited, a nonprofit youth development organization, eight years ago.
Peace Unlimited programs have now reached more than 9,000
students in at least 50 schools and agencies around northwest Missouri and
northeast Kansas. It especially targets students during their formative years of
junior high school. Peace Unlimited conducts field trips, school assemblies, and
classroom education to develop self-esteem, teamwork, mutual trust, peacemaking,
and problem-solving skills.
“The skills we teach to accomplish these communication and
mutual-respect goals also create a more peaceful and nurturing environment or
culture, reducing classroom behavioral disruptions and negativity,” said Steve
Calloway, a Community of Christ field minister and education specialist for
Peace Unlimited. “Teachers are excited that as we help them create peaceful
classroom communities, we are also increasing their instructional time.”
Peace Unlimited was once limited to single-day field trips on
challenge courses at a church campground. It has grown to include follow-up
visits to schools to reinforce skills learned. Peace Unlimited constantly
evaluates its effectiveness by surveying teachers and conducting assemblies.
Connie Szczepanik is in her third year as the Learning Lab
teacher at Savannah Middle School in Savannah, Missouri. She helps seventh- and
eighth-grade teens whose socioeconomic situations place them at risk for
finishing high school. “It’s not just farming communities here,” explained
Szczepanik. “We’ve a considerable transient population because rent is cheaper
in the country than in the city.”
Despite considerable challenges at home, many of these
at-risk students work hard in school. “I have several students on the honor
roll,” said Szczepanik. “They just might not be with the in-crowd and it’s hard
for them to find a spot. But I’ve seen students who don’t talk in class lead ten
other kids during Peace Unlimited activities.”
“Society can be confrontational and negative. All kids
encounter this,” said Peace Unlimited director Barbara Heath. “I’ve seen teens
on probation who previously did not like to give or get help. Yet when they got
through the program, they had learned those skills and how to give and take as a
team.”
Peace Unlimited’s newest component is called the Ripple
Project, a partnership with the Education Department at Missouri Western State
University in St. Joseph. The Ripple Project helps train student teachers on how
to ensure peaceful relations in their future classrooms.
“Student teachers complete our classroom facilitator’s
seminar, which provides education techniques that maximize student growth,” said
Heath. “As these teachers graduate and get jobs around the country, Peace
Unlimited could potentially impact the entire United States.”
“We are excited about the skills being gained by student
teachers to enhance their careers and are overwhelmed at the positive impact we
will have on the next thirty years of students who will come through their
classrooms,” said Calloway. “Our purpose is the transformation of entire
communities into places of peaceful cultures, one classroom at a time.”
Succes is a group experience with Peace Unlimited's
"building peaceful classrooms" curriculum. |
Far West USA Mission Center congregations are embracing Peace
Unlimited as part of their ministry. The Hamilton congregation has been
instrumental in gaining local Lions Club support of the work with their middle
school. Members of the Fanning, Mound City, Abundant Life Center, and Maysville
congregations have arranged for the Peace Unlimited program to operate in seven
local school systems. The Guilford congregation co-sponsors Peace Unlimited
field trips for South Nodaway Middle School. A Guilford member leads the
Savannah Optimist Club, which sponsors the Savannah Middle School field trips.
“I’ve heard my Savannah Middle School students say, ‘I’m not
as stupid as I thought’ or ‘They used my ideas’ or ‘Mrs. Szczepanik, thanks for
bringing us. This is the best field trip we have ever been on,’” said Szczepanik.
Additionally, students and staff involved in the summer
camping program at Camp Farwesta have taken the story of the Peace Unlimited
challenge course home to their schools, from Macon, Missouri, to Highland,
Kansas. Many of those high schools and colleges now participate in the Peace
Unlimited student-government leadership-training workshops and retreats.
Tangible Love guidelines call for a project to be a
collaborative effort between a church jurisdiction and its community, with a
focus on priority areas such as basic human needs, environmental concerns,
conflict resolution initiatives, or peace and justice ministries. Up to $200,000
of Community of Christ Oblation offerings each year go toward Tangible Love
projects.
“We are in the business of funding up to three early years of
an ongoing sustainable program—not just a three-year project,” explained
Schnell. “We provide seed or venture capital for a program that has great
potential. Then other persons and organizations help work to sustain that
program in a collaborative relationship.”
In addition to Tangible Love funding, Peace Unlimited
benefits from foundation grants, private contributions, Volunteers in Service to
America (VISTA), and fund-raising activities like a golf tournament and a
Christmas Tree Showcase.
Visit www.CofChrist.org/tlove/ for more information
on existing Tangible Love grant ministries or for application procedures.
—Dirk Ellingson reporting |
