Training offers introduction to Kingian nonviolence techniques

The 2 Day Core Orientation to Kingian Nonviolence is a featured training for the Peer Empowerment and Community Education Program this fall.

Friday, Nov. 8, and Saturday, Nov. 9, attendees will learn the right tools and skills on how and when to handle a conflict in a relationship, organization, or community in a nonviolent way. This two-day orientation will be facilitated by Senior Trainers David Jehnsen, Jonathan “Globe” Lewis, and current and former UW-River Falls students. It is an introduction to the philosophy and strategy of Kingian Nonviolence and Conflict Reconciliation, which Martin Luther King popularized.

According to Ashley Olson, sociocultural coordinator within Student Life, the facilitators will be using the Community Leaders Workbook called the Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation Program: Strategies for Responding to Conflict and Violence, by Bernard LaFayette, Jr., and Jehnsen.

“This is our second time hosting this training on campus and it’s an incredible opportunity to develop a sense of how to be a peaceful yet powerful leader within your community. This is a must-have experience for students before they graduate,” Olson said.

There is a maximum participation of 110 people for this training and currently only about half of those spots are taken up. Students, faculty, staff and alumni can attend for free and community members can attend for $100.

Olson said that even though the training is for everyone, it is encouraged to go by those who identify in certain ways.  Some that may find the training useful include activists, individuals looking to develop leadership skills, teams, history buffs and students looking to build their resume with tangible, employable skills.

These skills are professional navigation of conflict to reconciled outcomes, moving organizations in direction of a shared vision, critical thinking and problem solving approaches to issues.

The training will consist of learning the introduction and analysis of King’s thinking and journey to nonviolence, the four times and three levels of conflict, the six principles of nonviolence and the six types of a nonviolent campaign. Students, faculty, and staff will be learning through lectures, role plays, video presentations, and other interactive activities.

Roxanne VanDusartz, a junior at UWRF, has both helped organize and set up the event as well as attended and participated as a student to support her friends as well as to obtain a new experience and learn more about the topic of nonviolence.

“As a student who has gone, it was very enlightening and informational, I learned ways to live a more positive lifestyle and really examine my surroundings and the causes of my conflicts,” VanDusartz said.

As a way to experience something new, and learn about a practice that has changed the world as we know  it today, the information is not only relevant for the civil rights movement but for our lives now as well.

“It gives you a new way to see and think about things,” VanDusartz said.

For questions or accommodations needed to experience the event, email peace@uwrf.edu or call 715-425-4444.