Hamilton Centre for Teaching Peace (HCTP) is pleased to announce its plans for the evening programme of the Conscious Communities Conference in November 2010 in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.

On the evenings of November 11, 12, and 13th HCTP will be hosting free, public short-form presentations from champions of peace, education, social justice, and community development. Each speaker will be given 15 minutes to share inspiring ideas and stories with the audience.

Talks will be held at the downtown Sky Dragon Community Co-Operative, in addition to other venues yet to be announced.

Call for nominations

We are seeking nominations from the public for speakers. Who do you know that deserves 15 minutes of the undivided attention of a public audience? Do you know somoene who's quietly (or not-so quietly) enabled positive social change in a community?

Nominees should be from the Hamilton/Halton/Niagara region, aware of the nomination and willing to present on one of the evenings. All ages are encouraged -- we especially love hearing from youth and elders alike!

To nominate, please email conference (at) peace-education.ca with the subject line "Speaker nominee" and the presenters name, email or phone number, and around 250 to 350 words about why they should be featured.

Thursday November 11

Morning through mid-Afternoon: 8th Annual Youth Conference at McMaster University

7 p.m. Conscious Communities Public Forums Night 1 (location TBA)

Friday November 12

8:30 a.m. Registration / Meet & Greet at McMaster

9:00 a.m. Opening Address

9:30 a.m. Plenary Session 1 (Plenaries: School Peace Program, Community Centres for Teaching Peace, Culture of Peace Program)

12:00 noon Lunch Break

12:45 p.m. Plenary Session 2

5:00 p.m. Day sessions end

7:00 p.m. James North Art Crawl, Conscious Communities Public Forums Night 2 (locations TBA, inc. Sky Dragon Centre)

Saturday November 13

8:30 a.m. Registration / Meet & Greet at McMaster

9:00 a.m. Opening Ceremonies

9:30 a.m. Morning Workshop Sessions (1 hour or 2 hour sessions)

12:15 p.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. Afternoon Workshop Sessions (1 hour or 2 hour sessions)

4:30 p.m. Day sessions close

7:00 p.m. Conscious Communities Public Forums Night 3, final night (location TBA)

Sunday November 14

9:00 a.m. Registration / Meet & Greet at McMaster

9:30 a.m. Morning Workshop Sessions

12:15 p.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. Afternoon Workshop Sessions

3:30 p.m. Closing addresses and ceremonies

Monday November 15

10:00 a.m. Post-conference feedback/action plan brunch at the Sky Dragon Centre

The core aspect of cultivating a culture of peace is sustainable, conscious communities that live, breathe, grow, learn, and thrive. With that in mind and heart our focus this year will be celebrating and advancing “Conscious Communities” at the Ninth Annual Conference on Peace Education in Canada.

The conference will aim to advance the cultivation of peaceable communities at two scopes: local communities and communities of common interest.

The local communities scope will include the core educational needs that must be satisfied to allow all members of a physically local community to flourish. Topics explored may include but are not limited to: “transition towns” movement, local and organic foods, ecological literacy, renewable energy, arts, living wages, conflict transformation, Peace Cafés, School Peace Program, social entrepreneurship, education in local histories, storytelling, and democratic participation.

The communities of interest scope will explore the unique challenges and needs of individuals that are not necessarily physically close to one another, but share common experiences. Topic areas explored may include but are not limited to: social networking, online collaboration methods, solidarity work, the exchange of best practices between communities, social entrepreneurship, new media, marginalized communities, fair trade, literacy, access to education, and more.

Call for Proposals

Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace is seeking proposals for workshops and presentations during the “Conscious Communities” conference.
Workshops will be 50 or 100 minutes in length, and are encouraged to include participatory aspects to their design.

New this year: public mini-keynote presentations

Evenings of the conference will include a series of free, open-to-the-public 15-minute “mini-keynote” presentations at various locations in the city of Hamilton. Applicants are welcomed and encouraged to also propose a mini-keynote presentation either as a “sampler” of a proposed workshop, or of another topic of interest – keeping in mind that the audience demographics will be a more general public. Different forms of presentation will be considered for approval, including but not limited to a prepared talk, film short, multimedia, performance art, and storytelling.

Link: Online Proposal Form for Conscious Communities 2010

Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace is pleased to announce that the Ninth Annual Conference on Peace Education in Canada will be held this year from November 12 through 15, 2010 in Hamilton, Ontario at McMaster University.

This year's theme will be "Conscious Community", and will focus on the role of peace education in cultivating sustainable communities locally and globally. We will be working with local Hamilton community organizations to expand our usual conference offerings into public venues, in order to increase engagement with a wide range of communities, in addition to inviting representatives of global communities of interest to share their best practices in educating publics both locally and abroad.

Soon will we will be posting our formal call for workshop proposals, in addition to our conference rates and rough schedule.

As always, this year will also include a Youth Conference, this year held Thursday, November 11. More details are to come!