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Listening Project Reports and Updates

2009-2010 Newsletter (read online)

The Human Cost of War: Listening to Voices of Iraq Veterans and Their Families

In 2009 the Pittsburgh, PA office of the American Friends Service Committee undertook a listening project focusing on the impact of the war on Iraqi and US soldiers’ children, spoken through the voices of the mothers. Our definition of a child is anyone from the age of 1-19, so in some cases, we were listening to soldiers who were only eighteen or nineteen years old.

The goal of the Project is to better understand the impact of war on children. We believe it is important for people to hear the stories of how the Iraqi war has impacted our military children and Iraqi children. We listened to mothers and wives of members of the military who served in Iraq. At the same time, we listened to Iraqi mothers to hear their children’s stories. A related purpose is to offer those most closely involved an opportunity to be heard without being judged- to describe their perceptions, tell their stories, and share their concerns about the war. We selected some of the most impactful quotes and have developed them into a dramatic reading which can be used in discussion groups. The dramatic reading heightens awareness of how children are impacted by the war.

Background: In 2007-8 the AFSC Pennsylvania Office initiated a Listening Project that focused on the impact of the war on US soldiers and military families, including their experiences from recruitment to post-deployment. The Military Listening Project’s primary purpose was to personalize and help us understand the “human” cost of war. We listened to 22 people, half of whom were family members.

To see the quotes and how to use them in a dramatic reading, and for other information go to: www.afsc.org/pittsburgh/ht/d/sp/i/69789/pid/69789. You may also contact Scilla Wahrhaftig at AFSC: 412-371-3607; swahrhaftig@afsc.org.

San Jose: Building Democracy and Strong Neighborhoods

There are many stories of neighborhood residents organizing and pushing city hall to respond to important community needs. In each case certain residents step forward and act as organizers that help the community come together with effective plans and actions for change.

The City of San Jose, CA, provides a new, proactive model for community change. In San Jose, the city itself hires organizers. These organizers empower residents to develop their own leaders, priorities, plans and actions for effective community change.

In San Jose, nearly thirty public employees work as organizers across 19 neighborhood areas in a program called the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI). This program is recognized by the National League of Cities as the top urban revitalization program in the country. In 2007, SNI workers embarked on a pilot project to organize San Jose residents in three neighborhoods: Seven Trees, Silver Leaf, Camden/Hillsdale.

To read more about these projects, click here.

Good News!

Listening Project at United Nations

In a past newsletter we carried inspiring results revealed by new documentation of Centar Za Mir's Peace Teams Listening Project in Croatia. This project conducted over 2,000 interviews and translated listening into action that:

Helped stop inter-ethnic violence
Increased inter-ethnic cooperation
Made possible concrete social and economic advances

The Peace Teams Listening Project has been recognized internationally at the United Nations. Katarina Kruhonja, director of Centar Za Mir, presented the Peace Team's Project to the U.N. General Assembly as a model for use in conflicted regions of the world. Included in her speech were the following words:

"The UN provided space in which peace activists were able to work, but we did not have the support of Croatian governmental institutions. However, that...lack of institutional power, became...also our advantage. We were forced to choose those methods of work that relied on the empowerment of people to take part in peace building. The Listening Project, a method of applying active listening that we learned from Herb Walters of the American organization Rural Southern Voice for Peace... empowered both, us as listeners and the people we listened to."

One of the Top Ten Development Projects in the World Used Listening Project

The United Nations has included the “Community Development and Peace Building Project” implemented by the Centar Za Mir Peace Team in Okucani, Croatia, as being among the 10 most successful examples of Reconciliation and Community Development work in the world.

The Centar Za Mir Peace Team, was one of six teams that successfully utilized RSVP’s Listening Project as a primary tool for development and reconciliation work in the war-torn Republic of Croatia. RSVP director, Herb Walters worked for three years with Centar Za Mir on this project.

Other RSVP Activities

Regional Permaculture Gathering

Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is: "The harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order." (Geoff Lawton).

Each August, over one hundred permaculture explorers and activists gather at the Arthur Morgan School. For further information, go to www.southeasternpermaculutre.org.

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