Live Peace with The Elders

The Elders are an independent body of global leaders who come together to promote peace and human rights around the world. Spurred in 2007 by entrepreneur and former Living Peace Series speaker Sir Richard Branson and recording artist Peter Gabriel, The Elders bring leadership and governing experience to tackling global issues.

Currently, The Elders include such leaders as Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson. Each brings his or her own wisdom and experience to the table.

As described on their website, “An Elder is also a changemaker - someone who can lead by example, creating positive social change and inspiring others to do the same.”

Footage from an event with The Elders earlier this year in London.

Learn more about the incredible work of The Elders at their website.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Where’s My Romeo

Abbas Kiarostami‘s short film, Where’s My Romeo, shows the universal power of film, art, and poetry across cultures. It depicts Iranian women watching the final scene of Zeffirilli’s Romeo and Juliet . The film is part of “Chacun Son Cinéma” (To Each His Own Cinema), a collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about Cinema.

Live peace by learning about other cultures and art around the world!

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Peace Grl Out!

Live Peace with Half the Sky

Half the Sky is a movement focused on the adversity and opportunity surrounding women and girls worldwide. The book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn is the inspiration for the PBS documentary aired October 1st & 2nd. Whether you are looking to add to your reading  or viewing lists, Half the Sky is a great and powerful investment.

It will inspire, enrage, and encourage you at the same time. Such a short blog post can in no way encompass or convey the full message of the movement. So read or watch for yourself- it is well worth the time and effort.

Learn more about Half the Sky and how you can get involved at their website. If you missed the documentary screening, you can watch it on Netflix in the U.S. starting November 1st!

CLP staff showing their support of Half the Sky!

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Peace Grl Out!

International Day of the Girl

Today is first official International Day of the Girl! Declared  by the United Nations, the Day of the Girl highlights the immense potential of young girls worldwide.

“The UN General Assembly, which comprises all 193 members of the UN, voted that 11 October should be recognized as International Day of the Girl Child. This is an opportunity to address the unique challenges that girls face, promote girls’ rights and to highlight the gender equalities that still persist between girls and boys.

The UN has also decided to mark this inaugural celebration of girls’ potential by bringing attention to the plight of child brides. By choosing child marriage as its theme, the International Day of the Girl will draw international attention to activists’ work and government commitments, while also calling on world leaders to support programmes and laws to end child marriage.” – Girls Not Brides

Girls are valuable, strong, creative, powerful, and have such great potential. They deserve the chance to realize that potential. Empower girls and let them thrive.

Get involved! Learn more & find resources at:

Girls Not Brides /// Half the Sky /// The Girl Effect /// The Elders

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Live Peace with Playing for Change

Playing for a Change started out as a small project inspired to bring about peace through music by recording musicians all across the world with a mobile recording studio. The movement grew out of the belief that music has the power to unite people across all boundaries. Over 100 musicians have been recorded by the project. From these connections Playing for Change has created a touring band.  While recording, the project’s film crew was compelled to push the movement further by creating the Playing for Change Foundation to facilitate global music education. It’s mission is to ensure that anyone with the desire to receive a music education would have the opportunity to do so. The Foundation has started a music schools in Ghana,  South Africa, Rwanda, Mali ,and four schools in Nepal. The Foundation holds benefit concerts around the world on Playing for Change Day, September 22nd, to fund it’s music school program.

Playing for Change Musicians’s rendition of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song

Playing for Change’s website features videos from high profile artists like Bono and Manu Chao alongside street artists and community musical groups remixed to create a cohesive song. It regularly posts new episodes highlighting musicians and cultures all over the world as the project continues to expand its reach.

The Playing for Change crew has worked with musicians at these locations

You can support the movement by holding your own event or concert, volunteering, donating, or simply spreading the word!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Live Peace with CUSA

The Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA), started in 2003, is a department at UC Irvine that takes a look at modern issues and challenges for  human and environmental security through “innovative research and education programs that integrate experts from the public and private sector.”

CUSA focuses on two core areas in it’s programming and research, Environment Conflict and Peace Building and Global Change and Human Security. It’s interdisciplinary approach seeks to cultivate a new generation of leaders and researchers with education programs involving experts from the public and private sector. CUSA researchers and students have conducted research fieldwork in more than twenty-five countries and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

Here’s a TEDxOrangeCoast talk with Richard Matthew, Ph.D., the founding director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs.

Professor Matthew spends much of his time in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, studying how environmental stress contributes to violent conflict and other types of crisis. For several years he has worked closely with the United Nations to integrate natural resource management and climate change adaptation into peace-building efforts, participating in various field assessments and directing one in Sierra Leone. He teaches courses on sustainability and social enterprise.

The Environment Art and Human Security (eARTh) Studio, founded by Pamela Donohoo, aerialist, cirque-style acrobat, dancer/ choreographer, gymnast, approaches the issues of environment, sustainability and human security issues through art. Pamela Donohoo performed an improvisational dance while simultaneously creating a 9′x9′ painting that captured movements informed and inspired by the experience of women in conflict zones as part of our Women, War, and Peace Lecture.

Support CUSA’s efforts towards a more peaceful world and read more about it’s upcoming events and projects at their website.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Celebrating Living Peace Projects and International Day of Peace

On Sunday, September 23rd we hosted two wonderful events! Our latest Living Peace Projects with Roots and Shoots was in the morning followed by our International Day of Peace celebration in the afternoon. We are so thankful for all who joined us and made so much good happen! Check out some great photos from the exciting day.

The 2011 human peace sign! We will unveil the 2012 version soon…

Young peacemaker learning about native California animals with Inside the Outdoors.

A trio of our wonderful volunteers.

Spinning the prize wheel.

Enjoying story time in the library.

Exploring the Ecology Center’s Water Shed.

We are so thankful for the support of all who joined us on this wonderful day!  Keep an eye out for more pictures to be added to a Facebook album and future blog post!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

‘Sunny Chernobyl’: A New Kind of Ecotourism

Andrews Blackwell’s book, Visit Chernobyl and other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places, describes his encounters with deforested areas of the Amazon, oil sand mines in Canada, the infamous Chernobyl, and Linfen, China, the most polluted city in the world. Black realized that even though he cared about the environment he had never been a witness to the damage being done to it. He found that even though these places had been plagued with unthinkable harm to nature, they were still beautiful; a different kind of beauty but beauty nonetheless. The purpose of the journey was to” find what’s still natural, what’s still beautiful, what’s still worth caring about.” He believes that it’s just as important to see these places as the majestic waterfalls and valleys that ecotourists seek out.

Take a look at Andrew Blackwell’s list of recommended destinations and his reasoning for why they would be worth your while. This would definitely be a new kind of eye opening traveling experience.

Listen to All Things Considered’s interview with Andrew Blackwell and learn more about his book on his website.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Live Peace with Roots and Shoots

Roots creep underground everywhere and make a firm foundation. Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light, they can break open brick walls. Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet. Hundreds of thousands of roots & shoots, hundreds of thousands of young people around the world, can break through these walls. We CAN change the world.

- Dr. Jane Goodall

We are very excited to welcome Jane Goodall this October for our Living Peace Series!

Jane Goodall’s world renowned work with Chimpanzees has led to receive titles such as, National Geographic explorer-in-residence, United Nations peace messenger, and the president of Advocates for Animals. However, her work with the Jane Goodall Institute and it’s youth component Roots & Shoots, deals with more than just the wellbeing of animals, but the interconnectivity of the wellbeing of humans, animals, and the environment.

Roots & Shoots was founded by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students in 1991 in order to motivate young people to make positive change. It has grown over the years, with chapters in more than 120 countries, to include a variety of projects and campaigns that have a global reach. The program is built on campaigns that are designed to unite a “global network” with common initiatives.

Get involved with Roots & Shoots at our International Day of Peace celebration on September 23rd where Shawn Sweeney, Roots & Shoots Youth Outreach and Engagement Manager, will speak on careers in peace! Youth involved will build and fly giant peace doves and receive premiere seating at Jane Goodall’s speaking event on October 2nd. You can sign up for the youth event on our website.

You can also become a Roots & Shoots member, find a group to join in your area,  sign up for their newsletter, and visit their website for more information.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Live Peace with Ashoka

Founded by Bill Drayton in 1980, Ashoka has been launching and supporting social entrepreneurs in over 70 countries on the world’s five main continents. Social entrepreneurs are people with innovative solutions to society’s most significant social problems. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. During its first decade in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Central Europe, Ashoka mainly focused on social entrepreneurs but as the  global citizen sector expanded, Ashoka added a wider range of programs and services to serve the growing sector’s needs.

Ashoka is an association of a large share of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. Its values and culture are sharply, deeply, and strictly focused on serving this core membership. Ashoka has grown to an association of  3,000 Fellows, leading social entrepreneurs who are recognized for their dedication towards new bold ideas to change social patterns in the world. Donating to Ashoka enables them to elect new social entrepreneurs into their fellowship program, provide support services to existing Fellows, and launch collaborations between Fellows, corporations, and citizen sector organizations to promote continued innovation in areas of pressing global need.

To learn more about Ashoka, how to donate, and even how to nominate a social entrepreneur to the Ashoka Fellowship, visit their website!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!