P.E.A.C.E. Programs and Encounter Trips

SCG’s P.E.A.C.E (Participant Encounter And Community Engagement) programs train diverse high school students to become change agents in creating a more just and peaceful world, beginning at home.  The programs address personal development, local action, and global awareness.

The P.E.A.C.E. programs consist of a one-week intensive and/or opening retreat, and a yearlong follow-up program of meet-ups, residential retreats, group service projects, and an encounter trip. These unique programs stand at the intersection of global learning and local action; participants study a region in conflict and experience an encounter trip while applying what they learn to improving their communities at home.

After 5 years of taking participants of SCG’s P.E.A.C.E. programs on 10-12-day encounter trips to Northern Ireland, South Africa as well as Israel and Palestine, SCG is now making these trips more widely available. Schools, congregations, youth groups and others interested in providing young adults in their communities with SCG’s experiential peace education can now do so.

The encounter trip experience combines SCG’s best practices in ‘people-to-people’ work with the opportunity to learn firsthand about an area of conflict/post-conflict. Trips include workshops in SCG’s curriculum on themes ranging from “identity and perspective” to “communicating through conflict” and “leading for social change”, with in-country home stays, service projects, and social networking with peers in the region. SCG’s years of experience working internationally gives participants unique access to the host community.

In the words of SCG participants, the chance to travel abroad with SCG is “life-changing” and “completely eye-opening.”

Please click on the following links to read more about some of our past P.E.A.C.E. programs and encounter trips.

Denver P.E.A.C.E.                                       Israel/Palestine Encounter Trip

Badlands P.E.A.C.E.                                   South Africa Encounter Trip

Berkeley P.E.A.C.E.                                    Northern Ireland Encounter Trip