The Center for Peacemaking is an academic center at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that fosters research and action for the promotion of peace, human dignity, and justice. We were founded in 2008.

 

The center's programs provide students opportunities to develop peacemaking skills and faculty avenues to research nonviolence. The center's impact reaches near and far beyond Marquette's campus—through social action projects based in Milwaukee to international partnerships in Afghanistan, El Salvador, and India.

 

Our programs fit into four categories: immersion, peace education, peace research, and applied peacemaking.

PARC brings together residents and institutions (private, government and non-profit) to revitalize Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Near West Side neighborhood. The initiative improves the lives of residents, employees, and visitors to the neighborhood through programs that address commercial corridors, housing, and safety.

 

In the five years since PARC started, we have seen increases in neighborhood cohesion, locally owned business and home ownership rates. We have also seen decreases in crime rates and false perceptions. This success is the result of our resident focused outreach and desire to bring all stakeholders to the same table to work toward our shared goals.

Peace Works is a peace education and violence prevention program that increases young people's capacity to identify and resolve conflicts nonviolently. The program is implemented in partnership with Milwaukee schools.

 

Peace Works provides direct student instruction in small group and classroom settings, professional development for teachers and administrators, and integrated programming to involve parents and families. The Peace Works curriculum is research-informed and grounded in three core practices: social-emotional learning, restorative practices, and peer mediation.

 

Marquette University also has an undergraduate major and minor in peace studies, which we help facilitate. You can learn more at https://www.marquette.edu/peacemaking/peace-studies.php