The OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology was founded in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2001 by University of Arkansas English Professor Dick Bennett, along with a close group of his friends. Its stated mission was to “seek a world free of war and the threat of war, a society with liberty and justice for all, a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled, an earth restored.” For the next several years, OMNI’s focus was primarily on demonstrating against the Iraq War, and in 2004, it staged its largest protest to date, drawing about 600 participants. That's a significant number for our small city. 

OMNI continued to grow, and by 2005, the focus began to shift away from a war-protest model towards a community-based organizing and educational model.Today OMNI hosts many diverse groups and programs working toward our current mission to educate, empower, and connect people to build a nonviolent, sustainable, and just world.

In 2019 we started a student-activism support group on the campus of the University of Arkansas and are excited by the potential to mentor young adults into a fully engaged way of addressing peace, justice and environmental issues.