Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
www.emu.edu/cjp
Eastern Mennonite University
Harrisonburg, VA

Contact: Ruth Zimmerman, CJP Co-Director zimmermr@emu.edu
Lisa Schirch, Associate Professor and Board Member schirchl@emu.edu

The Conflict Transformation Program (CTP) officially became the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) during the 10th anniversary event on June 3-5, 2005 held during our annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute. This has been in the planning for some time; CJP has evolved into a more complex organization than expected at the start of the program in 1994. Organizations titled "program" generally do not have institutes and programs under them as CJP now does.

In addition, the term peacebuilding has come to include a broader range of activities than the term conflict transformation and is more easily understood in a wider range of contexts. The renaming is seen as situating us for the next ten years as a nationally and internationally recognized Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

We celebrated 10 years of peacebuilding on June 3-5, 2005 at the Eastern Mennonite University campus with a variety of guest lectures and performers including a John McCutcheon folk music concert, dinner keynotes by John Paul Lederach, CTP founding director and Howard Zehr, present co-director.
Purpose and Philosophy

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) was founded to further the personal and professional development of individuals as peacebuilders and to strengthen the peacebuilding capacities of the institutions they serve. The program is committed to supporting conflict transformation and peacebuilding efforts at all levels of society in situations of complex, protracted, violent or potentially violent, social conflict in the United States and abroad.

Open to people from all parts of the world and all religious traditions, CJP builds upon EMU's Christian/Anabaptist faith commitments and strengths. The rigors of academic specialization are combined with practical preparation for a life of nonviolence, witness, service, and peacebuilding in the larger society and world. The program also builds upon Mennonite domestic and international service experience in disaster response, humanitarian relief, restorative justice and socioeconomic development.
It is the premise of CJP that conflict transformation approaches must address root causes of conflict, must be developed strategically, and must promote healing of relationships and restoration of the torn fabric of human community.

CJP is committed to creating and sustaining a mutual learning community that values the diversity and rich experience of students, faculty, and staff. The program places a high value on the relationships developed in this community and hopes they will become the basis for long-term partnerships and continued mutual support and learning.

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Alliance for Peacebuilding
11 Dupont Circle NW, Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 822.6135 Fax: (202) 822.6068