2 minute read
Creating Peace Together
by Connie De Jong, PhD
World Peaces opened a storefront in late
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October of 2020 based on the hope and belief that people would need to reconnect once it became safe to do so, and we wanted to be ready to provide one of the spaces to host those connections. Handcrafting workshops are one of the central ways we are creating space for connecting with each other. I want to tell you a little more about why World Peaces offers workshops and how to be a part of how they evolve in our physical space as well as online.
Handcrafting is a central aspect of Fair Trade. We believe there is so much value in working with our hands. We can connect with the materials- typically recycled or natural materials, through handcrafting. We can connect with our families, neighbors, strangers and friends through handcrafting. We can connect with the wider global community through handcrafting and trading handcrafts. This is simple, age-old, powerful and transformative work.
The pandemic has taken a toll on our minds and our connections with each other. Handcrafting workshops provide a way for
us to gently reconnect with one another. We can chat and listen to one another, work in proximity, and create a work that emerges from our stories.
We have begun a materials section in the store and online for those handcrafters who want to be free to create their own ideas. We also completed our first in-store workshop painting birdhouses. And we are more than half way through a workshop series created for the high school students at the254.org youth center in Gahanna. We are also developing paths to reach out to our immigrant and refugee communities to participate with us. As we grow our handcrafting workshop options, we would love to hear from you about the best times for you to attend and the most exciting work you would like to create. We have a short survey to help us learn from you – please consider taking a moment to complete it for us.
We want to thank you for coming to the store, for connecting with us in whatever way is most comfortable for you, and for what you have to offer our community and the world. We are all World Peaces, thanks to you.
Interested in getting involved with
workshops? We want to offer as many as possible in all of the styles and crafts that interest you!
Take a few minutes to take our survey and let us know what kind of workshops you would be interested in attending!
Use the QR Code or go here to fill out the survey: tinyurl.com/WSSurvey2021
