Envisioning Rotary making a big difference with peace

Building on the previous sessions, but leaving space for participants’ imaginations, this session imagined “going big for peace” with Rotary. To convey the breadth of ideas, this section is largely unfiltered, with ideas grouped under sub-themes.

An organization that can call out potential unrest and spur into action to prevent escalation

• Early Warning network

• Science community involvement in the “brain trust” for validation

• Rethink peace architecture around the concept of Prevention

Agents of local security activation

• Community-based action / agents of global security on the local level

• Network of community members from all levels of society who want to help

• How do we strengthen the capacity of Rotary to be able to mobilize?

• Deepen and focus the work of Rotary programs and projects

Carter School and Rotary relationship

• Start locally and scale up

• Foreign policy analysis or local policy analysis isn’t the starting point

• Real problem has to do with the way people think about violence

• Analyze and operationalize what a cultureofpeaceactually looks like

• Certificate programs specifically designed for Rotarians – those who are peace activists who want to expand their network and their work to others within Rotary

• Make Peace Education (or problem-solving/conflict resolution) part of the national curriculum

• What is the source of the pain that drives people to commit violence? Pain produces aggression, so how can we work together to prevent that pain?

Appreciative Inquiry – asset based

• What exists, what works and what is an easy add-on to use as a starting place?

• Opportunity with the 1700+ peace fellows?

• Build a post-fellowship opportunity for these fellows – could Carter be a “home” for these fellows after they have completed their education

• Service arm of the Carter School – how can Carter School have a relationship with an organization that is doing the practical work?

• IEP – correlation between Trust and Violence; with an asset-based approach, Rotary’sassetis Trust! Carter’sassetsareinformation,knowledge,anddata. Get people talking to each other first, and then continue talking about solving issues together. (Possible venues –museums, as they are trustworthy and neutral – using the arts as a common thread)

Probably 10,000+ Rotarians who would be interested in this relationship between Rotary and Carter School

• Getting Rotary projects off the ground takes time, money, and patience

• Rotary is very brand conscious, so it needs to start from the club level because the structure is bottom up

• Think realistically about what can be implemented and likely to succeed

• Plan for Polio eradication did arise from the top first because the RI leadership pushed it and it took off, gaining other partners along the way

• Silence of Rotary on major issues is alarming and ultimately might hurt the organization –finding ways to address tough issues while still maintaining neutrality

Large System Change

• Rotarians have a charitable instinct and a desire for fellowship

• Modest changes that Rotary could make to increase its effectiveness

• Scaling – looks at a problem and then creates a project to try to solve – project is the instrument to the end game

• Governments and markets are the only two things that can deliver large solutions to large problems (philanthropy doesn’t scale; it’s always going to be relatively small in nature)

• The model of pilot, proof of concept, doesn’t work – change management process is unique each time – knowledge of the behind-the-scenes infrastructure is key to success because the project must be flexible enough to work in all different situations

• Inter-mediation will be key in building trust in this relationship

• Rotary and Carter School may have an advantage of working together because of their neutrality

Marry the larger theoretical changes in Rotary’s thinking with practical interventions/solutions

• Regional network of Rotarians, Peace Fellows, Academics who want to tackle the region’s issues together

• Scaling might be a problem globally, but might have a better chance of success if done locally, and then scaled regionally

Knowledge-management communication

• Regional network communication, rather than top-down from Evanston

• Consulting-type role for Carter Center to suggest how Rotary might improve its peace related work

• Trust Lab – maybe a podcast to get knowledge out to Rotarians

• Violence prevention into the public health frame – need a systematic approach to prevent violence – better coordination of Rotary projects to focus on specific issues within a community

• Devise an initiative together with Carter School that starts modestly and realistically that a Rotary Club could adopt; projects by that club would develop around that initiative

How to link the project with peace education? What kinds of projects are scalable up and scalable out?

• DC Clubs operate in an area of high urban violence

• Conflict in literature and the arts – helps people to understand the roots of conflict and social problems, and come up with solutions

• Rotary Book Club

Cultures of Peace

• As opposed to “culture of peace”

• Honor the diversity and differences of the players

Value Set between both Carter School and Rotary appear to be similar

• War Hurts Young People

• Rotarians – harbingers of peace

• UN – nations that strive for cultures of peace

• Learning to be a peacebuilder – rite of passage for everyone

• Don’t try to make Rotary what it’s not – it is a bottom-up organization

• Take the ideas, incubate them, and build partnerships to scale them up

Next steps

At this initial Point of View meeting, the participants determined three areas for collaboration. The goal is to begin building the partnership between the Carter School and Rotary clubs in the Washington DC Metro Area, with a long-term intention of furthering partnerships with the entire Rotary network.

Three Working Groups

Education – a tangible, meaningful and impactful partnership with the Carter School would enhance and inform Rotary’s existing peace programs, utilizing direct and indirect education, and perhaps using art as a medium to discuss a wide range of peace and conflict related subjects among interested Rotarians. We hope to run such a pilot event before the next POV meeting in March 2023.

Community Initiative / Environmental Peacebuilding – As climate change has different regional effects on Rotary Districts, projects involving Rotarians and the entire Rotary Family would be developed by Carter School experts in this discipline, specific to Rotary District regions. The overall goal is to explore how such partnership in response to global threats such as climate change and water scarcity can be designed to scale up programmatic efforts by Rotary and the Carter School for broader and deeper impacts.

Violence as a Public Health Issue and Threat – Using the CureViolencemodel, Rotarians could be trained as “credible messengers,” engaging in conflict early warning and early response, working closely within their own communities to implement programs to change norms around violent behavior, always with a focus on violence prevention.

The second Point of View Process will take place on March 6 and 7, 2023.