Bridges 4 Hope & Peace: Reducing conflict in communities in Gaza
Sat, Jan 15, 2022 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5)
Register here.
Peter Jakob with Lois Holzman, & Cathy Salit in a conversation about the vital, creative and transformative work of “Bridges 4 Hope & Peace”
About this event
Peter Jakob is the Vice-Chair of Bridges 4 Hope & Peace, a politically neutral NGO that is bringing work involving Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) to populations that have suffered multi-generational trauma. NVR uses approaches adapted from socio-political nonviolent resistance to help reduce conflict in families and communities, especially where there is child to parent violence, sibling violence, but also domestic abuse by adults. Working with local practitioners, Peter and the team are bringing a culturally adaptive practice of NVR to families in Gaza, whose inhabitants are suffering economically, psychologically and spiritually from the effects of a blockade that has lasted for decades.
Bios
Peter Jakob, PhD With a background in social work, Peter has worked as a clinical psychologist and family therapist in both child- and adolescent mental health services and in adult mental health for over 35 years, specializing in working with people who have experienced abuse and with children and families involved with child protective services. Peter’s concern is for understanding the contexts in which peoples’ difficulties emerge and working towards social justice as a key underpinning of psychotherapy. He has introduced Non Violent Resistance (NVR) to the UK and has adapted the approach for families that face multiple challenges and for adopted children and young people in foster- or residential care. His work with children who have experienced adversity has inspired him to develop a child focus in NVR. Peter has presented nationally and internationally.
Lois Holzman is founder (with Fred Newman) and director of the East Side Institute and founder and chair of the Performing the World conferences. Her teaching, research and writing challenge the academic mainstream and lend support to local community organizing and global social change efforts. Lois introduces performatory approaches to human development and social change to hundreds of grassroots practitioners and supports their home-grown initiatives to develop people and their communities in order to engage poverty, violence, conflict, underdevelopment and environmental destruction. She is the author of 10 books – including The Overweight Brain – and dozens of chapters, articles and essays, some featured in Big Ideas and Revolutionary Activity.
Cathy Rose Salit is a social entrepreneur, speaker, coach, improviser, and performance activist. She is the founder and Chief Organizer of the Global Play Brigade, a community of performance activists formed at the outset of the pandemic that provides free play and emotional support sessions around the globe. As a founder and now CEO Emerita of the award winning leadership consultancy Performance of a Lifetime, she led the growth of the company for over 23 years, working with thousands of leaders and teams in top brand companies. Cathy is the author of Performance Breakthrough: A Radical Approach to Success at Work (Hachette 2016), and her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal. Cathy has been active as a community organizer since she was a teenager; working on grassroots projects including alternative schools, teen pregnancy prevention programs, independent political campaigns, the All Stars Project, and the Performing the World and Applied Improv Network global conferences. She’s an artistic associate at the Castillo Theatre in NYC, on the advisory board of the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy and a (now) occasional jazz singer; prior to Covid you could catch Cathy performing at The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, LI and the San Sebastian Jazz Festival in Spain.
