Programs + Workshops

Speaker Series

Organized quarterly, the Peace Center’s speaker series invites members to learn from and be inspired by individuals and groups who are working to build just, inclusive, nonviolent communities through education and action. Sessions in 2025 include:

  • March 11 - Rev. Dr. Mark Hayes and several collaborators shared about their community work to transform community violence through outreach and youth engagement.

  • April 11 - As part of our Annual Members Dinner, authors Thad Williamson (Peace Center Board member) and Amy Howard, and Julian Hayter shared insights form their recently published new book - The Making of Twenty-First-Century Richmond: Politics, Policy, and Governance, 1988-2016.

Dinner & Dialogue

Monthly dinners on the 4th Friday allow participants to share a meal and to explore and engage in meaningful conversations. Participants pay for their own food and the Peace Center facilitates the conversation.

Join us around the table for Dinner & Dialogue, a monthly community gathering where we share a meal and exploremeaningful conversations that matter.

No fixed themes. No lectures. Just real people, real stories, and the courage to 
engage with the world -one bite and one conversation at a time.

Together, we’ll lean into curiosity, challenge assumptions, and reflect on how we can build more peaceful, just communities.

Event Registration Link

Read for Peace

A bimonthly book discussion group, where we explore powerful ideas that shape movements for justice, peace, and nonviolence.

  • June 25 at 7pm - Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know by Erica Chenoweth

Documentary Discussion Club

Each month or two we will watch and discuss a different film, all with some connection to peace and social justice.

Each time we will ask the question, how does this film further our understanding of nonviolence or help build peace in our world?  What lessons for creating peace can we learn from this film?

Educoncert

Supported in partnership with Drums No Guns

Richmond Peace Education Center invites you to our annual Generation Dream Showcase, where young artists share what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of equity, representation, and education means to them and their community. Through Generation Dream, talented youth from throughout central Virginia, along with supporting adult artists, perform original poems, music, and dance pieces. This exciting event typically takes place in February of each year. Read the update on last year’s Educoncert.

The goal of Generation Dream is to amplify the creative voices of young people to inspire members of our community to continue to build toward an equitable future. In addition, this event serves as an empowering experience for youth participants. Performers will consider contemporary issues of racial justice, islamophobia, and cycles of violence, as well as honoring some of the heroes of the long fight for social justice. Many of the pieces are original, inspired by the personal experiences of the performers.

Trauma Responsive Conflict Resolution Training

Offered in Partnership with Santa Sorenson and Healing In Community

This training is open to all who are interested, including parents, college students, teachers, social workers, and anyone interested in learning how to resolve conflicts that do not re-traumatize and do no harm. Through 2 days you will strengthen your communication and problem solving skills and understand trauma at a deep level.

Healing in Community founded by Santa Sorenson builds safety, trust, acceptance, and support in every training. Its mission is to promote well-being for individuals, groups, and businesses who are experiencing trauma, conflict, stress, and related issues by providing practices that empower and support the individual, family, and community. www.healingincommunityss.org

All topics will be looked at through the lens of trauma.

* Compassionate and empathetic skills        * Facing your discomfort with difficult conversations

* Non-Violent Communication                       * Racism

* Understanding Trauma                                * Problem Solving.

* Dealing with your own anger & others        * Diffusing and De-escalating conflict

* Bullying                                                       

Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities, [HROC]

Offered in Partnership with Santa Sorenson and Healing In Community

This 3-day training is an African community-based experiential model of healing that focuses on recognizing and understanding trauma and its effects on individuals, family & community.

This training:

• Compliments group and individual therapy

• Gives teachers trauma-responsive and resiliency techniques

• Helps participants develop an understanding of themselves and family members

• Creates a path to healing relationships with family or community

• Stops the cycle of violence by healing the pain from trauma. Hurt people can stop hurting people.

Virtual Workshops

(Under Development)

The Richmond Peace Education Center is excited to start offering virtual workshops using Zoom. Taking advantage of the flexibility and increased accessibility that is possible online, these virtual workshops focus on equipping participants with a compact virtual experience that will equip them with skills that will empower them to handle conflict constructively. This exciting new area of programming for the Peace Center is still in the beginning stages of development. Contact our Executive Director by email at director@rpec.org for more information, and he will do his best to create a tailor-made virtual workshop to fit the needs of your organization or group.