UN Civil Society Conference - August 25, 2019

 

Facebook post: There was entertainment at the opening reception - hip hop dancing, Native American dancers, etc. I’ve already met some very nice people. And I found out that there are people here from 138 countries!!

 

UN Civil Society Conference - August 25, 2019

The theme of this Civil Society conference was Building Inclusive and Sustainable Cities and Communities. It was held in Salt Lake City, Utah from August 26-28, 2019. This was the first time it was held outside of the UN headquarters in NYC. Salt Lake City was chosen because they are a leader in sustainability and being an inclusive city. There was a very large youth representation at this conference. This conference had two outcome documents: an Outcome Statement and a Youth Climate Compact. They can be found here: https://outreach.un.org/ngorelations/slc-conference.

UN Civil Society Conference - August 25, 2019

Facebook post: A nice lady greeted me at the airport with this sign and directions to the conference. She was kind enough to take my picture as well. While I’m here I’m representing the State College Borough as a volunteer, the United Nations Association Centre County Chapter, and Campus & Community in Unity. I will be reporting what I learn to each of these when I get back. :)

Great quotes :)

UN Peacebuilding Conference

I participated in this online conference on August 5-7, 2019. It was a great learning experience interacting with people from all over the world!

"UN System-wide Community Engagement Guidelines on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace -

The Working Group on UN System-wide Community-Engagement Guidelines in Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, led by the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO)/Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), invites UN entities at all levels and civil society actors active in peacebuilding, especially at the local level, to participate in a three-day global online consultation reflecting on good practices and challenges to effective community engagement for peacebuilding, and discuss possible and concrete next steps to operationalize the guidelines in various UN settings in conflict-affected situations."

Reflections on the UN

I agree with the notion that the UN, despite its flaws, is our best hope for world peace long term - so we need to work together on the flaws to help it function better and continue to promote peaceful relations, human rights, etc. around the world.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apps-un-commentary/commentary-an-imperfect-un-is-still-the-worlds-best-hope-idUSKCN1M51TF

The article below about Trump is very sad... We can’t reject globalism - the world is already too far into globalization and its effects. And for other countries to return to patriotism, like he is suggesting we do, would only fuel fires of difference instead of solidarity. We’re all human beings. Let’s try to get along...

http://time.com/5406130/we-reject-globalism-president-trump-took-america-first-to-the-united-nations/

I just discovered the United Nations Association of Centre County. The UN Association of America exists to educate Americans about the mission of the UN and promote world peace by trying to maintain and increase the existence of the UN’s work in the world. I’m excited to learn more about this local chapter!

http://www.unacentrecountypa.org/

Considering I would like to do work for UNESCO and the U.N. in the future, I will likely get involved in the work of this local organization. :)

My first academic publication! :)

I recently published a paper about my research on a social justice theatre program called Theatre of Witness in Northern Ireland in the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education. It's a special issue on community arts programs. The link for the journal and the abstract are below. The title of my article is: The Transformative and Healing Power of Theatre of Witness".

https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/issue/view/360

Abstract

This article describes the healing and transformative effects of a social justice theatre program called Theatre of Witness on participants and community members in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It begins with a review of relevant literature, including sections about artistic ways of knowing, transformative learning through theatre and storytelling, and theatre for peacebuilding. The research is still in process; however, the findings have some similarities to research done on other social justice theatre programs used for peacebuilding. The key themes of this program are authentic, vulnerable storytelling through testimonial theatre, and a process of empathy development by humanizing the “other.”