About the Institute

History of the Institute

In 2002, the Plowshares Collaborative was founded by Earlham, Goshen and Manchester Colleges and funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. Out of this collaboration, the Indianapolis Peace Institute (formerly Indianapolis Peace House) was born. The Institute launched its first off-campus study program in 2004. This program provided students from around the United States with an opportunity to participate in rigorous academics and engage in practical peacebuilding, linking these efforts to their chosen major(s) or career interests. The Institute also worked to build peace in Indianapolis through our partnerships with other community-based organizations, government entities and businesses.

The Board of Directors voted to end programming on March 31, 2010.

Our Mission

To provide dynamic academic and field experiences for students, across various disciplines
To teach conflict transformation skills
To develop leadership skills
To be an educational partner with other peacebuilding initiatives in our community
To engage questions of values, faith, beliefs, and ethical practice in peacebuilding

What is Peacebuilding?

Peace is more than the absence of war, conflict and violence and it requires the wide and complex field of peacebuilding to ensure that it exists. The field of peacebuilding was developed in response to the world’s most severe cases of direct and structural (indirect) violence. It aims to prevent, reduce, transform and help people recover from all forms of violence, while at the same time it empowers them to foster relationships at all levels in society that sustain them and their environment.

Peacebuilding:
• Is not soft or idealistic
• Is not the same as conflict transformation
• Is not only for post-war societies
• Is not based primarily on Western ideas
• Does not avoid conflict or ignore structural forms of violence and injustice.

Peacebuilding is practiced not only at an international level in war zones or in countries that are in the post-war process, but also at a local level, in our own communities.*

Board of Directors

Doug Bennett | President, Earlham College
Nelson Bingham | Vice Chair | Provost, Earlham College/
Jim Brenneman | President, Goshen College
Jan Clark | Vice President for Leadership Development & HR, YMCA of Greater Indianapolis
Richard Hamilton | Retired Minister, United Methodist Church
Peter M. Michael | Chair | Director of Grants Administration, Clarian Health, Methodist-IU-Riley
Beth Sweitzer-Riley | Vice President for Student Development, Manchester College
Alicia S. Roberts | Assistant Manager of Philanthropy, USA Funds
Martha Yoder | Secretary/Treasurer | Family Physician, HealthNet People’s Health Cente

*Schirch, Lisa. The Little Book of Strategic Peacebuilding 2004