Director
M.K. Gandhi Institute, USA
Ms. Kit Miller has a Masters in Social Innovation and Sustainability from Goddard College. She served as the director of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Rochester, New York since 2009. Prior to that, she worked as the director/celebrator of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication in Oakland, California. Ms. Miller has been learning about nonviolence and organizing on its behalf for the past 26 years. She draws on Gandhian and Kingian nonviolence, as well as Nonviolent Communication and permaculture, for direction and daily practice. Ms. Miller sees herself as an educator/practitioner hybrid. In addition to using the Institute itself as a learning laboratory for principled nonviolence, she teaches and works on community projects related to restorative justice, sustainability, and antiracism in Rochester and elsewhere. She also has taught hundreds of groups worldwide and has spoken at the United Nations twice (in 2017 and 2018) sharing nonviolence with youth in the 21st century.
| Event Title: Advancing Youth through Social and Economic Empowerment | Date: September 25, 2019 |
SPEECH
Importance of non-violence education and culture of peace for social empowerment of youth
The community is the native climate of the human spirit and face to face uses our whole brain to understand, empathize and learn from each other. Learning, connection, grieving, problem-solving and mourning are things we do in circles with children, youth and adults. Urgent need for training in conflict transformation to support the challenges that will arise regarding population change and resource use. Systemic thinking tools can be taught to people of all ages to understand how systems work and learn how the best people and groups can interact and impact systemic change. Understanding events through the lens of systemic thinking offers opportunities for perspective and intelligent action, rather than reactivity, fear or despair.
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