The primary focus of the presentation is to inspire others to use their passion and talent to make the world a better place. I am passionate about meditation and contemplative practices—like walking a labyrinth—and I helped to co-create Peace Club. Peace Club is an elective in an after-school program and it is offered four evenings a week for children and teens living with the challenges of poverty. Peace Club offers mindfulness, meditation, and contemplative practices; mandalas, peace circles, and labyrinths. The core of Peace Club is “peace within,” so the students can be more peaceful while out in the community. The Peace Club students report that they are less stressed, more peaceful, happier, and make better decisions because of the skills that they learn while at Peace Club.
The labyrinth is woven into many of the Peace Club weekly sessions. The students walk a labyrinth, create labyrinth crafts, and they also learn to draw a labyrinth and how to use a finger labyrinth that is in their workbook. Peace Club’s creative 9-week curriculum includes: workbooks for children and teens/adults, a teacher’s guide and lesson plans.