Welcome to Peacekeeper blog

This is the first post for our new blog site. 
We are so excited to create a web presence to share our passion, PeaceKeeper Circles. 


My name is Kiri Saftler, over the past few years, I've had the pleasure of teaching this preventative restorative justice process in Colorado to over 30 teachers and/or counselors and approximately 600 students in elementary school classrooms in Fort Collins and Denver. 


With the established agreements and guidelines used in Peacekeeper Circles students  sitting in circle listen from their hearts to one another, in a safe environment. They  learn how their behavior effects each other by expressing their gratitude/appreciation and grievances. The children even in kindergarten learn to express authentically, using "I messages". With sincere apologies students can make amends for their wrong doing, learn how to correct their behavior and re-establish healthy relationships. 


A sad fact is that bullying, has become an epidemic in our culture. If children can learn to reconcile their differences with a restorative rather than punitive method, problems can be resolved between the offender and victim in a humanitarian way.  The ancestors of many native cultures promoted this type of interaction because they experienced it's long lasting effectiveness. 


I have personally witnessed amazing interactions between young people that many adults never experience in their lives, because they've learned to express their feelings and needs.  With the use of this weekly classroom practice learning positive resolution skills,  the children  build long lasting relationships that are based on listening to their peers with cooperation and compassion.


Our intention at this time, is to apply for grants to increase the possibility for more students to learn this life long skill of positive communication and deep listening. With funding and a commitment of teachers and administrators children will learn how to listen and respond more compassionately to their peers and communicate their feelings and needs, which encourages a climate of caring and compassion in an entire school setting. We would like to offer an opportunity to at least one pilot school where every classroom is committed to sharing Peacekeeper Circles. We want to study and observe the results of it's effectiveness on bullying and how when student's emotional needs are being met, it creates a positive learning environment for all. Ideally this would be observable over the course of one year and optimally with reinfocement over the  five years in elementary school, the children would have a core value of compassion instilled. This life skill is also a positive model of conflict resolution, easily accessible and used as a  foundation for improving relationships in classroom and beyond. 


We believe there are many positive effects that Peacekeeper Circles can offer students and staff, school wide. Having a whole school participate in this model and evaluating the effects will encourage others to use the peacekeeper program in their schools.