Turning Research into Action for a Safer World

Since 1999, it has been the mission of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding (CCPB) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to help citizens seek realistic ways to improve human conditions locally and globally. The Center works with ordinary citizens to prevent violent conflict and, if violence occurs, to explore paths to sustainable peace and reconciliation, and share what we have learned. Turning research into action, the CCPB takes an integrated approach in studying the best grassroots peacebuilding methods in both domestic and international conflicts, and utilizes those findings in direct engagement in peacebuilding efforts in neighborhoods in Orange County and Los Angeles, California as well as in such selected communities in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and the former Soviet Union.

The Center for Citizen Peacebuilding conducts research, advances education and organizes action to improve and expand citizen peacebuilding in the United States and around the world. The Center hosts lectures and conferences involving prominent citizen peacebuilders, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureates; trains local and international peacebuilding practitioners, including gang intervention workers; and facilitates peacebuilding efforts in conflict zones.

By integrating all three aspects, we promote knowledge about positive role models and foster constructive change.

A Brief History of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding

If anyone wanted an example of what an ordinary citizen could do to help peace efforts, they would only need to look to the group of individuals who have offered their time and talents in service and partnership with the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, Irvine.

The Center for Citizen Peacebuilding (CCPB) was born out of a meeting one sunny afternoon in 1999 on the UC Irvine (UCI) campus by three women: Paula Garb, Marlett Phillips, and Lori Warmington. An international conference about best practices in citizen peacebuilding soon followed. Held in June 2000, it was funded by the U.S. Institute for Peace, the University of California's Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation, and UCI’s Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies. The conference brought together thirty researchers and peacebuilding practitioners who lived and worked in the conflict zones of Kosovo, Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia/Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Moldova/Transdniestria. Gang intervention workers from various communities in Los Angeles and Orange County—our own US war zones—also participated.

Inspired by the conference, a founding board including both faculty and community members with equal decision-making powers soon launched the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding. For more than twenty years, the growing list of board members have come together to ensure that we put into practice the three prongs of our mission: (1) research; (2) education; and (3) action.

Today, the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding remains dedicated to its vision of turning research into action for a safer world. We work with everyday citizens to reduce violence and promote reconciliation and sustainable peace through dialogue, education, and support of grassroots activities. Our integrated approach has included direct engagement in peacebuilding projects in neighborhoods in Orange County and Los Angeles, California, in select communities in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Bosnia/Herzegovina and the former Soviet Union, as well as research in Africa and Central America.

Our Center supports faculty, community members, and students to study grassroots peacebuilding methods in both domestic and international conflicts. To this end, we have provided funding to graduate students to pursue doctoral research on themes related to peacebuilding through the Kugelman fellowship. We have also sponsored several undergraduate student organizations on campus, including the conflict analysis and resolution group called the Olive Tree Initiative, as well as Students for Global Peacebuilding. And we have hosted a variety of "Best Practices" conferences with worldwide experts, training workshops, lectures and forums—including international women’s dialogue circles, gang intervention training, and mediation and conflict resolution courses—to share the insights and perspectives of domestic and international peacebuilders with UCI and the surrounding community. More recently, we have founded the Hal Smith lecture series, which brings global experts to UCI to share their insights, in honor of the late founding board member who gave so much of his time and energy to the cause.

It has been our honor to acknowledge the efforts of people who have set an example to find solutions amidst the pain and suffering of conflict and thus provide actionable hope for a better tomorrow. Our UCI Citizen Peacebuilding Award is awarded to exceptional peacebuilders who come to campus to share their educational and inspirational stories. Selected for their efforts to foster peace and dialogue, such recipients have included Nobel Peace Prize winners Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Jimmy Carter, and Leymah Gbowee.

We hope you are inspired by our past efforts to join us in our efforts going forward. We want and need your help to educate our young people and future generations in effective, peaceful problem-solving skills, in promoting sustainable peace movements and climate action in a divided world. This work is understandably daunting at times, and we may wonder what ordinary citizens can do for peace, but let’s not forget the words of Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”