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Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation

“WELCOME FROM THE DIRECTOR”

As the African quote reminds us, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation seeks to engage with LCC students, staff, local and international researchers, practitioners, activists, and communities to promote and strengthen a culture of peace both locally and globally.  We invite you to join us on our journey towards building peace.

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Naomi Enns
Director, Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation

Purpose statement

LCC’s peace center, grounded in Christian faith, offers opportunities for building bridges of trust, transforming relationships, and equipping communities. The center aims to strengthen, transform, and sustain servant change agents towards the creation of a more just and peaceful world. Opportunities for gathering and growing together strengthens the LCC ethos of non-violent peacebuilding guided by 4 pillars articulated below. These pillars advance our understanding and action towards peace in local and global pathways through dialogue, trainings, and action. The Center is a catalyst for strengthening communities in nonviolent social change, generous hospitality, and holistic justice to promote the greater common good of our society.

Conflict Transformation & Resilience

We work with people to transform conflict on personal, interpersonal, community and societal levels by building bridges of trust, fostering reconciliation, and strengthening resiliency. Through respectful engagement we equip communities to live justly and nurture a sustainable peace. 

Applied Research & Dialogue

We work with students and researchers in the areas of conflict and peace studies and promote events that stimulate dialogue on critical issues that impact our world.  The goal is to invite students, international researchers, and others to connect academic research to practice.

Action, Advocacy & Awareness Raising

We challenge a culture of oppression, promote actions which pursue justice, increase understanding and engagement in human rights issues, and strengthen positive service and citizenship. We use dialogue, learning events and workshops to empower communities to live generously.

Peace, Dialogue & Trainings

We foster an awareness of the cycles of violence and provide tools to nonviolently engage conflict, oppression, and trauma. We use human encounters to transform relationships, expand our understanding and actions toward peace, and nurture health and healing towards a more just and peaceful world.

News and Events

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Peace Lights: Illuminating Resilience, Connection and Hope at LCC International University

2024-12-17

Authored by Naomi EnnsWhen the world around seems dark, a little light goes a long way. On Wednesday,  December 11th, 2024 LCC International University’s peace Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation hosted a unique event, “Peace Lights”, an evening dedicated to creating space for meaningful human encounters. In a world that often feels dark, overwhelmed by violence and chaos, this gathering offered  students and staff the opportunity to reflect, share stories, and connect in ways that foster resilience. Through roundtable discussions, food, and storytelling, participants explored the theme of guiding lights - sources of strength and hope that lessen anxieties and support transformation. The event encouraged individuals to reflect on their personal “guiding light” and how it can empower them to create connections, heal wounds and promote peace.Designed to nurture inner  resilience and empower community connections, The event highlighted the importance of tending to our hearts and souls as peacemakers before engaging  in broader change. As Naomi Enns, director of the Center, shared, the evening was a powerful display of heads, hands and hearts coming together, fostering a sense of hope, courage, compassion and resilience.  By making space for inspiring stories, we are reminded of our shared responsibility to live generously, seek justice, and create communities where all can flourish. “Peace lights illuminated the path toward a more peaceful world, one guided by the light of hope, inner spirituality, connection through relationship, and compassion.This event was a reminder ,  that we are called to light candles as an act of defiance, a prayer for courage, a step toward God.  As participants placed their own candles into a collective group, we were reminded together of Howard Thurman’s wisdom:  that we “ light candles this season- candles of joy despite all the sadness, candles of hope where despair keeps watch, candles of peace for tempest-tossed days, candles of grace to ease heavy burdens, candles of love to inspire all of our living- candles that will burn all year long”This event reminded us  that where light shines the darkness cannot overcome.

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Navigating Conflict Well: Dialogue for Peaceful Change Training

2024-12-16

Authored by Yuliia Duleba, Peace intern Dialogue and understanding of conflict are key ingredients when it comes to navigating complex conflict and change well. The peace Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation hosted the first module of a two-part training of facilitators in “Dialogue for Peaceful Change” (DPC) on November 16th and 23rd.  LCC students had an opportunity to learn about understanding conflict and transformative change through various peacebuilding concepts and tools. The first module of DPC was facilitated by DPC Trainer Naomi Enns, assisted by the peace program coordinator Ieva Rūkė and Douglas Enns. This training is particularly valuable for LCC students who live in a multicultural community striving for non-violent communication and understanding of conflict in a broader perspective.The intense training included learning about social dynamics of conflict, cultural context of conflict, and navigating the human response to a conflict. These models help us to understand the root of the problem, and, thus, lead to better navigation through it. A Kurdish sophomore student in International Relations and Development, Avdal Khudeeda Haydar, commented afterwards that the “DPC training helped [him] to understand conflicts and how to play a crucial role in resolving them”. Additionally, the opportunity for participants to engage in multiple discussions and activities furthered understanding of the tensions that might arise during regular communication. Thus, the training aimed to give tools for participants to deal with tensions in their relationships and communities.Providing an extensive amount of information and offering safe space for reflection and tools help LCC students to practice conflict understanding in daily life. A Lithuanian junior IRD student Vilius Višinskis notes that “Various theories and exercises during the training helped not only to evaluate the participants, but also to train them to become conflict mediators”. The second module of DPC in Navigating Conflict and Change training of facilitators includes further training in empathic communication and mediative dialogue will take place on January 30- Feb 2,2025.  The second module of training offers participants an even broader set of tools for conflict mediation and transformative change.
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Past events

The opening conference for the center offered 3 strands of critical thinking on the theme of narratives, the place of storytelling and their role in healing and building a democratic society. Be engaging with our heads, hearts and hands we nurtured our walk together towards peace.

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Countless people around the world have experienced and been affected by wars, violence, and genocides. We recognize that the wounds that were inflicted by these events affect each society differently. Wounded societies share many of the same questions. How can we overcome historical legacies, remember truthfully, and find hope for the future? How can we bridge the gap between victims and perpetrators, friends and perceived enemies, using language as a tool for reconciliation? How might we heal divisions in fragmented societies?

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