Driven by its successful Peacemaker Academy program in the Fort Wayne Community Schools, Alive Community Outreach has expanded its peacemakers training to include the entire community.
The organization, founded in 2020 by Rev. Angelo Mante and his wife Marie, cultivates a community of nonviolence through relationships and education.
Through survivor support, school-based peacemaking, and community education they are dedicated to building beloved community rooted in agape love, restorative practices, and the courageous practice of Kingian nonviolence.
Here WBOI’s Julia Meek discusses the impact of this education initiative with Mante and its program director, Chris Lahr and the long-term change a culture of nonviolence affords.
Trainings Session Information:
Two Day Core: Foundations in Kingian
Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation
June 1-2
Level I Train the Trainer Certification
June 1-5
Level II School Based Leadership Certification
June 8-12
For more information and to register visit the Alive Community Outreach website.
This is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Angelo Mante, Chris Lahr, welcome.
Angelo Mante: Thank you, good to be here.
Chris Lahr: Thank you.
Julia Meek: So, there's even more peacemaking activity at Fort Wayne's Community Alive Outreach, a community-wide education initiative, in fact.
Now how does this fit into as well as drive your overarching goal, Angelo?
Angelo Mante: Yeah, so we have three program areas, our survivor support, that's where we started, which is support for families who've been affected by homicide.
As we were doing that work, we said, what can we do that would lead to less families needing support in the first place?
And so that led us to doing the work that we're doing in the schools, our school-based peacemaking work.
That program has really evolved over the past five years and has been really impactful. And we've had a lot of people asking us, what kind of trainings do you offer beyond the schools?
We've been getting that question more and more over the past couple of years and have really felt this burden to do something around community education.
We just haven't had the capacity to do that. And so this is the year we're going to invest in community education, which really brings things full circle for us.
Julia Meek: Full, full circle. Ever outreaching, yes.
Angelo Mante: Absolutely, for sure.
Julia Meek: Okay, Chris, you have a doctorate in transformational leadership and many hours at peace work, especially at the Peace Academy. How has all of that defined your present mission, and is it a comfortable fit?
Chris Lahr: Yeah, I started my doctorate just before I started Alive Community Outreach. I was actually looking at studying George Floyd and the racism and all that.
But then as I started working with the kids, and I started realizing there was a depth with working with these kids, with peace, and a lot of the kids kept saying, hey, he's messy, she's messy, and trying to understand the conflicts of the fighting and the violence that are in the kids minds and in their actions.
And so we developed a thing called the Messy Matrix, [all chuckle] yeah, and it's been a very applicable tool to use to understand violence, to help kids walk through violence, and also look at ways to repair that violence and to live differently.
So, it's been a great fit. Didn't have any idea what I was getting myself into when I joined alive. But it's been a good thing.
Julia Meek: For everyone. It is a good thing. Now, what would you say are Chris's biggest strengths and strongest skills in that toolkit, Angelo?
Angelo Mante: Well Chris, there's a lot that I could say there. I think the biggest thing about Chris is his flexibility. He was our first peace advocate at Southside. There was no job description. [all chuckle]
It was go in and figure it out. So, he walked into the school, and he refers to those days, he says that he was the "sup" man. He would just go around saying, Sup, sup, sup, you know, to the kids.
And he really helped us figure out what that role of a peace advocate would look like before there was any clear framework for it.
And now, of course, we have a full-time peace advocate in each of the five Fort Wayne Community School high schools, and it's a very defined role.
That wouldn't be the case without Chris. The Peacemaker movement as we know it wouldn't be what it is without Chris and his flexibility and the vision that he brought to that role and to this work that we're doing.
And then for this initiative, in particular, with the community education, Chris is a scholar, and he's a teacher through and through. He loves to teach. He's good at teaching, and he is thorough.
So these trainings that we're doing, he puts his whole heart and soul into it, you know, full into it. And so that has really taken us to levels that we would not be at without Chris.
Chris Lahr: What's been beautiful is the different people that have taken those roles as peace advocates and then making it their own.
And it's people from the community with gifts from the community, and they connect with kids at a deep level in ways that I couldn't even do it in certain ways.
And so it's really a team effort. The success that we've had so far.
Julia Meek: You teach and you learn together, it certainly sounds alike. Now, at its core, your mission is all about healthier relationships.
You began as you mentioned, the survivor support. You added the school-based peacemaking, now the community education. What will this full package mean for all of the points you work toward going forward, having the full circle?
Angelo Mante: So, we don't know the full answer to that yet. I think of this work that we're doing and this kind of the stage that we're at right now, I like to think in terms of metaphors.
So, I think about the work that we're doing in the schools, such as this plant that we're cultivating, and the work that we're doing with survivors, we're cultivating that plant, we're watering that plant.
It's kind of our our baby, right? Community Education in some ways, in some ways, in many ways, we're integrating community education with those two other areas. But it's also, in a sense, we're spreading seeds out into the community.
And people will take that and run with it in ways that we might not be directly involved with. I mean, look at me. I went down to Selma. I went through this Kingian nonviolence training.
That training wasn't preparing people to go do this work in schools, necessarily. But I was inspired by those trainings and by the work that they were doing down in Selma, and then I took that back to Fort Wayne.
And here we are, right, doing all that we're doing. And so that's what I'm really excited about, is to see how people will take this framework of Kingian nonviolence, which has broad application beyond just this work that we're doing in the schools.
Which is impactful, but we are in this moment where peace and nonviolence are needed in many ways in our world, in our society and in our country.
That's what excites me about that and why we felt a responsibility to invest in doing this right now.
Julia Meek: This initiative was by community request, in fact. Is it safe to say that was a direct evolution from this circle we're talking about?
Angelo Mante: Yeah. Everything we've said, every step of the way, every new initiative that we've had has just naturally flowed from whatever it is that we're doing.
This is just a natural extension of the work that we're already doing. And yes, there were a lot of people that were requesting trainings, and not just in Fort Wayne.
We've had some folks from surrounding areas of Fort Wayne and even in other parts of the country, that have reached out and heard about our work.
That was part of it, but then also, again, this chaotic moment that we're in right now.
Julia Meek: All pushing you forward, even though it could be pushing you back like crazy, but also thrusting you forward.
Angelo Mante: Yeah, and we've been very thoughtful. We have a good team, a great board, because you don't want to get yourself into anything that is going to make it difficult for you to sustain the work that you're already doing, right?
I mean, you don't want to spread yourself too thin. So, we've been very thoughtful and very deliberate every step of the way. We think that this is not just a natural extension of what we're already doing, but it's going to strengthen the work that we're already doing.
Julia Meek: And Chris, essentially, what's at the heart of raising a peace family, as is your job description in the Kingian style of nonviolence?
Chris Lahr: Yeah. So the peace family is a group of predominantly elderly folks that have gotten involved in our work. We were doing a study on gun violence, and they said, what can we do about gun violence?
And we ended up saying, hey, as long as you're alive, your heart's a ticking. You're children of the 60s. We started giving them opportunities to come into the school and to begin to serve the kids by handing out candy and build relationships.
But from that, there was a hunger to go deeper, and that's what the community education is. It's not just about serving but serving deeper.
And so we started learning the six principles of nonviolence, and we started going through Dr King's lessons. And what it's done is it's created a beloved community where very different people are gathered together, and they serve together, and they learn together.
And it's a beautiful thing. And to see how this elder generation and the youth interact and engage each other at a deep level every month when they get together at schools.
Julia Meek: It's a natural.
Chris Lahr: It's beautiful.
Julia Meek: So, zoom in now, Angelo. What groups are you targeting within the community to want to be part of this community initiative?
Angelo Mante: We're casting somewhat of a wide net. We've put it out there, and we think that this has, again, broad application for folks who are looking for a way to get involved, who are looking for a framework to engage and work towards social change.
We are reaching out to educators, to businesspeople, so there is some concentrated effort. But for this first go round, and our first trainings are coming up this summer, we've just put it out there.
Julia Meek: Are you encouraged by the interest out there on the street so far?
Chris Lahr: Yes.
Angelo Mante: Yes, I'm very encouraged by the interest as we're having these conversations with people, and as we're going around, we're we're getting a great response.
Julia Meek: Catching fire?
Angelo Mante: Yeah, yeah.
Julia Meek: Now I am curious. How much of your adult community initiative was driven by that very Peace Academy and the grads that took the initial work out into the street?
Angelo Mante: For us, it all started with the young people. So that first group that we had at Southside High School was 12 students, and they were on fire.
From there, the school district, they said, whatever's happened to South Side, we want to see that in the rest of the schools. And now we're in all the other schools.
And so there's this movement that started with the students, and then the peace family. I think that this community education initiative is definitely going back to the idea of it naturally flowing from the work that we're already doing.
Well, that started with the young people. So, we have no idea how, how big this movement is going to become, but we'll always look back, point back to the students, and be able to say, you know, you all started this.
And it's a really cool thing, even now, with the new students that we have coming in, we can tell that story. And say, look at what people of your generation, your age, have started.
And now you know, you can take it to the next level. And every year, somehow, some way, they have managed to do that. So, we're following their lead.
Chris Lahr: My first year, when I started interviewing the kids. One of the things I kept hearing over and over again is, I'm tired of the ghetto narrative, and these were kids Southside.
I'm tired of being looking down on as we're ghetto or we're less than, and so we challenged them to change the narrative. And that's exactly what they did through the peace count, the peace room, and all the different initiatives that they did through art and things like that.
And the peace count has actually changed, and it's actually a higher percentage of peace now in the school. And now they're in all five public high schools because of the work that started at Southside.
But what I'm seeing is I travel into Philly and other places, is there's a lot of kids "wiling out" in a lot of different schools.
And there's violence on the rise and all over the schools, and one of our niches is that we do have a philosophy and a teaching that's very practical and that works, and it gets results.
Yes, and so violence is reducing, but it's also building Beloved Community, which is what we're really about. It's about building something, not just tearing something down.
Julia Meek: You don't want to void, but you want something to fill it up. That's even more powerful.
Angelo Mante: Most definitely.
Julia Meek: So with the accelerating success, where can you take all of this, mid and long term wise, do you think Angelo?
Angelo Mante: Well, if you asked me five years ago where we would be today, I probably wouldn't have been able to predict where we're at.
So, right now, I think we're taking things one step at a time and saying we've expanded so quickly that right now, in fact, we just got through this strategic planning process.
We're really focusing on deepening the work that we're doing and not just endlessly expanding. Even the community education is really deepening the work that we're already doing.
We're providing people with a framework that they can then go and run with it in their own ways. Long term, I don't know... (sighs)
Julia Meek: Will the big dream of making a template for anyone, anywhere in the world to have the same...?
Angelo Mante: Yeah. So we have a model that's working in Fort Wayne Indiana, and if it can work in Fort Wayne Indiana, then it can work anywhere.
And so I don't at this stage, see us expanding our programming beyond Fort Wayne. I can't see that in my mind's eye.
But if we can provide training and equip others with that model to go implement in their own context, in their own way, that's something that I definitely think is within the realm of possibility.
Julia Meek: And good luck with that. So honestly, your journey began in some very tough times, Angelo and they haven't gotten easier, and the near future is pretty grim.
So how can you keep apace, let alone make that needed change to be the peace? And going forward, is that needed change doable?
Angelo Mante: I definitely think it's doable, and I think what we're building right now is not just a bunch of individuals trying to work toward change in an isolated way, but we're doing it as community.
And I think that throughout history, communities of people have been able to do some pretty extraordinary things.
And I get overwhelmed pretty quickly when I think about our national situation, our political situation, but if anything's going to change at larger scales, it starts locally.
It starts with beloved community. And so I think if we're focused on that work, and we're already and we're not that far into this, we're already seeing the ripples of this work extend beyond Fort Wayne.
And so as we're training young people, equipping young people, they're going to go out into the community. They're our next political leaders, they're our next business leaders, our next nonprofit leaders, our next clergy and on down the list, right?
This work's going to continue to ripple out. So to me, yes, it's doable, it's necessary, and it's how we all stay sane in this process, because in the midst of the chaos, we experience a lot of love, a lot of grace, a lot of beauty on a daily basis doing this work. And it's really been an honor to be a part of.
Chris Lahr: Yeah, and as the madness increases, so does the peace need to increase.
And one of the things I've been inspired by is Mother Teresa, and the work that she did, and she said, we don't do any great things, but only small things with great love.
And that's really what we're about, doing the small things with great love. And as you do those things, little by little by little, you step back and you see some great things have happened.
So, I don't do it to get great results. I do it because of love, and as a result of love, great things may or may not happen, but I'm going to do it anyway.
Julia Meek: Amen.
Angelo Mante: Yep.
Julia Meek: Okay, the intergenerational following you are amassing is impressive, as we've been discussing. Can you believe how fast and deeply it's going?
Chris Lahr: No, I can't. I mean, it's unbelievable that the relationships between the elderly and the young have happened so quickly.
Julia Meek: So how might it influence the next chapter of your work?
Chris Lahr: Well, I think the next chapter is we do these trainings. We're level one trainings where you can get trained in Kingian nonviolence.
We've already run several of the elderly folks through it, and they're going to help us train the kids in the next level.
And then we have kids that have graduated from the academy who are being trained in the level one, and they're also becoming trainers.
And we even talked about, if we go into middle schools, having our middle schoolers do a little training for the young kids and things like that.
And so we're constantly having people pour into the younger generation. And it's been effective so far, and I could see it continue growing.
Julia Meek: So, you are writing the next chapter.
Chris Lahr: Yes.
Julia Meek: Very good. Thanks for this impressive progress report. And as always, we cheer you on. We've been on the mic many times together, Angelo, and now we've got a new crusader, and good to have you here, Chris.
So last question, what one basic and simple thing can everyone listening right now do to help your cause, our cause, to make that difference and be the peace?
Angelo Mante: Well, I would say go to our website, alivefw.org. We just recently refreshed the entire website, and that gives you a lot of opportunity right there for what we need, what we're looking for.
We're always looking for resources, financial resources, of course, but human resources. There was a time not that long ago when people wanted to volunteer with us, and we didn't have a whole lot of opportunities for that.
We have endless opportunities for that now, and so we're always looking for that. And then the other thing it's right on our homepage is this new training community education and training initiative.
There's a button on our homepage where you can explore our our trainings. And I'll, uh, point to Chris to tell you a little bit about that.
Chris Lahr: Yeah. So, the first principle of nonviolence is, nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
So, our trainings are about creating a philosophy that makes that way of life a reality. And that's what we do.
And by taking our trainings, we don't put people in a box, but we allow you to be yourself and your own gifts and your own skills, and being able to implement nonviolence in a way that'll bring about change in your world.
Julia Meek: Angelo Mante is co-founder and executive director of Alive Community Outreach, and Chris Lahr, director of Community Education there.
Thanks to both of you for the work you're doing in this community we love, many blessings. Keep up the great work.
Angelo Mante: Thank you.
Chris Lahr: Thank you.
