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Building Peace: Overcoming Violence in Communities Holsopple, M. Y, Krall, R. E., & Pittman, S. W (2004). Geneva: WCC Publications.
There can be no more urgent call in the world today than to promote peace. This 109-page book, published by the World Council of Churches (WCC), provides a step-by-step manual for community leaders who want to bring people together to work for peace and justice in their own communities and organizations. The authors draw strength from the Christian principles of compassion and reconciliation and describe professional social work and public health community building skills that can be applied to the task of ending violence by building peaceful human relationships.
The authors are three women motivated by their professional and life experiences to develop and disseminate strategies to "reduce violence and build peace in local communities" (p. 4). Holsopple and Pittman are social workers. Krall is a nurse. In addition to having affiliations with Midwestern, Christian centers for higher education (Andrews University and Goshen College), the authors have witnessed the effects of violence in the United States and abroad: middle school students living in poverty and homeless, hospital emergency room patients victimized by child abuse and rape, and residents of international refugee camps fleeing war and conflict. In these...