East Point Peace Academy
https://www.facebook.com/pg/EastPointPeace/
Contact: info@eastpointpeace.org
P.O. Box 30652
Oakland, CA 94604
The military trains many of its leaders at West Point. At East Point, we work to build a nonviolent army investing in peace through nonviolence education. East Point Peace Academy envisions a world where historic conflicts are fully reconciled, new conflict arise solely as an opportunity for deeper growth, and where the depth of human relations are so high that it allows each individual to attain their fullest human potential. The Beloved Community is where a sustainable distribution of resources ensures that all needs are met, where each culture is valued and honored, and where the principles and skills of nonviolence and conflict reconciliation are institutionalized across all levels of society as a core value of our culture. The Beloved Community is more of a journey of awakening rather than a destination. Waking up to the fact that each conflict that is reconciled, each conflict that creates a strengthened relationship, each conflict that is a lesson learned moves us further toward the Beloved Community, whereas conflict that results in violence moves us away from it. Many of our more recent social movements are not grounded in a long-term strategy for change. We see this where the protest action becomes the goal in and of itself. This is often due to a lack of training and understanding of the commitment required over the long haul. We believe that social change is hard work and does not come overnight. It requires the long term commitment of the leadership of a movement, much like the way the military invests in war. East Point comes out of the legacy of the leaders of the Nashville Student Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, who trained under the Rev. James Lawson for a year before engaging in direct action. And before that Gandhi who, with 78 of his followers, lived and trained together in their ashram for 15 years before embarking on the Salt March. Through nonviolence education grounded in the philosophy of Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, we work to empower youth, people facing incarceration, and community based activists to move towards the Beloved Community.