Dear Partner in Peace:
The Association for Global
New Thought and the Season for Nonviolence Campaign are happy for the
opportunity to work in partnership with Riane Eisler and her new SAIV
program (the Spiritual Alliance Against Intimate Violence).
We
currently provide resource materials for the Season for Nonviolence and
as part of that program we are introducing materials and course work
that include Riane's book "the Power of Partnership" as well as
introductory materials and background articles for the SAIV project. It
is our hope that many of the local SNV taskforces will consider taking
up the critical issue of intimate violence – the coercive abuse of
women and children – during the 2004 Season.
Groups engaging with the
effort against intimate violence require support in at least three
areas, which the materials assembled here are designed to provide.
First, activists need
persuasive, compelling information about the issue. How widespread is
the problem? Is intimate violence indeed linked to international
violence, terrorism, and war? What, if anything, is being done to
address the scourge? Here you’ll find thoughtful analysis, statistical
information, and links to groups that are active in addressing violence
in its many forms.
Second, participants in the
effort need to know about the SAIV project itself and its partnership
links with key groups like the Center for Partnership Studies (CPS),
the Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21), and Season. The
materials included give a clear outline of the first stages of the SAIV
effort and its hopes for the future. We hope your group will want to be
involved from the beginning.
Finally, it’s absolutely
essential that participating groups and communities know that
interpersonal technologies exist that can facilitate the kind of
community study, reflection, and growth that can nurture cultures of
non-violence and partnership. That’s where the “Partnership Way” study
materials come in. The sections provided (especially in conjunction
with Riane Eisler’s groundbreaking book The Power of Partnership) offer
not only guidelines but a clearly-articulated group process of healing,
discovery, reconnection, and transformation.
How you and your group
address the critical problem of intimate violence depends of course on
the realities and needs of your community. The key lies in the
understanding that it is a problem that is at long last coming to
awareness in the planetary community and that a genuine network of
awareness and activism is taking shape. We can make a difference and we
invite you to become a part of that network of hope and healing.
In the documents posted here
for your free use, you will find an outline of the SAIV materials on
the 2004 SNV CD-ROM, a materials order form, an overview/ introduction
to SAIV and more material to get you started.
ARTICLES