Quatayshiana, left, and Lizandra, two students in the Peace Works program, display their personal goals. (Marquette University/Center for Peacemaking)
by Shireen Korkzan
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Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking has expanded its Peace Works program to three behavioral reassignment high schools in Milwaukee in an effort to improve students’ behavior and attendance.
“It’s an expansion to all of the school district’s reassignment schools, and it’s being used across these schools to promote conflict resolution,” said Patrick Kennelly, director of the Center for Peacemaking.
The Center for Peacemaking is an academic center that focuses on promoting peace and nonviolence in the community. According to Kennelly, the Center for Peacemaking is the only academic research center at a Catholic university that focuses on nonviolence.
Within the Center for Peacemaking is Peace Works, an educational program that focuses on conflict resolution, social-emotional learning and peer mediation in parochial and public grade schools. It has been working with Milwaukee Public Schools over the past couple of years.
The recipient alternative schools in Peace Works’ recent expansion, Banner Preparatory High School (Banner Prep), Lad Lake Synergy South and Southeastern Education Center, are part of Milwaukee Public Schools. Students who attend these schools have been reassigned from traditional high schools in the district because of serious academic and disciplinary violations.
