Changing Lives
A Humanising Conflict Group educational programme supported by the European Union’s PEACE III Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by the County Cavan PEACE III Peace and Reconciliation Partnership.
Changing Lives is a non political and non religious peace building programme focusing on how certain individuals have experienced personal growth for themselves and others by walking the very isolated road from victim to survivor. The focus in on individual change, not political change. The programme follows the core ethos of all work done by the Humanising Conflict Group: no one is judged, everyone is welcome, everyone has the right to voice their personal opinion, and all participants should respect the right of others to voice such opinion in a respectful way, although quite obviously they do not have to agree with that opinion. Participants will achieve Institute of Leadership & Management accreditation in peace & reconciliation. The accreditation will be at an equivalent level to Leaving Cert.
The programme will focus on five areas of conflict where former victims of conflict share their experiences of becoming survivors:
Political
- Victims & survivors of The Troubles in Co Cavan
- Building positive relations between participants of differing political views in Co Cavan and Northern Ieland/north of Ireland.
- Learning from the personal experiences of clergy in Co Cavan.
- Surviving the politics of imprisonment: stories of political prisoners & their families.
Criminal & anti Social
- Criminal prisoners & young offenders: the road to rehabilitation.
Cultural Conflicts in Co Cavan
- Migration & immigration into Cavan: roads to success and personal achievement
- Unwitting discrimination
- Deliberate discrimination
- Bullying
Domestic Violence
- Physical violence
- Emotional violence
For Domestic Violence support in west Cavan see DVAS based in Sligo.
- Learning from survivors the Troubles forgot: Hardships emotional difficulties and personal rewards of carers.
The programme includes optional specialist complimentary therapy sessions for participants. The sessions will take place during residential workshops by Sharon Kane of Solespeak Holistic Therapies. Sharon has worked with members of the Humanising Conflict Group for over two years. Visits to prisons, prisoner support groups & victim support groups will also place. In addition, members of the Humanising Conflict Group will personally fund optional visits for participants to a therapeutic prison in Britain as well as optional visits to communities that have survived war in the Republic of Kosova in the Balkans.
Conflict & Smoking
Having noticed high rates of smokers in several post conflict areas such as the north of Ireland & Kosova; participants of the Changing Lives Programme who are smokers are being offered free access to a programme aimed at helping smokers to stop smoking in just three sessions. The programme, designed and developed in the USA over the last 30 years. When contacted six months after the programme has been completed, 80% of participants are still smoking free. This part of the programme is being funded by Marcus Hopkins whose father lost a complete lung and a quarter of the remaining lung from lung cancer.
The Changing Lives Programme uses many of the ideas of Holocaust Survivor Viktor Frankl.
Institute of Leadership and Management Accreditation
 Over the few years cooperation and understanding has been building between the HURT Group the Lurgan/Portadown area and a few individuals and organisations south of the Irish border. Despite religious and political differences, religion and politics isn't usually an issue between those involved. As a result of this sustainable relationship building, HURT are now playing a major role in the Humanising Conflict Group. HURT has developed a unique educational programme for people traumatised by the effects of violence, the Victim Survivor Achievement Award, accredited by the Institute of Leadership & Management.The Victim Survivor Achievement Award tackles the emotional legacies of conflict.
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