SHORT HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE

The Nonviolence and Children Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends first began to take shape in 1970. In that year, some members of the Friends Peace Committee decided to hold a seminar on the issues of violence, nonviolence, and children. The program was designed to cover a number of related topics over a series of weeks, and was finally held in 1971. A year later, the Peace Committee hired a full-time staff person, Laura Hassler, to work on future programming on this issue, and a special subcommittee on Nonviolence and Young Children (later shortened to Nonviolence and Children Committee) was formed in 1973. The committee devoted the bulk of its time to designing and presenting workshops on conflict resolution, anger management, and the promotion of nonviolent play and ideals among children. Much of its emphasis was placed on parents and helping them nurture their children nonviolently in a violent world. Throughout the 1970's, 80's, and 90's, members of the committee visited hundreds of schools, churches, monthly meetings, and parent/teacher groups, to present its workshops, both in and out of the United States. Outreach to youth in trouble also formed one of the committee's responsibilities.

The committee grew in participants and budget and also turned to publishing. In 1975, it published a manual on cooperative games for children titled For the Fun of It!, which was also published in German. A Manual on Nonviolence and Children, a follow-up to For the Fun of It, was first published in 1977, and was eventually translated into Japanese. In 1983, Peace in the Family, written by staff members Lois Dorn and Penni Eldridge-Martin was published. The committee also produced a quarterly newsletter titled "News from Nonviolence and Children," which included updates on its activities and articles related to issues of nonviolent education from the local, national, and international media.

The activities of the Nonviolence and Children committee continue into the 21st century. In keeping with the structural changes of the Yearly Meeting in 1998, the members of the Nonviolence and Children Committee reformed themselves into the Nonviolence and Children Concerns Working Group under the jurisdiction of the Standing Committee on Education.

Return to the Table of Contents

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE RECORDS

Most of the Nonviolence and Children Committee records can be found in Series 3: Conferences and Workshops. The folders in this series contain agendas, correspondence, and attendance lists from over 100 workshops the Nonviolence and Children Committee held over a span of 20 years. These folders are arranged alphabetically by the location of the workshop. Detailed minutes from 1970-1988, news articles about the committee, and documents related to the committee's publishing activities can also be found in the collection. The books For the Fun of It, A Manual on Nonviolence and Children, and Peace in the Family can be found on the shelves of the Friends Historical Library. A certificate of recognition and various audiotapes were also removed from the collection.

Organization:

Series 1: Minutes and Reports

Series 2: Correspondence

Series 3: Conferences and Workshops

Series 4: Publications

Series 5: Publicity/Articles

Series 6: Miscellaneous

Return to the Table of Contents

Restrictions

Access

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Copyright has not been assigned to the Repositories. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the individual Meeting or its successor. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Repositories as the holder(s) of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by reader.

Return to the Table of Contents

SEARCHING IN OUR ON-LINE CATALOGUE FOR RELATED MATERIALS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in TRIPOD, the joint on-line catalog of Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings. Please note that records created before 1827, the date of a schism in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, may have been added to by either the Hicksite or Orthodox branches of this meeting, but could include information about members of the other branch before the Separation:

Related Committees:

Subjects:

Return to the Table of Contents

Administrative Information

Accession information

Deposit

Return to the Table of Contents

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE RECORDS

Note to Researchers: These records may only be consulted at either Haverford (HV) or Swarthmore (SW), and are not available through inter-Library loan. To request materials on-site, please make sure to use the correct call numbers for the Library in which you wish to use the records:

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents