Heidi Schaeffer, Peaceful Communities’ co-ordinator, says a preliminary press release went out to media last week. As well, a concerted effort to blitz the city with posters at community organizations, doctors’ offices, churches, seniors’ residences, daycare centres and other public places was accomplished.

“We also arranged distribution through the (Peterborough) Chamber of Commerce,” which has over a 1,000 members in its database, says Heidi.

Heidi says with all the energy put out into the community, it is now time to find out if people will be engaged enough to give back of their time. “It’s a question of whether people will respond now. We have no expectations (of the expected number of participants), just wishes,” she says.

The Peterborough Peace Builder Campaign calls on residents to make a promise of action to reduce violence and build a better community. The commitment doesn’t have to be big -- it could be as simple as taking your neighbour’s dog for a walk when they are away or raking leaves for an elderly neighbour.

Simultaneously, the co-ordinator notes that several school assemblies are being held in the city. Partly these are to present the research findings of the Peaceful Communities Research Report, she says, but they will also be used to promote the campaign.

Heidi says one way they will be able to measure the impact of the campaign’s first leg is to look at the number of registrants for various activities in October, the ‘month without violence.’ In support of the YWCA’s week without violence (Oct. 19-25), Peaceful Communities is supporting the entire month with the same theme.

As an example, Oct. 16 will focus on “Person’s Day,” in recognition of women in Canada officially, legally, being declared “persons” in 1929 by the British Privy Council. It will be held at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church and Heidi hopes it will attract a broad range of men and women from the community interested in women’s development.

On Oct. 18, a family fair will be held at Peterborough Square where many community groups will take part in creating a huge banner for future use at assemblies or presentations. Children will be invited to paint peaceful community themes on it as part of the fair activities.

Part of the strategy is to offer classes at Class Connections in Peterborough, too, on conflict resolutions. Some of the classes will be free to attract more people to peace-building efforts.

As for the next step in the campaign, Heidi says it is to find people who are willing to make peace-builder promises. “We need more media” attention and word-of-mouth, she says. “We need promises posted.”

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