Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Records: Nonviolence and Children Committee (1970-2015)

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.