{"id":8217,"date":"2017-09-20T12:10:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T16:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=8217"},"modified":"2017-09-22T12:57:39","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T16:57:39","slug":"entrepreneurship-in-the-peacebuilding-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2017\/09\/entrepreneurship-in-the-peacebuilding-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurship in the Peacebuilding World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>LYDELL STEINER\u2019S VOCATION <\/b><\/span>came calling in the form of a persistent acquaintance who recognized his skills might fit a community need. The Ohio native was a team pastor at Kidron Mennonite Church when a community member repeatedly asked if he\u2019d consider developing local mediation resources.<\/p>\n

At the time, Steiner was enrolled in Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and had taken a few Summer Peacebuilding Institute courses. But the recurring request for local mediation made him reevaluate his educational path.<\/p>\n

Steiner gathered a trusted group to help discern his next step. He decided to transfer into CJP\u2019s graduate program in conflict transformation. Eventually, he devoted the required semester-long practicum to exploring mediation possibilities in Ohio.<\/p>\n

This research culminated in a \u201cvisioning session\u201d in July 2014. <\/span>Steiner invited key stakeholders from Holmes and Wayne counties to brainstorm how a mediation center might look and function. He also invited his advisor, Professor David Brubaker<\/b>, to facilitate the gathering so that Steiner himself could present on the results of his extensive conversations with leaders from throughout the two-county area.<\/p>\n

Steiner says this was \u201cthe moment that really helped me coalesce.\u201d The group identified education and training in conflict transformation and networking for existing mediation resources as their primary objectives. They also decided to proceed in \u201can organic model,\u201d says Steiner, gathering volunteer efforts rather than building an organization from the top down.<\/p>\n

Broad community support is more important, Steiner says, than \u201cthe injection <\/i>of a lot of energy, a lot of vision, a lot of money, a lot of building.\u201d This approach means that growth is slow, but hopefully, more sustainable. Twelve individuals continued to meet, forming a steering committee.<\/p>\n

Two years after earning his master\u2019s degree \u2013 and the practicum experience which provided the foundation \u2013 Steiner and his community partners have created Connexus, a nonprofit organization committed to \u201ctransforming the culture of conflict in Holmes and Wayne counties of Ohio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brubaker says CJP students typically come in on one of two tracks. Some enter the program unsure of their focus and discover it along the way. Others, like Steiner, enter with a vision of the work they are called to do. CJP then equips them to achieve those goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of entrepreneurship is what the peacebuilding community needs,\u201d says Brubaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LYDELL STEINER\u2019S VOCATION came calling in the form of a persistent acquaintance who recognized his skills might fit a community need. The Ohio native was… Read more about Entrepreneurship in the Peacebuilding World<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[],"issues":[1471],"class_list":["post-8217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","issues-2017-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8217"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8220,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8217\/revisions\/8220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8217"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=8217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}