PO Box 10372
San Antonio TX 78210-0372
Telephone: 877 814 6972
E-mail: [email protected]

WINTER, 1999: Volume 4 Issue 1

Peace Team Leadership Roles
from Project: Hearts and Minds Inc.

Nonpartisan groups are helpful in building bridges for reconciliation:�meeting with various perspectives in a conflict establishes�nonpartisanship and builds connections. This work is important at home as�well as abroad. Each trip and each group meeting can do this to some�degree.

Building community within the team is essential and requires continuing�constructive effort. A facilitated meeting prior to the team leaving�extends�our ability to make best use of the team�s potential. Regular meetings on�the�trip and attending regional and board meetings back home are all�opportunities for building this community.

All members of the team provide leadership. No one person has all of the�needed skills, which include the ability to:

• listen and restate accurately different points of view;
• accurately articulate of the project�s purpose and policies;
• affirm each other and be emotionally supportive;
• make photographs, journals, videotapes, inventories and documentation of�visits, conversations, and decisions where appropriate;
• facilitate consensus for team decision making;
• minute group decisions for future clarity;
• mediate disputes;
• speak the language and translate;
• have contacts or prior experience in the culture;
• build media relationships both before and after the trip;
• have spokeperson skills with customs, government representatives, clinic�personnel;
• offer educational resources;
• fundraise;
• gather, store, evaluate and make inventory of medical supplies;
• exercise financial oversight � budget realistically, document expenses, tactfully assess the right use of donations;
• evaluate sites both new and former;
• establish priorities, be discerning;
• report back to US constituency and to funding sources in order to be�responsible to contributors and to extend awareness of current needs and�issues.

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Preparing Peace Teams for Reconciliation

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