PROMOTING PEACE

Fostering Peace

Our Foundation helps promote peace through innovative grants awarded for Rotary International Peace Fellowships and in support of Peace Day Philly.

Rotary International Peace Fellowships
The Rotary Club of Philadelphia successfully sponsored four fully-subsidized Rotary International Peace Fellowship winners — two Lieutenants from the Philadelphia Police Department and two Philadelphia Assistant District Attorneys — who studied violence prevention, peace building, mediation and compromise in Rotary’s intensive three-month professional certificate program at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

Each year, Rotary International selects only up to 100 individuals from around the world to receive fully funded academic fellowships at a peace center. These fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.

The idea of police officers and assistant district attorneys as peace fellowship candidates had come to then-Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey through a suggestion from our longtime club member and then-grant chair, Joseph Batory.

Said Batory, “a police officer is at the very forefront of violence prevention and peace building and, as such, would be a great fit for Rotary’s three-month certification program.” The first successful applicant was Lt. D.F. Pace, whom Batory believed was the perfect candidate.

As Ramsey and the Philadelphia Rotary Club hoped, Pace, now a Captain, incorporates what he learned in Thailand into the seminars he teaches for other officers, including a class called Fair and Impartial Policing. He also helps organize community town halls and speaks to Rotary clubs.

Perhaps most important, other ranking officers in Philadelphia who have taken Pace’s class are disseminating the information to their recruits. That is what this Rotary International program is all about, ”creating change agents to improve our world,” said Batory.

Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Stacy Hughes was the latest candidate to join Peace Fellows Captain D. F. Pace and Lieutenant Lamonte Adams from the Philadelphia Police Department and Assistant District Attorney Erin Boyle. “It is doubtful that any other city or any other Rotary Club worldwide has had four Rotary International Peace Fellowship awardees in this highly competitive and rigorous competition.” This affirms the exceptional quality of Philadelphia law enforcement officials who work to create justice and peace on a daily basis.” said Batory.

Select excerpts from The Rotarian, “Keeping the Peace” by Bryan Smith. Read the full article @ https://www.rotary.org/en/police-officer-uses-rotary-peace-program

Peace Day Philly
Peace Day Philly is the local initiative for the UN International Day of Peace, observed globally with programs related to personal, local and global peace spanning an entire week in September. Peace Day Philly’s overarching mission is: “Empowering all people to collaboratively build a more peaceful and just world.” A volunteer-run non-profit, Peace Day Philly’s supporters include the Philadelphia Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Senate and the Institute for Economics and Peace, as well as the Rotary Club of Philadelphia.
The Rotary Foundation of Philadelphia’s outreach efforts contributed to support peace and conflict resolution programs at Peace Day Philly that focus on efforts from global issues to end wars to locally breaking down barriers between youth and police.