Browse this page for ideas of material to enhance your practice.
If you have any ideas about resources we could add to this list – please get in touch.
For leaflets (e.g. to promote Place for Hope work) please see the ‘Key Documents’ page. For information on our Learning Programmes, visit the Training and events page.
Some of our recently added resources are below:
The Gathering in Glasgow on Conflict and Faith Event Report summarises the gathering held in Glasgow in November 2019.
Place for Hope celebrates a decade of peacebuilding and the Annual Review 2018-2019 pays tribute to all involved in the work of faith-based reconciliation, acknowledging the many people who have been a part of our vision to 'make every place of worship, a place for hope in the community'.
This Review focusses on the work our Team of 23 Practitioners have undertaken across 63 settings in Scotland and the North of England in the year 2017 – 2018. In addition, we celebrate here the growth in our partnership working, and our work with partners in South Sudan. ‘Reconciling Relationships’ was the name given to our partners seminar in October 2017 which is highlighted here in Reconciling Relationships Annual Review.
On Tuesday 3rd October 2017 forty-seven delegates met in the airy space of the Mews in central Edinburgh to share reflections, visions and hopes for ‘Reconciling Relationships’. Please read the report on that event.
As we approach our 10th anniversary year in 2019, we continue to build on our experience supporting faith communities through times of change, conflict and transition. While exciting opportunities lie ahead as we develop our partnership working, this Annual Review looks back over our achievements in 2016 - 2017.
‘In Wi’ the Mix’ is a partnership of three faith inspired organisations (Faith in Community Scotland, the Conforti Institute and Place for Hope) committed to working together to nurture dialogue between people living and working on the margins as a tool for personal and social transformation. This booklet accompanies the 'Introduction to Facilitation Skills for Community Dialogue' day, and may be used widely and freely. We ask, however, that you acknowledge all sources and do not alter any material without explicit permission.
Place for Hope: Ways of Working - a valuable mediation tool used in our support work.
Free Online Learning Resources
Place for Hope are working in partnership with the Conforti Institute and Faith in Community Scotland on the In Wi' the Mix project. Follow the link to learn more about our work tackling sectarianism in our communities.
A theological statement in relation to the Place for Hope which reflects the consultations undertaken with those who are called to the role of mediators as well as those who have received mediation services.
Reading suggestions to accompany the Growing through Conflict course.
An article by Carolyn Merry sharing lessons she has learned from countries transitioning from national crises and how they may apply to our communities as we transition out from the COVID pandemic.
We encourage people to use these Ways of Working for online facilitation. We suggest sharing in advance, talking them through, adjusting as necessary, and have all parties agree. Feel free to use and share, but acknowedge Place for Hope.
In times of intense shared stress and change, certain behaviours and patterns may emerge that ordinarily stay suppressed. The ways we respond to these changed patterns and unfamiliar behaviours, in ourselves, and in the communities in which we live and in which we serve, matter.
Place for Hope have produced a resource to support leaders in faith communities during these challenging times. Please download and share freely.
A mark of summer 2019 where I live has been baking heat followed by dramatic thunderstorms. The splendour of creation is glorious. Yet we know that this hear of summer marks an anxiety about the almost unstoppable change in our climate. 'Deep adaptation' is being called for across the globe as we search for new ways to care for one another and to hold our political and religious leaders to account as they guide our future...
The article was published in the The Iona Community's Coracle in August 2019.
Considering your strict enclosure, the little recreation you have, my sisters, and how many conveniences are wanting in some of your convents, I think it may console you to enjoy yourselves in this Interior Castle, where you can enter, and walk about at will, at any hour you please, without asking leave of your superiors. ~ Teresa of Avila, ~
This article was published in Pray Now, 2018
In the midst of conflict, when we can feel caught up in despair, confusion and deep separation, we may, with the psalmists, turn to prayers of anguish and lament. Working and living through conflict can be tough. At the same time, in Place for Hope we affirm, with Lederach, that conflict can open up a path, a holy path towards inner and outer transformation. When conflict is transformed and relationships are healed, we may also offer prayers of thanks, gratitude and joy.
This article was published in Pray Now, 2017
Five reflections, inspired by ‘Advices and Queries’, a summary of the wisdom of The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. The reflections begin with inner reconciliation, moving through reconciliation in our worshipping community or church, to reconciliation in the world.
For a plant to flourish in the desert it needs resilience, persistence, and trust that a source of new life will, eventually, despite all the odds, manifest itself. What, or who offers such new life to you in a time of aridity, seeming death and possible despair?
This article was publised in the Feb 2018 edition of Ascend Magazine
Article by Hugh Donald, featured in 'The Edge', discussing the call to reconciliation and the journey of Place for Hope. “A call to reconciliation has been a recurring theme in the past year. It was the focus of the Queen’s Christmas message ‘a reminder to us all that even in the unlikeliest of places, hope can still be found’.”
Article by Nancy Adams, featured in ‘Inspires’ exploring the art of reconciliation and the dynamic of conflict. “In Japan, there is an art called kintsukuroi. It means to repair with gold. This restored piece of pottery is considered to be even more beautiful and valuable for having been broken. A powerful analogy for the rich and transforming possibilities reconciliation can bring into our lives.”
Article by Hugh Donald, featured in 'Inspires' describing the work of Place for Hope. "The pathway to healing and reconciliation requires face-to-face encounters. It is in these encounters that we can face difference and diversity."
Resources for understanding conflict, and high conflict.
Training for church leaders in peacebuidling and conflict transformation
The Conforti Institute is an educational initiative of the Xaverian Missionaries based in Coatbridge offering training and access to resources.
Mediation, training, facilitation, coaching
Corrymeela is Northern Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organisation.
FiCS supports local people living in Scotland’s economically poorest neighbourhoods by providing a range of training, advice, funding and support to faith groups in these areas and encouraging them to work in partnership with others.
Trained mediators who are members of the Family Mediation Council and have backgrounds in family law and interpersonal relationships. Based in NW England.
Plans for an international centre for peace and reconciliation in north Cumbria
SCCR is a national resource promoting and supporting best practice in family conflict resolution and early intervention.
Network of accredited mediators in Scotland.
Centre for Reconciliation and peace, in the heart of London
An article by Nancy Adams, featured in ‘Inspires’ exploring the art of reconciliation and the dynamic of conflict.
An article by Hugh Donald, featured in ‘The Edge’, discussing the call to reconciliation and the journey of Place for Hope