St. Luke’s youth and adult parishioners trained to respond as nonviolent observers to hecklers at the first Jamestown Pride event downtown in June 2021.

On Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m., St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, in collaboration with the New Neighbors Coalition and Jamestown Pride, will host a creative nonviolence workshop in the St. Luke’s Undercroft.

“The power of creative nonviolence is that it is a toolkit developed for ordinary people to transform conflict,” said Jessica Frederick, a Jamestown native who worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a human rights observer and practitioner of creative nonviolence from 2007-2010. “The tradition of creative nonviolence teaches that, although people do not have control over all situations – people do have agency, the option to act and to make a difference, in whatever circumstance they find themselves.”

From an overview of the Civil Rights movement to practicing conflict transformation through nonviolent action, the workshop will be practical and interactive. Frederick will be the workshop’s facilitator. Momina Di Blasio, New Neighbors Coalition Manager, will offer a “Know Your Rights” overview for interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

“The goal is to equip people with the necessary information, so they know the rights of all people during an interaction with law enforcement agents,” Di Blasio said

In addition, by attending participants will begin to cultivate the initial tools and insights needed to become effective advocates for peaceful conflict resolution in their own communities.

“In a political moment when so many people feel powerless to enact change in the world,” Frederick said, “this workshop is an opportunity to focus on what ordinary people can do, in the face of conflict and political change.”

For questions or more information, call the church office at 716-483-6405.