3rd Annual International Conference on
"Engaging The Other:"
The Power of Compassion

September 4 - 7, 2008    
San Francisco (San Mateo), California USA

WE INVITE YOU TO:
an extraordinary international conference to address the roots of negative stereotypes, prejudice, and concepts of "The Other" from a universal, cross-cultural perspective.
JOIN an international list of remarkable presenters and visionaries to promote a wider public dialogue about images of "Us and Them," and to develop practical applications for our communities from the local to the global.

Registration is
Open to the Public

An important, timely dialogue 
            ....everyone needs to be part of.

Now More Than Ever...

 At a time of rising turmoil - a time that calls for new thinking, new vision, new understanding, and new ways of relating in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent global community.

Common Bond Institute invites you to join in supporting international efforts advancing the consciousness of peace and healing by raising the capacity of the individual in society to compassionately transform conflict in their daily lives.

Who We Are and What We Do

Common Bond Institute  (CBI) is a U.S. based Non-Governmental Organization that grew out of the Association for Humanistic Psychology's International (Soviet-American) Professional Exchange.  The Professional Exchange was initiated in 1982 as one of the first Soviet-American non-governmental human service exchanges. CBI organizes and sponsors conferences, professional training programs, relief efforts, and professional exchanges internationally, and actively provides networking and coordination support to assist newly emerging human service and civil society organizations in developing countries.

Our Mission

Cultivating the fundamental elements of a consciousness of peace, and local capacity building, are seen as natural, effective antidotes to small group radical extremism and large group despair, as well as to hardship and suffering in the human condition. To this end, enabling each society to effectively resolve and transform conflicts, satisfy core human needs within their communities, and construct effective, holistic mechanisms for self determination, self esteem, and fundamental human dignity and worth is the purpose of our work.

CBI is grounded in the application of humanistic psychology's principles in it's committment to capacity building at both the grass roots and social institutional level. It works to actively form strategic alliances and partnerships with organizations, groups, and individuals dedicated to nurturing global relationships as a whole in creating and promoting an authentic world culture of peace.

Our Style and Commitment

By design, our efforts are fundamentally collaborative for a larger impact. We maintain an expanding global network of partner groups and organizations that cooperate in pulling the requisite pieces together to create and operate programs, while minimizing the drain on individual group resources. The focus is on increasing skills and services, exploration of human relationship dynamics, and expanding public dialogue and awareness of critical issues.

Intentional Community: Essentially all of our efforts, and particularly the conferences, are designed to be living laboratories for creating and participating in deep, authentic community as a common ground of reference for exploring core themes and integrating formal learning. They offer a dynamic microcosm of the larger, diverse, global community for a first hand personal experience of moving beyond artificial barriers to the reality of what is both possible and practical. The purposeful use of intentional community is a central element of our work. It assumes the basic drive/need for integration through inter-connectedness and belonging that can be nurtured to develop conscious intent toward harmony and peace in our relationships.

Participation is Open to All

Please join us for any of our programs by contacting CBI

Current Conferences       

  3rd Annual International Conference on "Engaging The OTHER": The Power of Compassion  (ETO)
September 4 - 7, 2008,  San Francisco (San Mateo), California USA
An International, Multidisciplinary, Multicultural Conference examining concepts of "The OTHER" from a universal, cross-cultural perspective to promote wider public dialogue about images of "Us and Them." The conference addresses the roots of negative stereotyping and prejudice, how to move past artificial barriers of misunderstanding and distrust to cultivate compassion and capacity for appreciation of diversity, reconciliation, and peace, and how to apply the results to the current state of world relationships. It is held in conjunction with an upcoming edited book in progress of the same name addressing psycho-social concepts of "The Other" in a cross-cultural forum. The ETO Conference, like the edited book, is an integrated collaboration to examine this fundamentally subjective phenomenon with an inclusive, multicultural eye.
Registration is Open to the Public.  
   '08 List of Presenters
   '08 ETO  Program Sessions
   '08 Presenter Bios
   Registration and Fee Information  
   Press Room
   1 page Color Conference Poster - Larger (in PDF)
   1 page Color Conference Flyer - Standard (in PDF)

  16th International Conference on Conflict Resolution (ICR)   
~ 2009 ~  (specific dates to be posted in the near future)
An international conference established in 1992 and sponsored by Common Bond Institute and HARMONY Institute of Psychotherapy & Counseling of St. Petersburg, Russia, in cooperation with the International Humanistic Psychology Association. The ICR Conference is a major international event is open to participants globally. This multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary conference has received support over the years from the President's of the US, Russia, and Governor of St. Petersburg, and is endorsed by over 80 organizations internationally. It brings together hundreds of presenters and participants from around the world for skills training in conflict resolution and for exploration of the essential elements of conflict, transformation, and healing. It maintains an extensive international network and each year promotes active cooperation and collaboration on various projects between participants and organizations represented. The ICR Conference also serves as a major networking and recruiting source for our training projects.
Registration is Open to the Public.
    2009 ICR Conference Proposal Form  

Attached Trauma Treatment Training:
Immediately following the 2009 ICR Conference, we will be offering
an intensive CTR Training in Trauma Treatment
for relief workers from regions of conflict and natural catastrophe.
Find Out How to Help Provide Treatment to Trauma Victims

  International Youth Conference on "The Ecology of War and Peace (EWP)"
An international youth conference established in 2004 and sponsored by CBI and HARMONY Institute, in cooperation with the International Humanistic Psychology Association and the Jane Goodall Institute. The EWP Conference is a youth event for participants 14-18 years of age addressing issues of negative stereotypes, prejudice, and the demonizing and dehumanizing of "The Other." Working in cooperation with the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots & Shoots Program, the theme of ecology has been integrated as a common link all parties can resonate with as they delve into personal interactions and, as a community, explore these relationship dynamics.
Registration is Open to the Public.

Integrated International Conference Series

In 2004 CBI initiated an experiment to collaborate in coordinating an integrated series of 5 international conferences in 3 countries that share a focus on exploring and advancing the consciousness of peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation. While each was independent with variations in partners, content, and goals, all events in this series were programmatically linked to build on each other for an energetic flow and larger impact. As a result, outcomes have emerged and coalesced synergistically as the process has progressed, and have inspired promising new collaborative projects and partnerships, some of which CBI is directly involved in.

Following the success of this model we have continued the process each year, adding new conferences and inviting other international conferences to join the network to maximize the energy and products of each event and promote an expanding network of social activists and healers for greater mutual benefit. A major goal is to raise the level, depth, and breadth of public awareness and public dialogue on vital issues in exploring a consciousness of peace, to instill empowerment in the general public, and to foster proactive networks that create practical strategies for applying results in advancing capacity for a global culture of peace.

Current Training Projects

In 1998, CBI established the International Training Program in Conflict Transformation as an extension of the ICR Conference. In addition to it's ongoing purposes, the ICR Conference serves as a major networking and recruiting source for training in this program. Currently two projects are operated out of this program:

Catastrophic Trauma Recovery Training (CTR)
A humanitarian relief effort established in 1998, designed to provide intensive "training of trainers" in catastrophic trauma recovery skills by expert teams of mental health specialists to local professionals and relief workers in regions of conflict assisting large civilian populations experiencing trauma from war and violence. Some of the regions represented are Russia, the Caucuses, Middle East, and Balkans. The project uses a comprehensive, integrated training/treatment model (CTR) for working with large populations of catastrophic trauma victims that is simple, standardized, repeatable, time sensitive, easily taught, and applicable cross-culturally. Assistance is intended for health professionals and relief workers from anywhere and is also appropriate for treating trauma due to natural catastrophe. CTR training teams are provided by an international consortium of professional training organizations. This humanitarian relief effort is endorsed and supported by NGO coordinating organizations within the regions served. As part of the training structure, CTR trainings are also typically attached to the ICR Conference and conducted immediately after.

Find Out How to Help Provide Trauma Treatment to War Victims

Capacity For Peace and Democracy - Palestine
A collaborative project with Al Azhar University In Gaza and the Arab American University In Jenin - AAUJ (West Bank) in the West Bank to establish a Center for Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at each university, and provide a pool of visiting professors and curriculum in Human Services (psychology, social work, health science, education) and Civil Society (democratic studies, conflict resolution/mediation, government, political science, economics/business).

The purpose is to help prepare future leaders in Palestinian society and local professionals skilled in providing critical human services to the population, all to increase capacity for a viable, peaceful Palestinian nation. Another aspect is creating opportunities for NGO's and community based institutions and universities in Palestine and Israel to cooperate on issues that promote understanding, acceptance, reconciliation, and forgiveness. The hope is that a new international conference being organized on "Engaging The Other" will eventually be hosted at one of these universities, with the joint sponsorship of an Israeli University. To date a Center for Conflict Resolution and Human Rights has been established at Al Azhar University.

Additional Efforts Under Development

To learn more about Common Bond Institute's following projects - some in their early stages of organization and some currently being put into action - please visit our page on Additional Efforts.

• "Engaging The Other": edited multicultural book on "The Other" in conjunction with the above conference.
  
  
• "Engaging The Other" sensitivity training program geared toward the lay public addressing fear-based belief systems, negative stereotypes, and prejudice.
  
  
• Children's Trauma Treatment Center. A project to create the 1st children's trauma treatment center in Nablus, West Bank.
  
  
• Joint Palestinian/Israeli Trauma Treatment Training
  
  
• Iraqi Trauma Treatment Training
  
  
• Joint Palestinian / Israeli Peace Studies Center Network
  
  
• Joint Palestinian / Israeli Youth Encounters
  
  
• Cooperative Publishing Vehicle for voices of reason - individuals from around the world with important, cutting edge ideas to stimulate and contribute to the public dialogue.
  
  
• Expanding our Website as a vehicle for networking, exploratory dialogue, collaboration, education, follow-up to training, and virtual community. (Among the features included will be the Journal of Conflict Transformation, an E-newsletter, topical E-dialogues, E-working groups, a resource library, clinical consultation seminars for trainees, a Global Youth Community section, etc).
  
  
• Facilitated Encounter Group Dialogues between representatives of communities currently or recently in conflict.
  
  
• Establishing and developing locally based Professional Schools and Practical Training Programs In Human Services
  

How You Can Be Involved in Volunteering or Interning

We invite you to contact us if you are interested in contributing your time, energy, and talents to assist our international efforts, and in doing so:

• Create new possibilities for conflict transformation, prevention and healing in this pivotal time,
  
  
• Form unique relationships with individuals and organizations throughout the world, and
  
  
• Gain invaluable professional and personal experiences along the way
  

More About Becoming Involved with Common Bond Institute

Contact Us

To inquire about the activities and projects of CBI please contact:

Steve Olweean, Director and Conference Co-Coordinator

E-mail: SOlweean@aol.com

Telephone/Fax: 269-665-9393

Postal Address: 12170 South Pine Ayr Drive
                             Climax, Michigan  49034 USA