Hold onto your hats folks, because Richard Pyle has a fantastic joint project to share with us! Through the cooperation of the Rotary Clubs of Negril and Lucea in Jamaica, and the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., they were able to deliver conflict resolution skills to over 200 participants in a two-day workshop. The project targeted senior and emerging leaders of various civic groups in western Jamaica, an area suffering from a lot of violence.
Richard Pyle was a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica from 1966 – 1968 and the relationship with Jamaica became generational when his daughter Kim continued one of his many projects there.
As a PCV, Pyle worked as a school counselor and helped establish the school guidance program in Lucea,. His neighbor in Lucea was Arthur Wint (1st Jamaican to win an Olympic gold medal) and together they established a chamber of commerce which evolved into the Rotary Club of Lucea, chartered in 1974. Wint, a physician, was the only resident doctor in the parish of Hanover, in which Lucea is located.
But that was just the beginning of his relationship with Jamaica. Pyle joined the faculty of Alma College in Alma Michigan in the late 1970s and began organizing 3-week service projects with students from Alma to Jamaica. After leaving Alma for the University of Texas in Austin in 1983, he started student service projects with the University in Austin in 1988. The teachers in Jamaica asked for student aids to help in classrooms with 80 to 100 students in a single classroom. When Pyle left the University of Texas in 1990, the program ended to restart in Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia where Pyle's daughter Kim was a student. Pyle shared the idea of a service project in Jamaica with the Dean of Students and together they implemented it with Kim as one of the participants. The University liked it and have gone every year in coordination with the Lucea, Jamaica Rotary. Pyle observed that a “lot of teachers have been understaffed. These service projects helped students learn to swim and have recreational and arts and crafts projects which would coordinate with independent studies.”
Unfortunately, Jamaica, in recent times, is having its share of crime, violence and domestic abuses. In an effort to begin to combat this growing problem, the Rotary Club of Washington, DC along with the Rotary Clubs of Negril and Lucea came together to offer solution to the growing problem. Under the Theme: “Bringing Back The Peace”, over 100 students, youths and community leaders were in attendance at the Conference. The Objective of the Initiative was to create knowledge and awareness of strategies and resources for resolving Conflict.
“The Rotary Clubs of Negril and Lucea, Jamaica contacted me since I had served in western Jamaica as a PCV and have a long history of projects with their clubs and Rotary Clubs in Austin and D.C.” The focus was on delivering conflict resolution skills to key members/stakeholders. Both senior and emerging leaders of a variety of civic groups participated.
The project received rave reviews from over100 participants who reported feeling better prepared to meet violence issues. The atmosphere of collaboration was very positive and had a significant impact on building peacekeeping and conflict resolution skills. If you're thinking about replicating this project in your club or country, be sure to reach out to Richard for all the juicy details!