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We have learned that violence occurs only because it seems like the only choice available.

Lee Jay Berman introduce Doug Noll and his Elusive Peace book

When an angry teen is listened to at a deep, core, emotional level, the intensity of feelings is rapidly diminished. Violence no longer seems like the only option. The skill of listening this way has to be learned, and so we teach it with the hope that it will save lives as it has in the prisons we have worked in.

Noll teaches parents the silent and secret lives teens live while maintaining a seemingly normal demeanor. It is critical that parents know the difference between normal teen behavior, and behavior that is a precursor for violence. Noll and his colleague Laurel Kaufer, are the founders of the award winning project Prison of Peace, which has trained hundreds of male and female violent offenders how to become peacemakers and mediators within their prisons. Doug has been awarded the Encore Fellow Prize for his tireless work teaching and guiding people towards peaceful conflict resolution.

Noll Honored as Encore.

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On October 28, in Tempe, Arizona, Encore. These inmates have moved from serving life sentences to living lives of service. The Purpose prize is a program of Encore. The Purpose Prize fellows represent inspiring examples of social innovation with growing potential for impact. As Purpose Prize fellows, they gain valuable access to a dynamic learning community of like-minded encore leaders and innovators. Created in by Encore. Taken together, their work showcases the enormous, and too-often overlooked, value of experience, and disproves the notion that innovation is the sole province of the young.


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About The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Atlantic Philanthropies are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people.

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Atlantic is a limited-life foundation that makes grants through its five program areas: About the John Templeton Foundation. The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. The Foundation supports research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity, forgiveness, love, and free will. It encourages civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights.

The Purpose Prize is a program of Encore.

Doug Noll Media

Founded in , Prison of Peace trains inmates serving life sentences in California prisons to be peacemakers, mediators, mentors and trainers. The goals of the project are:. Doug Noll, award winning mediator and co-founder of the Prison of Peace Project, has been retained by the Restorative Practices staff of the Fresno Unified School District to bring the skills and techniques he and colleague Laurel Kaufer refined in maximum security prisons to school sites.

Noll started training teachers in June and will pick up again during the fall, training teachers how to learn and model emotional intelligence to students. The project started in June, just last month, with 30 middle school teachers. On August 4th, I am training 12 school principals. As the new school year begins, I will be training high school and middle school teachers in the McLane High School cluster.

They learned how to deeply listen by ignoring the words of the student.

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However, our experience in maximum security prisons demonstrates that this skill can transform lives in amazing ways. We expect even better results at school sites. From that research Noll and Kaufer developed a listening technique that allowed trained inmate to de-escalate an angry peer in 90 seconds or less. Recognizing the power of the skills, Noll is now training school teachers to be able to de-escalate an emotional, angry student in 90 seconds or less while remaining completely calm and in control—a much needed process in the public school climate today.

Doug conducts a comprehensive course on listening and de-escalating anger at https: Noll makes the case for better strategies, to focus less on the big names and more on actually getting results. His examples are mainly failed diplomatic examples, and how the issue would have been solved through mediation. The book is good and his argument persuasive.

One of the problems is the role playing examples he gives are hard to read. It moves along at a nice pace, though I wish he made room to explain some of the words he used throughout the book. Get your book professionally reviewed and have it published on this site! Click here to read our Sponsored Book Review Program submission guidelines. Portland Book Review is very proud of our reviewer team. Our reviewers come from different backgrounds, experiences, training, and desires, and all share a love of reading.


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