KIPCOR Shorts 2023
2023-12-01 08:30 - 15:30 (America/Chicago) | Virtual (Online) Event, No street address, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
Approved for 6 hours of CDREs, CEUs, and CLEs (including 1 hr. of ethics)
Register Here for KIPCOR Shorts 2023!

Core Mediation Primary Training - Practical Skills for Managing Interpersonal Conflict (via Zoom)
2024-01-24 08:30 - 2024-02-09 13:00
Date: January 24, 26, & 31, February 2, 7, & 9 (only Wednesday and Friday mornings)
Time: 8:30 am – 1:00 pm
Fee: $575, Registration closes January 12. Fee covers printed text & materials.

Approval Pending for 30 CDRE hours from the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration.
Bethel College Graduate or Undergraduate credit available; discuss with instructors.
Social Work CEUs available upon request.

Register Here

KIPCOR Film Series - 2023-24 Eroding History
2024-02-11 14:00 - 16:00
Eroding History will be screened Sunday, February 11 at 2:00 pm in Krehbiel Auditorium on the Bethel College campus in North Newton, Kansas. This second film of the KIPCOR 2023-24 film series was produced by the Environmental Justice Journalism Initiative (EJJI), a Baltimore, Maryland based non-profit. EJJI is committed to helping young people tell their own stories about environmental inequities in their neighborhood. Eroding History tells the story of Deal Island residents on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the realities they face as they encounter rising sea levels and historic racism. Admission is free and open to the public, and following the film, an educational talk-back session will be facilitated by Dr. Jonathan Frye, Professor of Natural Science at McPherson College, and Sheryl Wilson, Executive Director of KIPCOR. Please join us!

Peace Lecture Series 2024
2024-03-01 19:00 - 2024-03-02 17:00
Register Here for Saturday’s Justice Symposium!
See Schedule Below
Click here to Livestream tonight’s 7:00 pm Peace Lecture
Click here to Livestream Saturday’s Justice Symposium
The Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR) invites you to the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Lecture Series, featuring Christina Swarns, Executive Director of Innocence Project. Christina will speak at Bethel College, North Newton, KS in Memorial Hall at 7:00 pm on Friday, March 1, 2024. On Saturday, March 2, 2024, the first Justice Symposium will be held at Bethel College in Krehbiel Auditorium and the Will Academic Center. Christina will serve as a keynote panelist for this event. The symposium is free and open to the public.
As director of Innocence Project, Christina works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Since its inception, Innocence Project has used DNA and other scientific advancements to prove wrongful conviction. To date, Innocence Project has helped to free or exonerate more than 240 people who, collectively, spent more than 3,600 years behind bars. These efforts have led to the passage of more than 200 transformative state laws and federal reforms.
Christina previously served as the President and Attorney-in-Charge of the Office of the Appellate Defender, Inc. (OAD), one of New York City’s oldest providers of indigent appellate defense representation. Prior to joining OAD, Christina was the Litigation Director and Criminal Justice Project Director for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), where she oversaw LDF’s economic justice, education, political participation and criminal justice litigation, organizing, public education, communication and other advocacy strategies. Christina argued, and won, Buck v. Davis, a challenge to the introduction of explicitly racially biased evidence in a Texas death penalty case, in the United States Supreme Court. In a February 2017 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a 6-2 majority, vacated Mr. Duane Buck’s death sentence and denounced the “noxious strain of racial prejudice” that infected the case after an expert witness testified that Mr. Buck was more likely to commit criminal acts of violence in the future because he is Black. Christina was the only Black woman to argue in that Supreme Court term, and is one of the few Black women to have argued before the nation’s highest court.
Prior to joining LDF, Christina served as a Supervising Assistant Federal Defender and Assistant Federal Defender at the Capital Habeas Unit of Philadelphia’s Federal Community Defender Office where she represented numerous death-sentenced prisoners whose convictions and/or death-sentences were vacated, including Nicholas Yarris, the first death sentenced prisoner in Pennsylvania to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Christina began her legal career as a Staff Attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Division in New York.
Christina speaks and writes about race and criminal justice. She has authored multiple op-eds, including “The Supreme Court Should Reject Arizona’s Death Penalty Gambit” and “Dylann Roof Shouldn’t Get the Death Penalty,” both of which were published in the New York Times, and “Why the Dangerousness Standard is Racist,” which was published in the New York Daily News.
Christina earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from Howard University.

Peace Lecture/Justice Symposium Schedule and Presenters

Friday, March 1 – Peace Lecture
7:00 pm – Peace Lecture, featuring speaker, Christina Swarns – Memorial Hall, Bethel College
9:00-9:30 pm – Post Lecture dessert reception
Saturday, March 2 – Justice Symposium at Bethel College
8:00-9:00 am – Justice Symposium registration & continental breakfast – Krehbiel Auditorium
9:00-10:30 am – Panel discussion:

Christina Swarns – Executive Director – Innocence Project
Ricky Kidd – Executive Director – I Am Resilience
Mark McCormick – ACLU of Kansas
Kelson Bohnet – Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty (KCADP)

10:45-11:45 am – Q&A and Panelist Discussion
Noon – Lunch – Will Academic Center
1:00-2:15 pm – Breakout session 1 – Will Academic Center

Restorative Kansas
Death Penalty Abolition in KS/KCADP and ACLU – Led by Mark McCormick and Kelson Bohnet
Julia Huxman Ronnebaum – Trial Attorney with VSCP Law

2:30-3:45 pm- Breakout session 2 – Will Academic Center

Bethel College Student Panel
Death Penalty Abolition in KS/KCADP and ACLU – Led by Mark McCormick and Kelson Bohnet
Julia Huxman Ronnebaum – Trial Attorney with VSCP Law

4:00-5:00 pm – Closing Ceremony – Will Academic Center, Atrium

KIPCOR Film Series 2023-2024 - Estamos Unidos
2024-04-07 14:00 - 16:00 | Luyken Fine Arts Center, 300 East 27th Street, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States

50th Anniversary C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest
2024-04-12 19:30 - 21:30 | Luyken Fine Arts Center, 300 East 27th Street, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest

Friday, April 12, 7:30 pm
Luyken Fine Arts Center, Krehbiel Auditorium, Bethel College

This annual, binational, intercollegiate speech contest, held at Mennonite and Brethren in Christ colleges, asks participants to speak on the topic of peace and apply it to contemporary concerns. The winner from each college goes on to compete in the binational competition for cash prizes and scholarships to attend a peace-related conference. Come support all 4 Bethel students competing in this final round and see who is chosen to go on and compete in the binational competition!

Managing Differences Within Faith Communities - Registration Closes 5:00 PM, Tuesday, April 9
2024-04-13 08:30 - 2024-04-14 17:00 | Kaufman House, 2515 College Ave., North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
Register Here!

CANCELLED - Tier 2/3 Harm Repair Training
2024-04-22 08:00 - 2024-04-23 15:00 | Kaufman House, 2515 College Ave., North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
TRAINING CANCELLED. To be offered in Fall 2024 (dates TBA).
Visit kipcor.com/rsi to learn more about the Restorative Schools Initiative.

KIPCOR Shorts
2024-12-06 08:30 - 15:30
Register Here

KIPCOR Film Series - 2024-25
2025-02-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Luyken Fine Arts Center, 300 East 27th Street, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States

2025 KIPCOR Peace Lecture: A Conversation with Sister Barbara McCracken
2025-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Luyken Fine Arts Center, 300 East 27th Street, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
Please join KIPCOR for our annual peace lecture on Thursday evening, March 27 at 7:00 pm in the Bethel College Luyken Fine Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public. It’s a conversation with Sister Barbara McCracken, a Benedictine Sister of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, KS. Sister Barbara will reflect on themes of community life, care for creation, social justice, and daily faith, among others. Read more about the Benedictine sisters and how they’ve recently been in the news here.

Managing Differences Within Faith Communities - This course is being rescheduled. Stay tuned for updates!
2025-07-25 08:30 - 2025-07-26 17:00 | Kaufman House, 2515 College Ave., North Newton, KS, 67117, United States

KIPCOR Film Series - 2025-26
2025-10-12 14:00 - 17:00 | Luyken Fine Arts Center, 300 East 27th Street, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
Join Peace Connections and KIPCOR for the 2025 KIPCOR Film Series’ kick-off event in Luyken Fine Arts on October 12, 2025 from 2-5 pm.
The two organizations will host a screening of the prize-winning film, Join or Die, followed by a “meet and greet” “joining event.” This will be a chance for everyone in attendance to meet with local organizations, clubs, faith-communities, and groups and join any or all of them! This event is free and open to all!
**If you are part of a local group, organization, club, or faith community and want to set-up a table at the “joining event” following the screen’s filming, fill out this form!

Fall Newsletter 2025
2025-11-13 08:00 - 2025-12-31 17:00

KIPCOR SHORTS
2025-12-05 08:30 - 15:30
Register Here!
Shorts Presenters and Topics:
The State of ADR in Kansas – Amanda Jacobsen
Power and Impartiality: Finding A Balance (Ethics) – Shannon Alabanza
Domestic Conciliation – Best Practices and How to Avoid Pitfalls – Melissa Meyer
The Use of ADR Techniques and Practices During Family Business Transformations and Generational Transitions – Markus Meyer
Healthcare and Elder Decision Making – Tonya Ricklefs

2026 Justice Symposium & Peace Lecture
2026-02-25 11:00 - 2026-02-27 21:00
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25th

11 a.m. Karen Gonzalez, Theologian and Immigrant Advocate

“The Unruly Guest: How a ‘Dog’ Changed Jesus’ Mind on Land, Borders, and Compassion – Administration Building Chapel, Bethel College

4-7 p.m. Come-and-go-reception with Karen Gonzalez – Kauffman Museum
Voices of Conscience Exhibit
7 p.m. PEACE LECTURE – Karen Gonzalez

“Grace and Compassion in the Immigration Conversation – Kidron Hall at Kidron Bethel Village

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26th

11 a.m. Circles of Belonging, BC Office of Culture & Belonging – Administration Building Chapel, Bethel College
6 p.m Soup Supper – Bethel College Mennonite Church Fellowship Hall
7 p.m. Legal Panel Discussion, Kansas Immigration Coalition – Bethel College Mennonite Church Fellowship Hall
Panelists: Beatriz Valdez – Valdez Law, Wichita
Don Berner – Foulston, Wichita
Sarah Balderas – Balderas Legal Group, LLC, Wichita

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27th

11 a.m. Volunteer Projects – Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) – Central States
7 p.m. Know Your Rights Training – 1887 Cafe, Bethel College
Led by – Esmeralda Tovar-Mora and Yeni Silva of the Kansas Immigration Coalition

Navigating Differences in Faith Communities
2026-03-25 17:00 - 2026-03-28 16:30

Case Management & Limited Case Management Primary Training
2026-06-01 08:00 - 2026-06-02 17:00 | Kaufman House, 2515 College Ave., North Newton, KS, 67117, United States

Tier 1 Training: An Introduction to Restorative Justice in Schools
2026-06-23 08:00 - 2026-06-24 11:00
Scan the above QR code or Register Here

Tier 2/3 Training - Advanced Restorative Practices: Beyond Tier 1 - Repairing Harm in Schools
2026-08-03 08:00 - 2026-08-06 12:00
