KIPCOR Film Series 2022-23: Betty Reid Soskin
2023-02-19 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Luyken Fine Arts Center, 300 East 27th Street, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
“No Time to Waste: The Urgent Mission of Betty Reid Soskin” was released in 2019 and celebrates the life and work of Betty Reid Soskin, National Park Service park ranger, author, business woman, and activist. Soskin helped to develop the plan for the Rosie the Riveter, WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond, CA and eventually went on to work there. Drawing on her experience as a file clerk in a segregated Union hall during WWII, Soskin’s work at the park showcases the untold stories of African American contributions on the home front during the war. Her devotion to telling these stories has changed the way the National Park Service shares its history.
Soskin grew up in Oakland, CA, where her Cajun-Creole family resettled after the 1927 “Great Flood” of New Orleans. She became a business owner in 1945 when, along with her husband, she founded one of the first black-owned music stores in Berkeley – Reid’s Records. She also authored the book, “Sign My Name to Freedom,” a memoir of her own lived experience from childhood into adulthood. In 2015, Betty was invited by the National Park Service to introduce President Barack Obama in President’s Park during a nationwide PBS tree-lighting ceremony. At age 101, Betty is currently hosting 1-hour virtual chats on Thursdays for the park.
KIPCOR invites you to join us on the Bethel College campus on Sunday, February 19 at 2:00 pm in Lukyen Fine Arts Center to view this inspiring film. Following the film, Betty will join us virtually for our talkback session. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with her!

KIPCOR Film Series 2022-23 - Thirst For Justice
2023-04-16 14:00 - 16:00 | KS
“You might think America is a democracy, where freedom of speech and basic rights are guaranteed. But at its heart, there is a great injustice. Against all the odds several extraordinary citizens are banding together and fighting back for their basic right to clean water. Armed only with facts and their illnesses, they risk arrest to take on the might of industry and government. From Flint to the Navajo Nation, via Standing Rock, this is their story.”—Leana Hosea
Learn more about this film here.

Victim Offender Dialogue / Core Mediation Primary Training (virtual)
2023-05-15 08:30 - 2023-05-24 12:30 | KS
REGISTER HERE

When: May 15, 17, 19, 22, and 24 on Zoom
Time: 8:30 am – 12:30 pm

Cost:
$500 regular
$450 early bird (if $75 non-refundable deposit received by 4 pm on April 24)

Credit:
Approved for 26 CDRE and CEU hours (including 1.5 hours of ethics)

Instructors and Coaches:
Sheryl Wilson, MLS – KIPCOR Executive Director
Eva Lapp, MPA – KIPCOR Director of Education & Training
Laurel Woodward-Breckbill, MPhil – KIPCOR RSI Coordinator

Learn to work with persons impacted by crime — harmed parties, those who cause harm, & community members — through a restorative dialogue process (Victim Offender Dialogue/Mediation or VOD).
Topics include…

Origins, philosophy & principles of restorative justice & victim offender dialogue/mediation
Victim awareness and sensitivity
Offender awareness and sensitivity
Case preparation for victim offender dialogue/mediation
The mediation process and how it applies to crime and disciplinary breaches
Communication and conflict resolution skill-building (especially for emotionally-charged situations)
Working with local criminal justice agencies to set up a community-based VOD program
Kansas Supreme Court Rules relating to Core Mediation, including ethical obligations

Technical requirements:

reliable internet connection
device (computer or tablet) with camera and microphone

REGISTER HERE

Mentor Mediator Virtual Meet-Up
2023-05-16 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual (Online) Event, No street address, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
This mentor mediator virtual meet-up is approved by the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration for 1 CDRE hour.
Register Here

HOPE Summer Session 2023 - Virtual (Zoom)
2023-06-05 18:00 - 2023-08-21 19:30 | Virtual (Online) Event, No street address, North Newton, KS, 67117, United States
HOPE consists of five interactive, skill-building, educational classes designed to reduce the negative impact of divorce or separation conflict on children by helping parents learn healthy habits for more positive co-parenting.
* Understand your child’s right and need to love both parents
* Focus on your child’s needs instead of your own desires
* Recognize relationship transitions
* Develop effective communication skills
* Minimize conflict & manage emotions
* Create healthier boundaries while building trust & respect
This session consists of five virtual (Zoom) classes: June 5 & 19, July 10 & 31, and August 21, 2023. You must attend ALL FIVE CLASSES to complete the program.
We will meet at 6:00 PM on each class day for no more than 90 minutes (time may vary per class), and then you will complete offline class assignments at home, on your own. The total cost of the session, including all five classes, is $250. See the registration form below for more details.
CLICK HERE to register for the Summer 2023 HOPE Session.

Restorative Kansas Conference 2023
2023-06-08 16:00 - 2023-06-09 17:30 | KS
For more information and to register, click here.

KIPCOR Film Series 2023-24 - Eat, Protest, Lift
2023-09-10 19:00 - 21:00 | KS
Please join us September 10 at 7 pm in Luyken Fine Arts Center on the Bethel College Campus to view this film sponsored in collaboration with the Bethel College Social Work Department!

KIPCOR Shorts 2023
2023-12-01 08:30 - 15:30 | 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 | KS
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 | KS
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 | KS
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 | KS
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 | KS

KIPCOR SHORTS
2025-12-05 08:30 - 15:30 | KS
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 | KS
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 | KS

Healthy Opportunities for Parenting Effectively (HOPE) - Spring/Summer Session 2026
2026-04-20 18:00 - 2026-06-15 19:30 | KS
