Tucker's Work

I'm a program coordinator at Peace Village Las Cruces.  It's a fairly small organization.  I'm currently the only employee, though the board is seeking an executive director -- more of a part-time position -- to help with grant writing and public relations.

I love my job.  In the past two weeks I've been thrust into community organizing, curriculum development, program mission re-visioning, and group facilitation.

Peace Village was the brain child of three locals who'd visited a youth camp in Ruidoso, NM back in 2006 (I think).  They imagined the possibility of starting up something similar in Las Cruces, and over the years their Peace Camp has grown from a one week summer program to a three week formation experience, really, with mini day camps interspersed throughout the fall and spring.

I'm responsible for integrating new materials and curricular objectives and also piloting mentoring communities.  I'm exploring as well how to make Peace Village more fiscally and organizationally sustainable.  Toward these ends I've met with some folks here who are really interested in seeing how some of the stuff I learned from my dissertation research -- involving rites of passage and ritual processes -- might apply.  The rough idea is to create a peace theory and practice-centered model of group transformation, which existing groups in the community can use to enhance cohesion, clarify mission identity, and strengthen direct service and collaboration (with other agencies).  So, Peace Village has the potential to become a kind of Peace Center.  The image we're using is the center hole or hub of a wheel to which an array of spokes is connected.  Or, given grant and funding limitations, Peace Village may simply remain Peace Camp.  Either way my work is exciting and teaching me all sorts of stuff about networking, collaboration, and program development and planning.  Most of all I am learning and trying to practice the subtle art of letting things unfold.

A former professor of mine -- it feels so good to use the word "former" when applying it to one of my professors -- had a saying that kept him in balance: High hopes and low expectations.  That rings true for my work here.