RCF awarded major grant towards preparing next generation of peacemakers and reconcilers

Thanks to a Benefact Trust grant of £200,000 over three years, more young people, aged between 15 and 35, will be trained to transform hostility, conflict, and division by building relationships and working together across society’s deepest divides.

The grant will support RCF's work to convene young people at residential spaces where they encounter ‘others’ across divides, and are then supported both in their personal growth and in practical action during the years that follow.

This journey is called the ‘Rose Way’. Leaders who complete the Rose Way are enrolled in the Reconciler Hub, a vibrant, growing online network of people engaged in the faith-based peace and reconciliation sector.

As well as the Rose Way, the grant will support RCF to develop and shares open-access resources to support churches, communities, and leaders of all faiths and none in their journeys towards reconciliation.

It will also enable RCF to better share our learning to provide insights to policymakers and decisionmakers in the government, peacebuilding, and higher education sectors.

With the support of Benefact Trust's grant, Rose Castle Foundation will be able to help more communities and leaders across the UK to understand and apply the skills, tools, and habits needed to prevent conflict both within and between faith communities, and use the power of difference to strive for peace.

Rose Castle Foundation’s Founding Director, Canon Sarah Snyder, said: “We are thrilled to be working with Benefact Trust, and grateful for their support through the grant, which really will transform our ability to tackle to the heart of conflict.

“With 89% of the world’s population actively participating in a faith community (World Economic Forum, 2020), religious belief and practice remains essential to changemaking in a fractured world. Harnessing these motivations and traditions for peace, instead of violence, is vital to our vision of a flourishing world.

“The process of demonising and dehumanising is not just national and international. It takes place in our homes, places of work and education. University campuses, for example, are a microcosm of wider societal divides.

“Our alumni at one leading university, for example, have been supporting the university authorities with mediating challenging divides between students of differing ideological perspectives.

“Other alumni are now leading organisations and government ministries, volunteering and working in local communities, putting their reconciling skills into action.

“The grant from Benefact Trust will support us to train many more leaders like these, not just for today’s world – but the world of tomorrow.”

Andrew Bass, Grants Officer for Benefact Trust, said: “We are privileged to support Rose Castle’s innovative project, which is so crucial in today’s society where conflict is happening all over the world. Faith is an extremely important part of many people’s lives, and it’s vital that all-types of faiths are respected and differences are accepted and embraced.”