2025 WWFOR Fall Conference - Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation

Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Fall Conference was well attended, informative, lively, challenging, interactive!

One of presenters, trainer Mary Lou Finley, has compiled a list or related resources. Click here to view or download it.

Nonviolence:

Key Strategies for Times of

Rising Authoritarianism

Saturday November 22

8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Pacific time, Zoom

This web page includes: Conference Features | Presenter Bios

Schedule | Info Contacts | How to Register

Flyers | Links to Previous Fall Events

CONFERENCE FEATURES

We are delighted that Mary Lou Finley and Pam Smith will lead a training with focus on Collective Noncooperation.

About the Training

Nonviolence trainers Pam Smith and Mary Lou Finley will be sharing what they have learned from recent trainings on nonviolent action for these challenging times. We will explore:

• Protest and noncooperation: how they work together, drawing on examples from the civil rights movement, current stories, and movements in other countries

• How ordinary people can work in their own ways to make a difference–and have made a difference around the world—especially with strategies of noncooperation —in times like these.

• Using tools like the Spectrum of Allies and more as we think about our work.

• Laying the groundwork now for the deepened collaboration we will need in the future

• Finding our way to the hope and empowerment we need to join with others to build our movement now— with joy and enthusiasm!

Nonviolence—and FOR’s century-long commitment to building a better world through nonviolence—is a gift we all need now!

Join us as we explore it together!

Youth Activists

We will hear from four of the current youth activists in the Mike Yarrow Peace Fellows program, either live or by video. They are shown below (L to R) Oonaugh Foster-Bill, Vy Phuong Le, Brady Johnson, and Sneha Nandkeolyar. See more about them and their projects below.

Attendee participation: everybody has a role! We will have small breakout groups during the 2-hour training sessions; there will be a Q&A + comments as part of the youth activist segment; following the end of the conference, there will be an informal discussion.

Music – our musical interludes follow the long tradition of activism around the world.

This web page includes: Conference Features | Presenter Bios

Schedule | Info Contacts | How to Register

Flyers | Links to Previous Fall Events

PRESENTER BIOS and links to related organizations

TRAINERS

Mary Lou Finley and Pam Smith have been working together as co-founders (with two others) of the Addie Wyatt Center for Nonviolence Training, begun in Chicago nearly 10 years ago. They were also co-editors of the book The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North(2016) and are certified as Kingian Nonviolence trainers.

Pam Smith, a native Chicagoan, is an educator, public historian, genealogist and Kingian Nonviolence Trainer currently living in Portland, Oregon. Earlier in her career, Pam’s team conducted the feasibility study that set the stage for the Chicago Freedom School, now in its 17th year. Pam served as communications director for Rev. Jesse Jackson in his 1988 presidential bid and for Barack Obama in his primary campaign for the US Senate. She is producer of the forthcoming documentary “CURRENT: A Descendant’s Journey for Truth” (currentfilm.org).

Mary Lou Finley began her work on Martin Luther King’s staff in Chicago in the mid-1960s. She is now a retired sociology professor from Antioch University Seattle, and a Co-Director of the Mike Yarrow Peace Fellows program and has been working with the MYPF program since it began.

You can read more about the Addie Wyatt Center for Nonviolence Training and more about both our trainers at the Center homepage https://www.addiewyattcenter.org/ and their leadership page https://www.addiewyattcenter.org/who-we-are.

YOUTH ACTIVISTS

We will hear from four of the youth activists and the projects they are working on (live or by recorded video) as Fellows in the Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship program. You can read more about this program of Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation at https://wwfor.org/mike-yarrow-peace-fellowship-4/ and you can read about additional trainees at https://wwfor.org/mike-yarrow-peace-fellowship-4/2025-mypf/.

Oonaugh Foster-Bill is a college student in Olympia working on Abolishing Nuclear Weapons, and a leader of community building Song Circles.

Vy Phuong Le is a high school student in Olympia on the WhereWear program, distributing clothing where it is needed, especially to women’s shelters. See https://wwfor.org/wherewear/.

Brady Johnson is a college student in Olympia working on getting the college to divest from corporations profiting from the war in Israel / Palestine.

Sneha Nandkeolyar is a student in Bothell working on Women’s Financial Literacy and Empowerment.

FALL CONFERENCE PLANNERS

David Lambert, Planning Committee Chair, Jean Buskin, Jean Gant Delastrada, Mary Hanson, Tom Hathorn, John Repp, and Regon Unsoeld participated in planning and will have roles in the conference.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE (subject to change)

8:45 am Conference Opens with Music and Tech Help as needed

9:00 am sharp Formal Program begins

Tech Notes by Tom Hathorn

Welcome by Planning Committee Chair, David Lambert

Land Acknowledgement by Regon Unsoeld

Introduction of Trainers by David Lambert

9:15 am Training by Mary Lou Finley and Pam Smith

11:15 am End of Training; Break with Music

11:20 am Presentation by Youth Activists in the Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship Program followed by Q&A and Comments, facilitated by MYPF Co-Director Bruce Pruitt-Hamm

11:55 am Final Words and Acknowledgements by David Lambert

Noon. Break with Music

12:05 pm Informal Discussion facilitated by Mary Hanson

12:45 pm Informal Post-Conference End

This web page includes: Conference Features | Presenter Bios

Schedule | Info Contacts | How to Register

Flyers | Links to Previous Fall Events

INFORMATION CONTACTS

WWFOR at 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

EVERYONE IS WELCOME regardless of ability to pay!

REGISTRATION is easy! Choose any of these methods

ONLINE: Go to https://wwfor2025fc.brownpapertickets.com/ and select the level you want to pay, $0, $10, $20 and enter the number of people in the box. You can make an additional donation $0-$50 if you like. No payment is required, but if you can afford to pay it will help cover our costs. When you have made your selections, click Add to Cart, and in a few more easy steps you will be done. If you are making an extra donation, the payment has to go through PayPal, but you don’t need a PayPal account, you can use a credit card.
POSTAL MAIL: Our address is WWFOR, 225 N 70th Street, Seattle WA 98103. Send us your name, email address if available, phone number. If you are able to make a donation, checks to WWFOR, memo Fall Conference.
EMAIL: Send us your name, email address, phone number to wwfor@wwfor.org. If you are able to make a donation, please send a check to the address above.
PHONE: Leave us your name, email address if available, and phone number at 206-789-5565. If you are able to make a donation, please send a check to the address above.