Educational Peacebuilding in Medellin and Acapulco: Understanding the Role of Education, Culture and Learning in Responding to Crises

This project aims to create a detailed understanding of the infrastructure, engagement, resources and policies required to educationally transform a community in order to contribute to reducing the negative impacts of drug-related violence and crime. It seeks to investigate the circumstances, policies and practices through which Medellin (Colombia) has been able to develop and implement an inclusive, life-long learning strategy, and to transfer that learning to Acapulco (Mexico). By working alongside politicians, community members, young people and stakeholders in both Medellin and Acapulco, the project team will work to put forward recommendations for responding to crises of violence. The innovative, participatory methodology will focus on informal education, producing an educational peacebuilding model and index for transferability, trialling concepts in the creation of a vision for ‘the Acapulco we want’, along with an implementation framework to create future positive learning opportunities.