Projects
Our programming initiatives keep three central foci in mind:
- Championing religious difference
- Building community
- Mentoring emerging leaders
RFP-USA partners collaborates with secular and faith-based organizations to champion religious diversity and build community. Recent examples include:
- Preparing a handbook for the United States Fund for UNICEF on spiritual care for child victims of natural disaster;
- Interpreting America’s religious pluralism to State Department guests from countries such as Moldova, Kazakstan, Armenia, and France;
- Presenting our research on the Convention on the Rights of the Child at a national symposium.
RFP-USA also collaborates with other chapters and divisions of the Religions for Peace family. Current interaction includes:
- Involvement in planning for the inauguration of a North American Network for Women of Faith;
- Participation in a gathering of Korean and US religious leaders, scholars and experts seeking an active role for religious leaders in promoting peace on Korean Peninsula (planned for September 2009);
- Assistance to our sister RFP Chapter in Mauritius as they plan an InterFaith Academy.
At RFP-USA, mentoring emerging leaders is a core component of our organization. Since January 2009 alone, we have had two young professionals and eight student interns engaged in research and other activities of the secretariat. Student interns hail from a variety of graduate and undergraduate programs at collegiate institutions such as Yale, Columbia, Princeton, The University of Georgia, CUNY, Brandeis University, and Manhattan College.