Adventures in Nonviolence

Organizations I Work With

Oregon Peace Institute

Board Member since 2010. The OPI mission is "to promote and make available education and resources for peace and nonviolent conflict resolution in individual, community, national, global and environmental contexts. We seek the widest possible collaboration and cooperation with others to achieve our purpose."

Peacevoice is a project of OPI. I participate on an advisory panel for Peacevoice and manage the Facebook page.

Apps for Peace is a new project to extend the reach of Peacevoice into the world of Mobile Applications.

Jubitz Family Foundation

First Unitarian Church of Portland, Peace Action Committee

I am one of the four chairs of the Peace Action Committee and also the Secretary. Our committee is comprised of three subgroups which focus on militarism in our culture, Afghanistan, and Palestinian Human Rights. We meet the first Saturday of each month from 10am-noon at the church. We welcome new members who have a passion for peace.

United States Nonviolent Peaceforce Chapters Association

I have been on the coordinating committee of the USNPCA since 2009. I also maintain the website and manage communications.

My Vision/Mission

Every organization I've worked with puts great effort into their vision and mission statement. I decided maybe if I tried to craft such a statement, maybe I'd have a better chance at keeping focus on what matters. So here goes...

I hold a vision of a peaceful future, not to suggest a conflict free one, but rather one where people use cooperation rather than competition to make things work.

My mission is to work toward that vision by deepening my own understanding of nonviolence and offering to share with others what gems I find along the way. Nonviolence has permeated much of my life, from eating, to parenting, driving and love, and I'm just getting started.

I share much of my journey on my blog (see Living Nonviolence). On this site I hope to capture the rest of the story.

About Me

Terri Shofner- Mother, Activist, Woman, Seeker.
There are so many labels attached to me that I sometimes wonder where I am beneath the adhesive. As I peel away the labels I see a journey evolving, my journey. Violence is no stranger to me. I been the victim and the victimizer. Yet Love sought me out and began stripping the labels that held me in my delusional cocoon. At age 29 I had a nervous breakdown, or rather a break through. As I recovered I found new strength and with it a new calling. After years of caring little for my fellow humans I was suddenly driven to help. I found an outlet for this desire in the American Red Cross, teaching CPR and First Aid and also assisting in emergency services for the floods, hurricanes and fires that plagued my Florida home. I believed that by teaching people the skills to help one other in a crisis I was potentially saving more lives than I could if I joined a search and rescue team myself. By age 39 life took some new twists and turns, I was in Oregon and a mother. This new label carried tremendous responsibility and I knew that I had to not only change my outer facade, but also something much deeper. I began digging deeply into the world of nonviolence so that I might be a better parent. As I studied the writings of Gandhi, Tolstoy, Wink, Merton, MLK Jr, and so many others, a change took place. I realized that teaching people how to retrieve others from the grasp of death was one thing, but to teach people nonviolent life skills was so much more than just life saving but also life giving and life sustaining. I’ve been a facilitator of a Nonviolent Conflict Intervention skills workshop. I'm a trainer in Azim Khamisa's radical forgiveness workshop. In the future I hope to learn more about reconciliation work. I lead workshops, give talks and facilitate monthly outreach sessions in nonviolence. I’m no “expert in the field” but like to think of myself as an adventurer. Join me in the ongoing adventures in nonviolence.