2024 Tasmanian PeaceWise Grant
for use in 2025 and 2026
teaching young people to be peacemakers and building a culture of peace in your school
who is PeaceWise?
PeaceWise is a Christian, cross-denominational not-for-profit peacemaking ministry established in 2007, operating across Australia. We strive to build peacemakers for life. We are motivated by Jesus’ call for Christians to display unity in their relationships as a gospel witness to the God we serve (see John 17).
We teach biblical peacemaking to children and adults and have seen extraordinary restoration and strengthening of relationships through the application of these principles. When a community like a school embarks on using these principles, the whole relational culture of the community is positively impacted – it can develop a culture of peace and be a powerful witness to Jesus to all who belong to the school community.
what are PeaceWiseKids and PeaceWiseYouth?
PeaceWise offers PeaceWiseKids for primary school students (Courses 1-4) and PeaceWiseYouth for high school students (Courses 5-7). These Christian programs equip young people to deal with challenging relationships and conflict in healthy, constructive and life-changing ways. All courses are created to be led by an adult using the materials we provide. Each course provides stimulus videos, teacher-led lesson plans and student engagement materials.
There are approximately 22,000 students currently enrolled in PeaceWiseKids or PeaceWiseYouth across Australia in around 80 schools. But Tasmania has been the missing piece – hence the reason we obtained some special funding to support its use in Tassie!
You can find extensive information about the courses themselves by reading the information at the bottom of this webpage, which also includes links to the webpages for the courses themselves.
what happened with the 2023 PeaceWise grant and why is there now a 2024 PeaceWise grant?
The 2023 PeaceWise grant was successfully applied for by the following seven Tasmanian Christian schools, all of whom are now using PeaceWiseKids and PeaceWiseYouth within their schools:
- Australian Christian College – Hobart
- Australian Christian College – Launceston
- Calvin Christian School
- Channel Christian School
- Emmanuel Christian School
- Northern Christian School
- Southern Christian College
There was certain grant moneys remaining from the original grant funds, and the grant provider, Tasmanian Christian Fund, has agreed that a new allocation of grants can be given to use the remaining funds.
what is the 2024 PeaceWise grant?
The 2024 PeaceWise grant provides a subsidy of 50% of the cost of:
- PeaceWiseKids/PeaceWiseYouth licences plus
- resource costs such as posters and desktop cards
- staff training in everyday peacemaking
for participating Tasmanian schools to a maximum total value of $6,500 over two years.
The program must begin being rolled out in 2025 and be used again in 2026. The two year timeframe is to support the embedding of the courses and peacemaking principles within each school.
Click here for a 4 minute video explaining the grant
grant details at a glance
grant documents
- online application form – see below
- includes your “best guess” two year implementation plan
- includes statement of support from your Principal
important dates
- grant applications open Monday 12 August 2024
- grant applications – EXTENDED!!! to COB Friday 20 September 2024
- applicants notified of outcome by Friday 27 September 2024
implementation support
- 4 hours of PeaceWise support included over two years
- this includes 1 hour zoom Onboarding Session for staff
roll out & reporting
- schools must commence rollout in 2025
- first grant report due by Jan 2026
- second grant report by Jan 2027
what are the key benefits of teaching biblical peacemaking?
- application of biblical principles of peacemaking to real world situations shows the connection between God’s word and real life issues students face
- ability for students to identify their own response to conflict
- students are equipped to manage conflict in a healthy, God-honouring way
- development of a culture of peace across the school
- students manage everyday conflict situations independently using the PeaceWise God-Me-You-Us framework
- creation of a common language around conflict and peacemaking across the school
- likely reduction in bullying and staff time spent dealing with conflict issues
- helps students learn about God’s love and the difference Jesus makes in daily life
who is eligible for the grant?
The 2024 PeaceWise Grant is available for Christian schools in Tasmania (including 2023 grant recipients) who are happy to:
- use courses which overtly use Christian principles and teaching as the basis for learning how to respond well to conflict and build strong and healthy relationships
- accept the other grant conditions contained in the grant application
what are the key application requirements?
Successful applicants will be required to complete the following requirements:
- implement PeaceWiseKids or PeaceWiseYouth courses (or both) in 2025 and 2026
- have all staff attend a PeaceWise “Everyday Peacemaking for Schools” training event, which will be offered in Tasmania in January 2025 (Note: depending on applicant schools, this is likely to be a multi-school event to reduce costs for all schools participating – the date will be chosen in discussion with the schools involved. If a school has already had its staff attend the 2024 training event, it need only send new staff (or those who missed that training) to the training in 2025.)
- nominate a key person to be responsible for the rollout
- have students complete short, anonymous the pre-and post-course surveys
- meet key reporting date deadlines
- produce a video or written record of how the School/students have been impacted by doing the courses
- complete the grant report at the conclusion of the grant period
how will I know what the cost to the School will be if I apply?
The grant provides 50% funding of the cost of the PeaceWiseKids/PeaceWiseYouth courses and resources as well as the cost of the staff training, up to a total value of $5,000 over the two years.
When you complete the grant application, the form itself will auto-calculate the cost of the courses, as well as the cost of any additional resources such as posters and desktop cards to support the students’ learning. You must include within your application at least one poster set for each different course being taught, as the posters are vital learning aids supporting the courses.
Student and teacher course licence fees in 2024 are (on average) around $15 including GST per year – so around $30 including GST per student/teacher across the two years (though less for Kindergarten and more for Year 11/12). So, with a 50% reduction from the grant, this is around $15 including GST for the two years of course use.
The cost of the staff training will be affected by how many schools participate, and we are giving a “best guesstimate” cost of around $130 including GST for each staff member attending, which would cover the cost of the training including the costs of bringing two experienced trainers over to Tassie for the event. So, with a 50% reduction from the grant, this is around $65 incl. GST per staff member attending. Final costs will depend on the final numbers involved, and this fee assumes a minimum of 4 schools and 60 participants, where one school is willing to host and provide food for the event.
what are the factors that improve our chances of being successful?
factor #1: apply 😉
- The biggest factor improving your chance of success is to apply!
- We are not kidding – there is only a relatively small pool of eligible schools in Tassie – so you have a really good chance of success compared to virtually any other grant application you are ever likely to make as a school.
factor #2: if you miss it, watch the video of the Zoom online information session
- we will include here a link of the information session running on 19 August (and you can even run it on higher than normal speed if you are short of time!)
- this session will give you the “good oil” on what the PeaceWiseKids and PeaceWiseYouth courses are like, how you can use them to impact your students and your School community
- it also gives valuable information about key things we are looking for in grant applications
other factors
Our decisions on successful applications are final and reasons for decisions will be kept confidential to PeaceWise. Having said this, the following factors will be some of the key things taken into account
- clarity of articulation of reasons for wanting to run the courses and outcomes being sought
- vision expressed of how the courses will be used within the School
- the degree of confidence PeaceWise feels in likely successful implementation, including the person/s responsible for rollout having suitable authority and funding in place
- the (admittedly subjective) impression we have of how great the impact of the grant is likely to be. (Note that this is not purely a “bigger schools” factor – because sometimes smaller schools may see larger impact.)
Question: Why is it a grant condition that all the staff learn everyday peacemaking as well?
Answer: Because we know it makes a massive difference to programme implementation and helping the school to build a culture of peace!
We know schools who first train their staff in biblical peacemaking typically have the strongest outcomes in equipping their students.
This is because not only do staff have a better understanding of the principles they are teaching the students, they also have the opportunity to apply peacemaking personally as well. This spans their relationships with the students, parents and carers, fellow staff and even into their other relationships outside school.
This video from Melton Christian College shows what is possible when a “whole school” approach is taken, resulting in the development of a common language and approach to dealing with conflict and building a healthy relational culture. Melton Christian College has done staff training alongside the training of its students for many years.
You can find more information here about what staff will learn during this one day workshop.
can you tell me more about the courses for the students?
students will learn…
understanding conflict
MODULE 1
This is the WHAT part
Children learn what conflict is, where it came from, and a basic framework they can use in any conflict situation
responding to conflict
MODULE 2
This is the HOW part
Children learn the principles, skills and tools needed to be peacemakers
peacemakers for life
MODULE 3
This is the INSPIRATIONAL part
Children learn that as they apply these principles, they can bring peace both into their own relationships and into the communities to which they belong
Note: For the final course (Course 7) – Being a peacemaking in a complex world – there is a different course structure explained on the webpage for this course.
course structure
Each course is teacher-led, has comprehensive lesson plans and additional student engagement materials (typically a choice of workbook/journal or online activities).
- There are typically 15 lessons (topics) per course
- Each lesson includes 30-50 minutes of content – depending on how many activities you choose to do and the age of the students
- Each lesson begin with a 3-7 minute key teaching video, and is accompanied by a comprehensive lesson plan and student engagement options
- All courses are purchased as a 12 month subscription, which runs for the school year, i.e. from January to December each year.
If taught as one topic a week, the content could be expected to take two terms to teach. Schools have the option to teach across two, three or four terms.
