Empowering the next generation of peacebuilders

The description of this project has been provided by Public Journalism Club.

About the project

The initiative aims to support, train and develop opportunities for a new generation of civil society peacebuilding activists in Armenia. Working with young people, the project supports the development of a sustainable civil society involved in dialogue about peace.

The programme includes training in non-violent communication and strategic and trauma-informed communication. In addition, it gives young activists the opportunity to obtain funding for small projects aimed at promoting peace and conflict transformation.

Setbacks during implementation

Due to the political changes caused by the mass displacement of residents of Nagorny Karabakh in 2023, the project team had to adapt the programme to the new reality.

The political tensions led to increased scepticism about cross-border dialogue and had an impact on the willingness of the two sides to work together. Moreover, the project participants found it difficult to engage actively in the work, as they weren’t always able to manage the trauma they had experienced during the course of the conflict. A further barrier was a shortage of peacebuilding specialists who could teach conflict-sensitive communication skills effectively.

To address these difficulties, the team did an assessment of the needs of the young activists and adjusted the programme.

Results

During the project the team:

• conducted 15 interviews and 4 focus groups with 28 people;
• produced a complex report on their assessment of the needs of the peacebuilding community (Read it here: REPORT- Catalysing Peacebuilding in Armenia: Insights and Recommendations from Grassroot Activists);
• organised several capacity-building events focused on non-violent communication in Armenia for young representatives of educational, cultural, and civil society organisations.
• funded youth-led projects in the form of podcasts, master classes and information campaigns – all on the theme of promoting peace and dialogue;
• held a cross-border seminar on non-violent communication attended by Armenian and Azerbaijani peacebuilding activists.

The Public Journalism Club intends to continue the training programme to develop the potential of young civil society activists, with a focus on non-violent communication in the peacebuilding process.

The project has continued to grow and expand its reach as the young participants take on their own projects, guided by the principles of peacebuilding and nonviolent communication.

The first Armenian-Language Guide to Nonviolent Communication

As part of the of the initiative, project participants, Gohar Grigoryan authored the first Armenian guidebook on Nonviolent Communication, inspired  by her participation in NVC capacity-building trainings conducted by the Public Journalism Club, as well as by Marshall Rosenberg’s book “Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life.”

Nonviolent Communication: An Armenian-Language Guidebook introduces readers to the core principles and tools of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in a clear, practical and culturally sensitive way. It explains how observations, feelings, needs and requests can be used to transform everyday misunderstandings, anger and blame into honest dialogue and mutual understanding.

Capacity-building Initiative in Gavar

In October 2025, “Restart Gavar”, a youth-led NGO organized a two-day capacity-building event in cooperation with the Public Journalism Club (PJC). Within the event, participants also took part in training sessions on emotional intelligence, conflict management, and nonviolent communication skills.

The training aimed to promote a culture of peace, foster social cohesion, and encourage the values of media responsibility and constructive communication. Its purpose of was to help participants recognize their own and others’ feelings and needs, create a “safe” environment using nonviolent communication methods, and transform conflicts into opportunities for cooperation.

On the second day, Hakob Karapetyan from Yerevan Press Club challenged participants to think about the obstacles as well as opportunities that exist current within Armenian-Azerbaijani Track 2 diplomacy. Hakob presented the results of a study titled “Civic (Track 2) Diplomacy between Armenia and Azerbaijan: a Historical Overview and Future Prospects”.

Following the end of the 2-day training, participants noted that initiatives such as this training conducted in Gavar, helped them realize that peace begins with everyday communication in families, workplaces, and communities. The initiative gave them new motivation to continue joint work on spreading a culture of peace and strengthening constructive communication in the Gavar community.