Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
MCC Canada Peace and Social Concerns Program
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Peace and Social Concerns Committee
- Peace Ministries
- Peace Office
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1974 - 2012
History
The work of the Peace and Social Concerns Program began in 1964 with the temporary MCC Binational Peace and Social Concerns Committee (briefly known as the Peace Committee), which was made up of Canadian and American members and based in Akron, PA. Its mandate included peace education, peace witness, labour relations, identifying social concerns, government contact, and informing youth of alternatives to military service. In 1967, the committee hired its first part-time staff person and began to pursue a more active agenda of nonresistance and peacemaking.
In 1974, a Canadian Peace and Social Concerns Committee became independent of the MCC Binational Peace Section, and in 1975 the Committee expanded to include one member from each of the five provincial MCCs. In 1976, a full-time director of MCC Canada’s Peace and Social Concerns was appointed. Over time, new social concerns were identified and adopted as focus areas for the committee’s mandate; these included Native concerns, lobbying through the Ottawa Office, and women’s concerns. Peace education remained the central mandate of the committee.
In the early 1980s, establishment an official MCC Canada department for national programming was underway. Until this time, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee had been an independent department that reported directly to the Executive Office. In 1981 the committee was renamed the Peace and Social Concerns Program and became responsible to the new National Program Department. This enabled it to initiate broader peace education and respond to new challenges surrounding peacemaking both at home and abroad.
From 1981 to 2012, the program remained a part of MCC Canada’s National Program Department as an official program under various names: Peace and Social Concerns (1981-1996), Peace Ministries (1997-2002), and Peace (2003-2012).
By the 2010s, MCC had begun to integrate peacebuilding activities into other program initiatives and the functions of the Peace program shifted towards advocacy work. In 2012, the Peace Program was succeeded by the Ottawa Office Public Engagement Program.
Places
MCC Akron Office, MCC Kitchener Office, MCCC Winnipeg Offices, MCCC Ottawa Office
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
The MCC Canada Peace and Social Concerns program primarily provided peace education to constituents and made contacts with governments to promote peace initiatives. The program’s initiatives involved responding to various social issues surrounding war, labour relations, refugee assistance, alcohol abuse, poverty, and Indigenous concerns.
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
In MCC Canada’s early years, Canadian members of the Binational Peace & Social Concerns Committee worked under the authority of MCC Binational. After 1974, the MCC Canada Peace and Social Concerns Committee derived its mandate from MCC Canada and its program director reported directly to the MCC Canada Executive Office. Upon the establishment of MCC Canada’s National Program Department in 1981, the MCC Canada Peace and Social Concerns Committee became a national program and remained one until 2012. In 2012, the Peace Program was succeeded by the Ottawa Office Public Engagement Program.
General context
Relationships area
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Status
Draft
Level of detail
Partial
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created by Jared Warkentin, March 31, 2020