About Pathways To Peace
Pathways To Peace (PTP) is an international Peacebuilding, educational, and consulting organization. For over four decades, PTP has been actively making Peace a lived reality. PTP is an UN-designated Peace Messenger Organization and has Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
PTP works locally and globally, inter-generationally and multi-culturally, to support Peacebuilding, Peacebuilders, and to collaborate with other organizations in initiatives that advance the Culture of Peace Initiative.
Since its inception in 1981, PTP has worked with the UN to expand awareness of and engage in the International Day of Peace (Peace Day), celebrated annually on September 21st. Peace Day has grown from a single event of a few hundred people into a global movement that reaches hundreds of millions of people.
Avon Mattison: Celebrating Her Life Well Lived
MISSION
Peace Wheel
THE PEACE WHEEL© is a model for Peacebuilding, developed by Pathways To Peace and activated over the last 25 years. It consists of eight sectors, or pathways, that are interconnected and that symbolize different pathways. The 8 pathways recognize
and engage all people as peacebuilders.
These pathways transcend national, ethnic, racial, religious, age, identity, or gender differences; they are common to every society:
Special Tribute to Avon Mattison
Avon co-led efforts to inaugurate the UN International Day of Peace (Peace Day) as established by a unanimous United Nations resolution in 1981. Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace. Avon inspired civil society to embrace Peace Day so it has grown from a single event of a few hundred people in San Francisco in 1984, into a global movement that reaches hundreds of millions of people worldwide and continues to grow.
Through Pathways To Peace, she co-created the Culture of Peace Initiative (CPI) in 1983/84 in colleagueship with former UN Assistant Secretary-General Robert Muller at a time the term “peacebuilding” was generally unknown. This local/global Peacebuilding Initiative unites the strengths of over 4,000 international peacebuilders and organizations and focuses co-operative Peacebuilding along diverse pathways/sectors. Avon worked with innovative leaders, groups and organizations on the “frontline,” building a diverse and regenerative Culture of Peace inter-generationally and multi-culturally for the Common Good and future generations.
Avon was a Co-Founder and President of Pathways To Peace (PTP), she has served as special advisor to United Nations Conferences, Declarations and Programmes, and also to renowned international leaders and emerging youth leaders. She serves on the Advisory Councils/Boards of several international organizations and has been quoted in numerous publications worldwide.
Avon passed on October 13, 2021, and her legacy lives on in all of us, as we continue to pursue Peace in our lives and on our planet.
For five decades and up until the end of her life, Avon worked tirelessly for Peace. She kept a busy schedule of presenting, consulting, and mentoring. She will be remembered for her love, humility, wisdom, and selfless acts of compassion, and continually lifting up the beauty, strengths, and talents of others. We will miss her bright light, her unconditional love, her passion, and her unwavering spirit.
Through her work for Peace, Avon touched the lives of millions around the world. Avon is the recipient of four Lifetime Achievement Awards.
UN Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury states, “On 13 October, humanity lost a great soul dedicated to promoting the cause of Peace to all corners of our planet. We will miss Avon and her valiant spirit, inspiring us for so many years in so many ways. May her noble soul rest in eternal Peace!”