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Peace Ambassadors
People who speak for this work where they live. It is the oldest way into Peace Through Prosperity, it ran from 2013, and it is open again.
An ambassador is not a donor and not a mentor. An ambassador is someone who explains what we do to a room we would never reach on our own, and who makes the introduction that turns into a cohort.
Why it exists
Support from people, not from governments
The argument for the programme was written in 2013 and it has not changed. We work in marginalised and conflict-affected communities, and we are only useful in them for as long as we are trusted in them. Money or endorsement from a government, any government, arrives carrying that government’s politics, in the eyes of the people we are trying to reach.
So the support has to come from individuals with no stake in that. It is the same reason we take no grants, and it is why the ambassadors programme was set up in the first place: a network of people across the world, each representing the work in their own city, on their own terms.
The first group, in 2013, was four people in four cities on four continents. The programme lapsed, and when the site moved off its old platform the page describing it went with it. This is that page, rebuilt.
What an ambassador does
Four things, and you choose which
Nobody does all four. The role is shaped around what you already have: a room you can speak in, a network you can introduce us to, or a language we do not have.
Speak about the work
A short talk to a community group, a university society, a team at work or a professional meetup. We will give you the material and the current figures, and you say it in your own words. What the work has produced is on the impact page, and the method is on our approach.
Make the introduction
Every edition of Numu has run with a partner who already held the room: a university, an NGO, a camp-based charity. Those partners came from somebody who knew both sides. If you can open that door in your city, that is the most valuable thing an ambassador does.
Put the material in front of people
Everything we teach is free to take under Steal Our Stuff, and the Grassroots Playbook is free in six languages. An ambassador can hand it to a youth group, a school or a community organisation that would use it, with or without us involved afterwards.
Tell us what does not work
You will hear the objections we do not hear, because people are more honest with someone who is not us. Those are worth more to us than agreement. We would rather change the material than defend it.
Being straight about it
What we are not asking you to do
We are not asking you to raise money. There is no target, no quota and no collecting on our behalf. Peace Through Prosperity is run by AgiliTea Ltd, a company rather than a charity, so there is no charity fundraising framework behind you and no Gift Aid. If someone you speak to wants to give, send them to the donate page, where the cost of a place is set out and the legal position is stated plainly.
We are not asking you to represent us formally. You are not staff, you are not an agent, and nothing you say binds us. If you are ever unsure whether something is ours to claim, ask, and we will tell you.
Your name goes nowhere without your yes. We will not list you, photograph you or name you on this site or anywhere else unless you have asked us to. That is the same rule we apply to the people in our programmes.
And it can stop whenever you like. There is no minimum term and no leaving process. Tell us you are done and you are done, with no follow-up.
What you get
Enough to speak accurately
The current figures, dated and with their basis stated, so that you never have to guess at a number in front of a room. The teaching material, which is open to everyone anyway. A note when something changes, rather than a monthly newsletter you did not ask for. And a named person here to put questions to, rather than a form.
If the fit you are looking for is coaching rather than advocacy, that is a different role and it has its own page: volunteer your Agile skills on a Grassroots Internship.
Next step
Tell us what you can offer
Say roughly where you are, what kind of room you can reach and what languages you work in, and choose Peace Ambassador under What is this about? so it reaches the right person. We will come back to you and work out what is actually useful, rather than sending you a pack and hoping.
The programmes an ambassador would be speaking about are our programmes, and the argument behind them is our approach.