Welcome to Walking Distance

Steps Toward Peace

A nonprofit promoting effective communication and peacebuilding through conflict transformation.

Our Vision

We Cultivate Peacebuilders

We Cultivate Peacebuilders

We partner with communities, organizations, and individuals to build and enhance their capacity to communicate effectively and transform conflict. 

Our Focus

We Promote
Conflict Transformation

We Promote
Conflict Transformation

We help organizations and people across the globe to see conflict as an opportunity for growth and help equip them with knowledge and skills to become peacebuilding leaders.

Our Approach

We Design for Sustainable Change

We Design for Sustainable Change

We take a dispute systems approach that incorporates not just symptoms but also a high-level view of the full context in which conflict and other challenges might be occurring. 

How We Do It

The Three Pillar Walking
Distance Approach

Our work integrates three key elements that provide a framework for powerful, sustainable transformation.

01

Heart: Where We Start

02

Mindset: How We See Others

03

Body: What We Say and Do

I’m Not Saying We Shouldn’t Be Angry

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be angry.
Anger seems reasonable. But perhaps
we will do what I’ve heard the Inuit do—

spend the emotion on walking, walk a line
until all the anger has left our bodies.
The moment the Inuit notice the anger is gone,

replaced, perhaps, by sadness or fear,
compassion or just a quietness,
they mark that spot with an object

to show the extent of their anger.
And perhaps, if we’re lucky, when we walk
this way, it will be a long enough walk

that we arrive at each other’s doors,
object in hand, and when the object
leaves our grip, we’ll be able to use our hands

to greet each other, touch each other’s faces,
point to the horizon to all the other places
we might choose to walk now together.

Our Approach

We take a dispute systems approach that incorporates not just symptoms but also a high-level view of the full context in which conflict and other challenges might be occurring.