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Institute for Systems Change & Peacebuilding

What is Systems Change & Peacebuilding?

The most difficult challenges we face today don’t exist in isolation. Rather they are the result of interacting factors, such as poverty, pandemics, injustice, violence, ecological damage, climate change and political polarization.

Shifting these systems toward health, well-being and sustainable peace requires institutions and practitioners that can engage with these complex social-ecological challenges and interacting systems at multiple levels, including at the individual, interpersonal, community and global scales.

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Learn more about UWM’s ISCP
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Connections Graph (Community Partnerships & Initiatives, Research & Evaluation for Systems Change, and Academic Degree & Certificate Programs)

What We Do

The Institute for Systems Change & Peacebuilding (ISCP) creates a synergistic hub for systems change and peacebuilding. By connecting UWM students and faculty with community partners, we co-create collaborative projects, develop professional practice fellowships, and conduct research. To further invest in the local community, ISCP offers tuition remission Changemaker Scholarships for recognized grassroots leaders nominated by our partner organizations, ensuring those doing good community work can advance their education while continuing to support local systems change.

Professional Learning Opportunities
Professional Learning Opportunities include workshops and events hosted and/or supported by the ISCP that provide co-learning opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and community members.
Upcoming Events
Community Partners
Community partnerships at UWM take many forms and can include collaboration, graduate fellows, or research partners. The Institute works to align interests for collective action on co-created programs and projects.
Community Partnerships
Changemakers Scholars
The UWM Systems Change & Peacebuilding Graduate Assistants and Changemaker Scholars work alongside community partners to support local initiatives while developing leadership and systems-thinking skills, guided by ISCP values, and are supported by the Institute as emerging leaders committed to making a lasting impact in the Milwaukee region.
Current ISCP Scholars
Vision, Action, Alignment Cycle Graphic

The Systems Change Learning Cycle

The UW-Milwaukee Institute for Systems Change and Peacebuilding strives to align university and community interests in equitable partnership to engage with these complex and ever-changing systemic drivers.

Using the Systems Change Learning Cycle, we work alongside partners to co-create community-based initiatives that engage these challenges. The Institute works to bridge theory and research with applied research and practice. This means valuing local, lived and traditional knowledge as essential in research, evaluation and learning.

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Events

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