How do you improve a community? Inch by inch. That’s the idea behind – and the title of – a special evening of events taking place Monday, March 24, at Swift Community Center. “Inch by Inch: Building a Better Community Through Peace and Nonviolence,” will include a community dinner, a presentation by the URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, then an hour of live music with the well-known local folk music duo Atwater & Donnelly. 

Organizers describe Monday’s event as the first of several in East Greenwich meant to establish a team of leaders who will become formally trained in the nonviolence methods of Martin Luther King Jr. The hope is to include students, teachers, school administrators, parents and other community members, with intensive training to take place in the fall. 

Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. The presentation by URI will begin at 6:45 and Atwater & Donnelly will perform from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. It’s all free.

To get a taste of what the presentation will be like, check out Bob Houghtaling’s podcast with Lacey Feeley (http://rhoughtaling.libsyn.com/), with the URI Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies. In the podcast, Lacey details the center’s mission, programs and philosophy based on tenets established by Martin Luther King Jr.

The program is sponsored by the East Greenwich Academy Foundation, EGHS Youth to Youth and the Town Drug Program. For more info contact Bob Houghtaling, (401) 230-2246. For more information about the URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, visit their website: www.uri.edu/nonviolence.