The Forage Center for Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Education’s recent Coastal Promise Field Simulation was held Thursday, September 20 through Sunday, September 23, 2018 at its new training site in Swanton, Maryland. This was the Forage Center’s first exercise held in Maryland.
The Forage Center hosted professionals and students from Burundi, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Pakistan as well as from the United Nations, Penn State, Brandeis University, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and Garrett County, Maryland. Nearly 50 attendees, Forage Center staff, and role players participated. About 25 students from Allegany College of Maryland participated as role players.
The Forage Center offers both 4-day and shorter field simulations and programs providing professionals and students an opportunity to build their skills and awareness for working in complex emergencies. A major focus of Forage Center programs has been engaging with internally displaced persons who are in need as a result of a hurricane in a fictitious country that is dealing with a internal political conflict. While in the simulation, attendees participate in team building, negotiation, strategic and operational planning, and assessment activities.
The Forage Center is grateful to St. John’s Lutheran Church and Inge and Suresh Choudhary for offering their property for the Western Maryland exercise.
The Forage Center has recently held programs at La Roche College near Pittsburgh and at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.
The next Forage Center Coastal Promise Exercise will be held in March 2019. More details will be provided on the Forage Center website in the coming days.
For more information about Forage Center activities, email info@foragecenter.org.
David J. Smith Consulting, LLC 