Men as Peacemakers wins prestigious Bush prize

Twenty years ago, when Duluth found itself rocked by some high-profile domestic violence cases, the community came together to try to figure out how to curb the abuse. And out of those discussions, Men as Peacemakers was born.

"One of the things that was noticed in those meetings was that there was almost zero presence of men," said Ed Heisler, the organization's executive director. "And so at that time there was a push to bring men together to talk about the need for men to take responsibility for ending violence against women and girls."

The organization started out tiny, but has since grown to a staff of 15, with eight programs and an annual budget of around $500,000. On Tuesday, it was recognized with a Bush Foundation prize, which brings both prestige and monetary award.

The group's big picture goal, said Heisler, is to build a new culture, a new way of thinking, about how men talk about and treat women.

To do that, according to program director Sarah Curtiss, the group looks for ways to shape thinking and behavior in new ways.

"I think about my partner," explained Curtiss, who she described as your typical "guy's guy" — 6 feet, 7 inches tall, with "a horrible 'Duck Dynasty' beard."

One day he asked her to give him some of the statistics she frequently mentioned, about strip clubs, and how those environments can encourage violence towards women.

"And I had no idea he was going to a bachelor party with a bunch of guys that he worked at the factory with," she recalled. "He convinced those guys not to go to a strip club. They went to a sports bar, they drank beer, ate chicken wings, and still had a really great time, but not in a way that objectified or degraded or dehumanized anyone."

Men with Peacemakers tries to promote that message to men through programs on college campuses.

The group also works with boys, and girls, at elementary and middle schools, and increasingly through youth sports, which can be fertile ground for macho and sexist attitudes towards girls and women.

When that kind of language was dismissed as "locker room" talk during the presidential campaign it reinforced just how much work still needs to be done, Heisler said.

"It has been an opportunity for Men as Peacemakers to speak to the reality that calling something 'locker room talk'," he said. "Normalizing behaviors that say that women are less valuable than men, that they're like objects, that they're for men's use, that trying to normalize that, is not something that actually passes."

The Bush Foundation also awarded prizes to Emerge and Northside Achievement Zone, community development organizations that work in north Minneapolis and the Cedar Riverside area of Minneapolis.

Bush Prize winners receive unrestricted grants equal to 25 percent of a group's annual budget, up to $500,000. Emerge and Northside Achievement Zone each received that maximum amount; Men as Peacemakers was awarded about $125,000.

It comes at a good time for the nonprofit. Its landlord recently informed the group it needs to move in the next two months.

"We're putting a call out in the community," said Heisler, "for a very affordable space for Men as Peacemakers to exist, to continue to make our community a better place."