Peace Cell volunteers come from all backgrounds.  There are no necessary qualifications, though some experience in conflict resolution or peace studies is helpful.  The responsibilities of the Peace Cell volunteer are both administrative and academic.  Volunteers are responsible for keeping notes (and recordings, when equipment is available) of all Peace Cell meetings and keeping typed transcripts on the PCO computer.  These transcripts are critical for measuring the progress of Peace Cells and for supporting research.  Volunteers are also encouraged to help construct, or contribute to, discussion topics for meetings, and to help ensure that Peace Cell leaders are adequately trained to moderate the discussions.  Perhaps most importantly, the Peace Cell volunteers are a critical eye for PCO into the success of the project as a whole, and are encouraged to voice any concerns about discussion topics that appear inappropriate or ineffective, and to offer suggestions for improving the project in any way.

Research Group

The Research Group, which is a new program, operates under the Peace Cell program, gathering information both from meetings and from outside activities.  The mandate of the Research Group is to analyze information in order to measure the success of the Peace Cell program as a whole and ensure that discussion topics are effective and appropriate, to assist PCO by recommending future projects based on the needs of the community, to offer data supporting PCO’s role as an advocate of Liberian refugees, and (when expertise and time permit) to provide academic papers and assistance proposals that may be sent to outside organizations, or published on the website.
Specifically, the international volunteer will:

1. Pre-define areas of analysis and construct questions that will inform the project’s mandate (e.g., the occurrence of indicators of non-violent conflict resolution across phases of the refugee cycle).
2. Monitor Peace Cell discussions and record and organize flagged (pre-defined) social and psychological indicators both qualitatively and quantitatively.  Those volunteers who are qualified may use previously garnered information to construct advanced analyses.
3. Produce occasional reports for PCO’s records or to be published on the website or sent to donors.