SOUTH KINGSTON - The University of Rhode Island's Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies will offer its annual Summer Institute from July 6 through July 18. The institute prepares participants in the art of nonviolent conflict reconciliation. The deadline for registration is May 23.

The nonviolence center invites clergy, social activists, counselors, teachers, nonviolence practitioners, students and people who struggle to make sense of the violence within and around them to attend this series of seminars, programs and workshops.

Bernard Lafayette Jr., distinguished scholar in residence and director of URI's nonviolence center, will facilitate the institute. A friend and confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., Lafayette is a civil rights activist, minister, educator, lecturer and an authority on the strategy on nonviolent social change.

He will be joined by certified senior trainers Charles Alphin, retired captain of the St. Louis Police Department, and Richard Tarlaian, retired captain from the Providence Police Department.

There are two levels of the institute. Level I costs $600 and runs from July 6 through July 18. Level II is offered from July 13 through July 18 and costs $350. Space is limited.

For more information, visit uri.edu/nonviolence, or call 439-4912.