We Keep Us Safe: Meet Roz Lee, US Head of Mission for the Nonviolent Peaceforce

Sep 8, 2026 · 59 min · 12 segments

What does it look like when communities become active participants in their own safety rather than waiting for someone else to protect them? In this episode, we speak with Roz Lee, Head of the U.S…

What does it look like when communities become active participants in their own safety rather than waiting for someone else to protect them? In this episode, we speak with Roz Lee, Head of the U.S. Mission for Nonviolent Peaceforce, about the growth of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) in the United States. Although Nonviolent Peaceforce has long worked in places experiencing war and violent conflict, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis—the city where the organization was founded—made it increasingly difficult to think of violent conflict as something happening only elsewhere. Since then, its U.S. work has grown to include partnerships with communities responding to hate violence and, more recently, harsh immigration enforcement and ICE activity. In Minneapolis, for example, NP has worked alongside interfaith leaders, grassroots organizers and neighbors to help keep people safe. Lee emphasizes a difficult truth: there are social conditions that make it easier to recognize violence elsewhere in the world than to see the violence taking place within our own communities. Part of changing those conditions means talking to one another—and being willing to believe one another about the violence we experience. *With gratitude to Elizabeth High for her transcript support.*

What does it look like when communities become active participants in their own safety rather than waiting for someone else to protect them? In this episode, we speak with Roz Lee, Head of the U.S…