As graduates of St. Francis Xavier University’s class of 1963, John and Adrienne Peacock have always been generous financially and in their service to their alma mater with John recently completing his service as Chancellor of the university. That generosity extends to Coady Institute which they have supported since 2003.
John is a former member of the Coady Advisory Committee and the couple have donated generously both personally and through the Peacock Family Foundation. That support includes the Institute’s International Centre for Women Leadership and more recently the Circle of Abundance – Amplifying Indigenous Women’s Leadership.
“We started at StFX in 1960 in the early days of Coady and I was intrigued by what Coady meant and the Antigonish Movement,” John says. “It was part of the curriculum, and it struck a chord. Even today we are motivated to be giving because we want to help people help themselves and, to me, that is what Coady stands for.”
He says he has not only collaborated with various executive directors but also gotten to know Coady participants, and various Peacock family members have had the opportunity to witness participants at work in India, Nepal, and various countries in Africa. His admiration for the work continues to grow.
“I feel even more so today, when I see what’s going on in the world, having people in these countries, and in our own country, doing things that are community based and using human capital to help does make a difference.”
John Peacock greets Brenda Gatera during an open house event at Coady Institute.
“We want to be cutting edge, on top of being present, and being part of the bigger themes in philanthropy. Coady offers the opportunity for us to do that.”
Adrienne Peacock took part in a Coady learning trip to Nepal and India in 2009.
Giselle Murphy, John and Adrienne’s daughter-in-law and the foundation’s executive director says meeting participants and seeing what they are learning and planning on taking back to their communities is inspiring.
“The knowledge sharing between different representatives from the different countries is pretty powerful,” Giselle says. “It’s like anything, you can hear about these initiatives and projects and on paper they are obviously very powerful, but when you see them in action and working like that, it’s that much more impressive and makes it that much easier to support Coady.”
John says the quality of Coady participants, and how individually accomplished they are, always impresses him noting that besides reinforcing education and knowledge of the individual, Coady is helping participants build their own leadership skills.
Giselle adds that besides John and Adrienne’s links to StFX, the pillars of the Peacock Family Foundation include supporting education and community which align with the Institute’s work not only internationally but also within Nova Scotia and Canada.
“Moving forward when we’re talking about women in leadership, that’s something that hasn’t been at the forefront for a lot of organizations and especially Indigenous women in leadership,” Giselle says.
“We want to be cutting edge, on top of being present, and being part of the bigger themes in philanthropy. Coady offers the opportunity for us to do that.”
John also mentions how the foundation established the John T. Sears Chair in Corporate Responsibility at StFX’s Gerald Schwartz School of Business to help create teaching and research opportunities for students to better understand corporate social responsibility.
“When we were establishing the terms of reference for that chair, one of the things I insisted be in there was some effort by whoever held that chair to cooperate with the Coady,” John says. “I’ve just felt there was a natural tie in there. The corporate justice, social justice, it all kind of ties into what Coady does.”
Giselle and John say Coady continues to find ways to give voices to various people locally, in Nova Scotia, Canada, and globally.
“There are many different programs that can bring these different issues to light whether it is Indigenous and Black voices in Nova Scotia or different social justice and economic issues in Canada or in the developing world,” Giselle says.
“If you’re a philanthropist and you want to give money, Coady is where there’s something for everybody in terms of what you could support and there’s a great need, obviously.”