PEACE PROJECTS
Education for peacebuilding, not just education about peace.
One of the most unique aspects of NewGen Peacebuilders is that the program emphasizes education for peacebuilding, not just education about peace. In each training, participants are supported to move from analyzing conflicts to visualizing peace projects and then to actual project implementation. This occurs through the use of a NewGen Peacebuilders planning process, guidance from trained mentors, and monitoring of peace projects. Team action peace projects cover a wide range of themes, for example: Bullying, Domestic Violence, Education Inequity, Ethnic Conflict, Gender Violence, Gun Violence, Healthcare Inequity, Homelessness, Human Trafficking, Hunger, Insecurity/Instability, Police/Community Relations, Political Polarization, Pollution/Environment, Refugee/Immigrant Relations, Substance Abuse.
Since 2014, 100’s of youth-led peace projects have been designed and implemented by certified NewGen Peacebuilders.
Here are three examples…
#RiceForLife
When a team of NewGen Peacebuilders from East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, NC, decided to focus on hunger, their journey led them to create an innovative peace project that they titled #RiceforLife – a drive to collect food donations in ways that build bridges between students, the community and diverse, global cultures.
Their goal was to help create peace by completely changing the intentions, structure and process of their school’s annual hunger drive to be more culturally sensitive and inclusive.
Foster the Future
More than 30 students and adult mentors in the first NewGen Peacebuilders cohort in Santa Rosa, CA, asked: “Would it be possible to work on one peacebuilding opportunity as one big team?”
The team concluded that they were all interested in creating a peace project related to young people being safe and cared for. From the perspective of these NewGen Peacebuilders the feeling of having a stable home life is a human right. They imagined a project to serve children living in foster care. They titled it “Foster the Future.”
#TomaTuVida
In Argentina, traffic accidents related to alcohol are a leading cause of death for young people. A NewGen Peacebuilders project team in the city of Tandil, Buenos Aires Province, created a campaign specifically for high school students. They named the project #TomaTuVida, creating a play on words in Spanish. Their campaign suggested that too much drinking can “take your life” (end it). Simultaneously, it conveyed that responsible drinking, as well as avoiding drinking and driving, is a way to “take hold of your life” (be responsible for it).