Teachers and community leaders were the ones being taught Saturday during a PeaceJam training session. Held by the Graduate College of Social Work, the session promoted non-violence and human rights activism to educators.
"(It) provides youth (with) alternative role models, engages their civic responsibility and encourages them to give back to their communities," PeaceJam Affiliate Coordinator Jamie Parker said.
The training session focused on the PeaceJam curriculum of creating "a new generation of young leaders committed to positive change in themselves, their communities and the world," according to its Web site.
The main components of PeaceJam are education, inspiration through conferences with Nobel Laureates and action, according to its Web site. Since its inception in 1996, approximately 300,000 projects were created by over 500,000 young PeaceJam participants, according to its Web site.
"They are learning how to be non-violent and teach it to others," Roberta Leal, director of program development for Communities in Schools in Southeast Harris County, said.
"The program had an action component and work(s) with teenagers," Leal said. "It keeps teenagers talking about violence in their communities and counters that (negativity)."
A PeaceJam youth conference will be held from March 28-30 at UH and will feature Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams, who worked to try to end violence in Northern Ireland between Protestant and Catholic factions. For more information on local PeaceJam activities, contact Parker at [email protected].
For more information on PeaceJam, visit www.peacejam.org.
