 Peace to all - Summer is the time for swimming, family vacations, sunbathing, and barbeques. Even though we may all be busy with summer events there has been a stream of violent crimes occurring within the Twin Cities that has especially targeted youth. We must now, more than ever, keep peace in the forefront of our minds. We at youthrive, with our sites, partners, funders, and friends, work everyday for peace within our families, our communities, our world, and ourselves. We must now celebrate our youth and what they are doing for peace in today’s world. We are pleased to have new members joining both the youthrive team and youthrive's Board of Directors. Polly Roach and Will Gaines have been elected and are now the new members of the Board of Directors and Karl Amiad-Ali is now a new member of the youthrive team. We are all thrilled to have all of them join the youthrive family and are thankful for their time and efforts to help our organization. It is also important to us that we acknowledge what new and exciting things our team is currently doing this summer. Many of our high school and college interns are hard at work leading various activities throughout the cities. Rachel Stanke is busy advising and teaching PeaceJam Ambassadors to students at Skills for Tomorrow. She is also working hard helping out with PiP (Peers in Partnership) this summer. One of our college interns, Abdiqaalaq Ahmed has just been accepted as our Americorp Promise Fellow Vista and has been helping out in the youthrive office weekly. Traci Coward and Frannie Boehnlein are working with elementary students at Cityview Performing Arts Magnet School, a Minneapolis Public School, teaching the students the PeaceJam Juniors curriculum. These are some of the things our talented youth are doing. Please keep supporting them in their efforts to work towards peace. There are also many new events coming up within the next year that we want to make public. We are pleased to announce PeaceJam in Los Angeles, California on September 11-13th, 2008 at Loyola Marymount University. Six Nobel Peace Prize Winners will host a Global Call to Action at this specific conference. Over 3,000 youth from all over the nation and 37 countries around the world will be present and will be able to interact in workshops and sessions with the laureates. Some of the laureates include Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, and Shirin Edadii among others. Don’t miss this opportunity and register online now at www.peacejam.org/gcaconference There are many other events that we are looking forward to, which include, PeaceJam Slam on October 26, 2008 at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul from 9:30-3:30pm. We are looking to recruit and train more schools and sites for that event. We are also excited for PeaceJam 2009 with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel who is currently the President of Costa Rica. He won the award in 1987 for his efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the years of conflict and war in Central America. Mark your calendars for all these events and help spread peace in your community and the world. As the 2008 year continues, we want to thank you for your support and warm wishes for the success of the important work of our emerging young leaders. We look forward to working with you in order to create peaceful and just communities where young people are recognized, valued, and are leaders of positive change. Fundraising efforts for PeaceJam in September 2008 in Los Angeles will be starting soon and we can use all the help we can get. Thank you and have a wonderful and peaceful summer. Please visit www.youthrive.net or call the youthrive office at (651)224-3066 for updates and opportunities for involvement. Be Peace, Donna C. Gillen and The youthrive Team youthrive |
