youthrive’s ProgramsTable of Contents
PeaceJam
youthrive is the Upper Midwest Affiliate for PeaceJam International. The PeaceJam headquarters is in Denver, Colorado. youthrive provides PeaceJam programming and events in the following states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota.
PeaceJam consists of a curriculum that can be used with any youth group in school and out of school. The curriculum introduces young people to 12 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. PeaceJam Juniors program is designed for youth ages 5-11, PeaceJam Leaders is for ages 11-14, PeaceJam Ambassadors is for ages 14-19 and PeaceJam Scholars is intended for the college age. High school students have the opportunity to participate in two yearly events; PeaceJam and PeaceJam Slam. A world summit is held every two years.
PeaceJam Slam is a one day leadership event that serves as an opportunity to prepare for PeaceJam event. Participants attend workshops and network with students from all over the five state area.
PeaceJam event is held in the spring and is two days long. At the event, youth participants have the opportunity to spend the weekend interacting with a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Students present to the Laureate the service-learning projects that they created and implemented in their communities. The Global Call to Action is the focus of the event.
Circle of Youth Engagement
Circle of Youth Engagement is a youthrive program that strives to support young people through leadership and service-learning opportunities as facilitators with adult partners.
youthrive: LIVE!
youthrive: LIVE! is the production division of youthrive that encompasses all audio and video elements of our programming. We pair young people with adult partners in the development of peace building through the respectful utilization of authentic music and art as a tool for youth engagement. This includes but is not limited to, recorded audio such as CDs and downloadable music, recorded video, live concerts, event planning, professional Event Hosting, Vocal Performers, Dancers, Spoken Word performance poets, and the creation of New Media content. In addition we deploy videographers & photographers to capture and share our message through the visual medium. We aim for exciting presentations while preserving the inherent educational value of art and music.
youthrive: LIVE! began in 2008 as the performance arm of youthrive’s PeaceJam curriculum. The first iteration was intended to be a Hip Hop performance aimed at attracting the attention of young people at Minneapolis North High School and introduce them to the tenets of PeaceJam. We held a school wide assembly and were able to include every student in the building by doing two different sets during lunch period. The first half was 9th & 10th grades and the second was 11th & 12th.
For the purpose of cultivating interest and participation in Community Service to prepare for the arrival of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s May 2008 visit, this first venture was highly effective and received praise from school administrators, students, teachers, and community members alike.
We realized we had only scratched the tip of an iceberg when School administrators called our offices to tell us that for some time following our appearance, there was a noticeable drop in student conflict and an intangible uplift in the spirits of the student body at large. We were told that even though staff couldn’t quite put their fingers on exactly why this was occurring, it was most certainly real.
Although there was some predictable resistance to the idea that a Hip Hop concert could somehow magically produce a sustainable long-term effect on an entire school, we could not deny that we caught a glimpse in to the true potential of what a program like this can achieve with persistent refinement and further development. We are grateful for the continued support we receive from our all of our hosts. Past, present, and future…
