Engaging Youth: The Peace Camp Model
We do not have to look far to be reminded of the prevalence of violence in our society at every level. Reading the headlines, which range from homicides to interstate wars, it can seem overwhelming to know how to respond either in our own communities or globally.
It was over five years ago now that I was serving as a Jesuit Volunteer in Baltimore City. My placement was as a community organizer at St. Frances Academy Community Center, which sits in the Johnston Square community, one of the most economically impoverished neighborhoods of the city. St. Frances Academy is the oldest institution in the nation educating African Americans and its founder Mother Mary Lange and the Oblate Sisters of Providence were doing so at a time when it was still illegal in this country. The school has been operating in the city since 1828. Ten years ago, the sisters built the community center as a continuum of their service to the community and hired Ralph E. Moore Jr. as the Director.
Moore has been organizing in Baltimore since his youth on issues of housing, hunger, and joblessness. When I came along, he and I were brainstorming for new summer programming for the youth we served in the neighborhood and decided to run a Peace Camp. The Peace Camp model with which I was familiar had been started by a group of religious women and concerned educators in St. Louis after September 11, 2001. We took this model and expanded it into our own six-week model. The camp just completed its fifth summer; several kids attended for the second, third, fourth, or fifth time.
The camp has continued to grow both in curriculum and size. For the past few years, we have had a waiting list as large as the camp itself. We have always striven to create new educational opportunities for the kids, whether it’s a hike on the Appalachian Trail or meeting a real life “peace hero” like Van Jones, former Obama Administration Green Collar Jobs Advocate, at the White House.
Perhaps the most important piece built into the camp is a hands-on, action-oriented approach. If the kids are learning about Harriet Tubman, they navigate a virtual Underground Railroad set up by the staff in the Center and visit her Eastern Shore home as a Friday field trip. If learning about democracy, the kids vote for a site to visit for their next field trip—and the majority wins. Our kids have even gone down to the National Harbor in Baltimore to educate people about the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi. The very next day as they arrived at camp, a few of them came running up to me asking, “Is she free, is she free?” Though she was not freed yet, we were happy to announce to them the next summer that she was indeed no longer on house arrest and that they were a part of the great international effort to educate others about her struggle.
But the education stretches further than the inspirational lives of others. Children explore and talk about what they want to be known for in the future when they too will be celebrated as peace heroes. I have heard them speak of everything from eradicating gangs in their neighborhood to eradicating childhood hunger in their nation and the world. The past three summers, they have advocated for their neighborhood pool which has fallen victim to budget cuts from the City. The campers have protested at City Hall and appeared on television news and in the newspaper. Each year, they have made small victories for themselves and enjoyed the fruits of their hard work by swimming in the pool.
Why Peace?
Research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health, which runs the Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence, shows terrifying statistics. According to their website:
- Bullies identified by age 8 are six times more likely to have a criminal conviction by age 24.
- Primary prevention works for over 80% of all students in a given school.
- Direct and indirect costs of youth violence in the U.S. exceed $158 billion every year.
These are just small reminders as to why we hope this camp and similar programs continue across our cities and nation, so that our children who will one day be leaders will be equipped with the personal skills and broader knowledge to make positive changes in their lives and in the lives of others.
Learn more about The Nawal Rajeh Peace Camp at the St. Francis Academy website: http://www.sfacademy.org/