Besides achieving the stated outcomes of the City at Peace program, our youth have identified some intangible - and incredibly important - benefits that they have gained from their participation in City at Peace. These benefits include friendship, a sense of belonging, improved parent and peer relationships, personal empowerment, a greater sense of purpose and more.

We call these the "intangible benefits" of the program. And, while they are not always measurable and not always relevant to those outside the program, to our youth (and therefore to us), they are the spirit that drives the results. Here are some examples of how they describe the program's impact:

"We harnessed the essence of people's experience and were so bold as to show it to the world and scream: this is us! Any moment's thought would lead a reasonably sane person to the conclusion that this is a preposterous thing to think, much less do, and it still makes me reflect in awe at our audacity. City at Peace has helped me see past the image of a stereotype I might expect in a person and instead wonder in the unfolding tale that accompanies everyone's life experience."

"We must recognize that youth are not empowered by being fed a party line, by being told to obey, or by being coerced into supporting something they do not understand. Young people need space to ask questions, to make mistakes, and to grow. At the same time, young people deserve honest and realistic frameworks through which to view their lives which place their experiences as part of larger patterns and place their current situations in a historical context. City at Peace gives us that."

"For me City at Peace was a place I could go where I got to meet all kinds of new people who I wouldn't normally get to form real relationships with. It was a secure environment where I was able to be completely honest about who I was and what was going on in my life. I realized I wasn't alone and that I was important enough for people to care about me. Beyond that, I think my experience in City at Peace awakened in me a sense of responsibility to others. I wanted others to be able to have the same experience as I did, to know that people would care about them no matter what and that they were important and worthy of love."

"During high school I felt like I didn't belong anywhere, like I had all of these feelings that no-one else had. In City at Peace, I realized I wasn't the only one who had those feelings and experiences. It helped to hear how some people who I thought was perfect had also had hard times and crazy feelings. Because we were allowed to be honest about who we were and what we thought, and then grow from there, it's one of the only places where I have felt truly accepted and normal, mainly because there was no norm to conform to. We were allowed and encouraged to be ourselves and step outside the stereotypes society had placed upon us."

"Before City at Peace I thought I had no prejudices because I was naive. City at Peace gave me a safe, diverse, and creative way to share what I knew and to ask the questions I had been wanting to ask. City at Peace also gave me the chance to use my mind and test my self in ways nothing else can."

"City at Peace helped me get my life and my thoughts together. At a time in my life when I didn't want to stay in school and when things just didn't seem worth it and people just seemed like blood-sucking monsters, it was enough to hear that people cared and they wanted to talk and find a solution and make things better. And that made me care again. Which in turn made my relationship with my family better, as well as with my friends, teachers, coaches and other people in my community. The world wasn't out to get me anymore and I wasn't out to get them either. The drive of the people around me and the skills the program offers were invaluable.

"Young people need a sense of community and connection that isn't family. They need to have the opportunity to meet people from places that they would never go. I honestly would never have gone to the suburbs if I didn't meet the people I met in City at Peace. And it's not all PC and wonderful and surreal. There are arguments, conflicts, heartaches. But we communicate and build friendships through all that. So it's like family, only it's not. And that's so important to have at that point in your life."

"It changed my mind about so many things. It allowed me to give up on a high school career that wasn't going anywhere, and start a college one that is. It allowed my relationship with my parents to be an honest one. It allowed me to befriend people whom I would have been terrified of had I met them on the street. It allowed me to come out of my shell and simply be myself. And all of these things, it allowed, it didn't force. I made all my own decisions, knowing that I had 50 other cast members backing me up the whole time. It did little things for me too. Like allow me to realize that I actually can act and dance and sing. And it has given me friends that I will cherish for the rest of my life."

"City at Peace has made me more aware of the lives of the people around me - that they go through things too. It has helped me to understand that my own trials are real without being overwhelming - that there is a middle ground between denying and minimizing what hurts me and affects me and being overwhelmed and grief-stricken. City at Peace has helped me to speak honestly and openly, from my own voice. It has expanded the pool of types of people I can form friendships with. It has taught me responsibility in the REAL world - taking my actions and viewpoints on, and accepting the consequences of not following through on my promises. It has taught me to take myself and others seriously. It has helped me to become a person who can actually help my friends, family, and self when we/they are troubled. It has boosted my self-confidence to the point where I truly believe I can do anything and everything I put my mind, body and energy towards (even dance! Ha ha!)"