City at Peace is developing the next generation of engaged community leaders by providing diverse groups of teenagers with training and hands-on experience in leading community action.

Each year, besides creating an original work of musical theater, City at Peace teens select community issues on which they want to make a positive impact. Each group builds a 'road map' of their vision for change, focused on issues they choose in their communities. They then design, execute and evaluate projects aimed at creating positive change on these issues. The projects can continue from one program year to the next, with the opportunity for entering program participants to follow-on with the work.

The City at Peace blend of the performing arts and community action is a unique combination of creative activity. Each area of activity fosters growth in the other. The creativity learned in rehearsals leads to creative community action projects; lessons learned while working on community action projects leads to a greater understanding of the conflicts and resolutions developed for the performance. This interactive mix produces dynamic results, both on stage and off.

National Action
City at Peace-National has established a National Youth Advisory Council, whose members come from U.S. City at Peace programs. The purpose of the Council is to develop selection criteria for community action projects and disseminate those criteria to ensure that each project is sound. The Council also organizes the Youth Forum, which are activities designed to amplify the voice and impact of youth perspectives on national issues. Beyond this Forum, the Council nurtures local projects into broader initiatives, with national scope and participation.

National Youth Council representatives in collaboration with selected cast members at their sites will be identifying common parent-teen conflicts and finding families willing to be interviewed about those conflicts from both (or multiple) perspectives. Their plan is to tape their interviews and collect numerous interviews from multiple cultures. They will interview families who have resolved the issue and those who have not.

The concept is to produce a final audio CD that will be distributed and may provide the basis of future parent-teen communication seminars for our youth and other youth servicing groups. Following the Parent-Teen audio, the group would like to explore gender conflict and communication styles using this same format, should it prove to be successful.

Community Action
City at Peace is developing the next generation of engaged community leaders by providing diverse groups of teenagers with training and hands-on experience in leading community action.

Each year, besides creating an original work of musical theater, City at Peace teens select community issues on which they want to make a positive impact. Each group builds a 'road map' of their vision for change, focused on issues they choose in their communities. They then design, execute and evaluate projects aimed at creating positive change on these issues. The projects can continue from one program year to the next, with the opportunity for entering program participants to follow-on with the work.

Participants also develop and oversee an annual calendar of monthly community events, in which the youth participate. These “days of action” are designed to introduce youth to community engagement, create awareness around issues of concern, and stimulate discussion among participants about their communities.

The City at Peace blend of the performing arts and community action is a unique combination of creative activity. Each area of activity fosters growth in the other. The creativity learned in rehearsals leads to creative community action projects; lessons learned while working on community action projects leads to a greater understanding of the conflicts and resolutions developed for the performance. This interactive mix produces dynamic results, both on stage and off.

New York
City at Peace Sex and Drugs Education (CAPSADE) - CAPSADE works to educate their peers to help reduce the number of teenagers who contract STD’s and to reduce or eliminate their use of drugs. They perform a short play for other New York City youth highlighting issues around youth, sex and drugs and facilitate adjoining question & answer sessions. CAPSADE collaborates with The Children’s Aid Society and performs in many venues around the city including high schools and health fairs.

The Window of Opportunity (TWO) – TWO focuses on empowering disempowered youth to make formal decisions about the direction they wish to follow in their lives, motivating them through providing extensive information on choices post high school such as scholarships, trade schools, internships and other relevant information. They will disseminate this information through booklets at schools and through their website, creating interactive support system for all teenagers, but focusing primarily on schools with the lowest graduation rate.

Eye to Eye – Eye to Eye are producing a documentary, developed to create lasting and powerful positive change in the lives and communities of the young people with whom CP-NY works and parents and teens in New York City. The documentary will involve interviews with both parents and their teens, and will attempt to create an indirect dialogue between them by addressing the stumbling blocks and impasses that often lead to rifts in communication by examining the parent and teenagers’ individual perspectives. An in-depth and widespread distribution plan will be developed to screen the completed documentary at schools, community centers, festivals, family oriented institutions such as the JCC and PFLAG, followed by peer (parent and teen) educational workshops and question and answer sessions. The documentary will also be submitted to film festivals (both nationally and internationally). This documentary is being produced with the support of an equipment grant from Manhattan Neighborhood Network.

For Youth Information (FYI) – This is a project that is championing youth-led media that supports growth and inspires social change. They will publish a ‘zine’ that will be produced online and will be subsequently printed and distributed to schools in New York City several times a year. This website/online zine, and these publications, will be built with youth writings on myriad subjects, giving a wide range of teenagers a voice and will include them in discussions from which youth are usually omitted and ignored. This team is collaborating with Children’s Pressline to learn the skills and gain the tools necessary to fulfill their mission.

• Creating GLSEN’s Safe Spaces (LGBTQ) and launching Gay/Straight Alliances in their school
• Organizing Mix It Up Days at school to increase diversity and discourage stereotyping
• Taking part in the National Day of Silence to raise awareness about violence against LGBTQ
• Collecting and delivering coats to youth shelters
• Organizing a vigil in Union Square for Lawrence King, a 15 year old murdered for being openly gay
• Taking part in a week long youth build for Habitat for Humanity
• Attending V-Day, Take Back the Night and Clothesline events – all to highlight issues of violence against women
• Engaging in youth voter registration and educating youth on the need to vote
• Taking part and organizing groups of attendees for the annual Aids Walk and the annual Suicide Awareness Walk

Charlotte
City at Peace-Charlotte for International Awareness - This team is advocating for youth focused programs at Charlotte's "International House" which currently has programs that exclude students under 18. They are hosting their own International Dinner and other events to bring together young people from other countries and communities with the hope of learning more about other cultures.

Body Image and the Media - This team is studying the role of the media and how it affects young men and women and the epidemic increase of anorexia and bulimia. Following this study they intend to become a youth voice to the entertainment industry to make its leaders aware of negative influences of the images of youth that they present.

Media Advocacy - Participants will work with local media outlets to learn about editorial decisions and effect an increase in positive and broader media coverage about youth.

Los Angeles
Teaching Children Peace - Participants have established a summer camp for underserved children to provide positive activities and teach conflict resolution.

Youth without Roofs - This team is raising awareness about homeless children and teens. They are aware that the relatively affluent LA suburb of Santa Monica now has an increasing street population at a time when contributions to food banks and food kitchen there have fallen off. They intend to reach out to runaways and other youth through training as street counselors to gain direct experience with the problem, and to become advocates for their peers who live on the streets.

"Trapped in the Sheets" - This team formed because several young women participants had found themselves in physically and sexually abusive situations, boyfriends and family members. They are engaging in a bi-lingual outreach to make their peers and young women realize their rights and find services such as escape houses and counseling. This group is partnering with hotlines and several service delivery non-profits such as Break the Cycle.

Baton Rouge
"No Place to Go" - This group hopes to help overcome what they see as an "us and them" dynamic surfacing between Baton Rouge natives and the refugees of Katrina. "Our City has compassion fatigue" they have said. “We need to find creative ways to expand the base of support and make government policy makers realize we are under strain that could lead to violence here. Our job is to keep awareness high in the rest of the country. We need to continue to inspire the media to help and show them how youth suffer in so many ways.”

"Education for All" - After studying the problem of adult illiteracy in Louisiana, the group realized that the current statistics on reading competence among fourth graders gave rise to concerns that there may be many future adults that cannot read at a functional level. The presence of many additional students in the schools due to the relocation of Katrina victims to Baton Rouge has stressed a challenged educational system and there are not enough books in the libraries for children and teens who want to read. This committee has initiated a nationwide campaign to collect books, especially children's books and funds for library purchases. Please send contributions marked " Book Project" to City at Peace, P.O. Box 82131, Baton Rouge, LA 70806.

Youth Speaking Out - Participants have begun weekly sessions at a local coffee house to provide a forum for youth to voice their perspectives and opinions on a variety of issues.

If you would like to support these community action teams, or get involved in helping City at Peace create change, we are looking for positive, motivated volunteers and resource support. If you are interested in learning more, please contact City at Peace-National at info@cpnational.org or 212-924-2300.