City at Peace-Los Angeles 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-Los Angeles 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.

Current City at Peace-Los Angeles Community Outreach Projects include:

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

Youths 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. 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.

Teens with Tots – This team reaches out to teens in Los Angeles to guide them toward making safe sexual decisions. By training as peer providers with organizations such as the California Family Health Council, Inc., and partnering with non-profits such as St. Anne’s Home for Girls, they intend to facilitate educational workshops and clubs to Los Angeles teens to reduce the rate of teen pregnancies throughout the city.