Link to articles published by PEACE Foundation leaders and partners.
At the PEACE Foundation, we believe sustainable change in our city will only occur if the solutions are rooted in the place of greatest impact. When City Council Member Don Samuels put out a call to action from the broader community at the PEACE Foundation's inception, he invited people to stand together in the places of pain - at vigils held at the location where homicides occur. He believed that by being in this sacred space together - people of goodwill from the broader community and those who live with the problem daily - that new solutions will emerge and that the human capital needed to sustain solutions will be inspired.
And now, the PEACE Foundation has cultivated robust involvement from neighbors on the Northside who are standing up to create change, including our Northside Liaison neighbor-leaders and our Northside Youth StandUp! members. As decisions are made in public policy arenas, resources are raised in the philanthropic community, and messages are crafted in communications outlets, the vantage point is present of neighbors who live with violence on their block, parents who've lost their children to homicide, and youth who face the pressure from peers to pick up a gun. With a Northside-focused approach, not only will solutions be more aligned with the complexity of the problem, but ownership of the strategies will be held within the communities in transformation.
The PEACE Foundation has created many opportunities for people in systems that relate to violence prevention to root their work in the Northside. A monthly Northside Community Tour acquaints participants with the assets and challenges in the community. Northside Liaisons - neighbor leaders working part time with the PEACE Foundation - are available to contract with other entities to provide outreach services and relationship opportunity. And Northside Youth StandUp! members are available to lend a youth perspective to efforts working for change.
As PEACE Foundation leaders who have rooted their work in the Northside - including Co-Founder Don Samuels, current President Sondra Samuels, and Executive Director Michelle Martin - develop strategies and perspectives on change, they will be published for use by other organizations working for change.
