Executive Director Update
|
Community members from the San Diego and Chicago regions gathered to rally around young leaders of change at "Seasons of HOPE" Hands of Peace Benefits on March 10 and April 7 respectively. The Benefits are key to supporting sponsorships of Summer Program participants as well as ongoing alumni workshops and raised a total of $217,000. At $3,500 per participant, the events will support 62 participants this summer.
|
|
Hands of Peace News and Updates
|
|
Last month, San Diego youth, including Hands of Peace alumni, participated in Raising Youth Voices - a facilitation training to equip teens with the skills to organize and lead peer to peer dialogues in their communities. Nicky Riordan, the Program Coordinator, organized two trainings in City Heights, where teens came together to explore facilitation as a skill to break down barriers and share perspectives. The trainings were led by Michael Fryer, a teacher at the USD Kroc School of Peace Studies. Over two Saturdays, the youth worked through core components of facilitation, including how to set a safe space that encourages participation, how to ask informed and engaging questions, and how to navigate challenges in the dialogue space. The youth then paired up and made concrete action plans to organize and implement a dialogue on a topic of their choice in their schools. The level of engagement and enthusiasm that was expressed among the teens while giving their Saturday to this training was inspiring. We can't wait to see what these leaders create with the tools they cultivated at Raising Youth Voices!
Raising Youth Voices is made possible by a grant from The Peacemakers Fund at The San Diego Foundation.
|
|
Hands of Peace relies on the support of our grantors to enable us to continue funding significant portions of our program. This year, we are excited to receive our first grant from the City of Carlsbad Cultural Arts Office.
Each summer, San Diego Summer Program participants take part in a mural project to express their ideas about identity, dialogue and peace. The murals are designed and painted by teams of American, Israeli and Palestinian youth working together with local artists at New Village Arts in Carlsbad. This year, the mural project "Dialogue through Art" is funded in part by the City of Carlsbad’s Cultural Arts Office. The murals will be on display at the Hands of Peace Farewell Celebration at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad on Sunday, July 28.
|
|
Multi-Narrative Adult Trips
In November
, more than 30 curious travelers returned from their journey of a lifetime. Our fourth multi-narrative trip was possibly our most impactful yet as we spent more time with Hands of Peace alumni and their families throughout Israel/Palestine. Customized for our supporters, the Hands of Peace Multi-Narrative Tours offer a combination of rich historical, cultural and spiritual experiences, along with encounters that help us to better understand the current political reality. Trips
are scheduled for September 9-19, 2019, and March 2-12, 2020
. If you are interested in joining us for one of these trips, now's your chance to be added to our "YES, I'm interested!" list!
|
|
Through the Hands of Peace collective impact project with EcoPeace Middle East, a group of 17 older Hands of Peace alumni recently finished a series of workshops on environmental diplomacy. The final of three sessions took place in Jerusalem in early April. Israeli and Palestinian alumni presented the framework for three projects focused on water resources and conservation. The audience for the presentations included representatives from the U.S. Public Diplomacy team, who remarked how impressed they were with the poise and leadership skills of our alumni.
|
|
Summer Program Contributions
Help support the Summer Program this July!
Young people in dialogue, team-building and leadership activities work up quite an appetite! You can help support these future leaders by donating snacks, gift cards or beverages during the Summer Program. Help us keep costs down for the program and provide these teens with much needed sustenance! To learn more, please contact
Darling
Kittoe
in Chicago or
Sarah Heirendt
in San Diego.
|
|
American Alumni Updates
As part of our ongoing alumni programming, American alumni In Chicago and San Diego from the past two summers gathered together in Mid-March for workshops, community services and connection.
In San Diego, the seminar provided valuable time to, in their words "block out time for me and my future." Activities included a campaign to write heartfelt letters to refugee children through the organization Letters of Love. Saturday, they dove right in with a workshop led by
Marcy Honnold Morrison and Eric J Mowre
y
of the
Passion Purpose Academy
, centered on finding their passion to inform their purpose on their journey to make the world a better place.
In Chicago, alumni joined together for dinner in the city, laughter, and the opening night of
Silk Road Rising
's
Detour Guide performance. Writer and performer Karim Nagy took our alumni on an entertaining alternative tour of the Arab world using an Egyptian tabla drum as the passport to his tourists' detour. Through the power of music, storytelling, and dialogue, this one-man musical was a guide through a social and political labyrinth, extolling the virtues of revolution, immigration, and untapped Arab culture. Alumni left feeling inspired and motivated to continue sharing their stories through various art forms. A Hands of Peace alumna stated that Nagy's drum really provided the heartbeat to his story.
The depth and critical thinking the alumni exhibit in asking questions about their roles as leaders and the challenges they face is not only inspiring, but exhibits their courage, confidence and desire to affect positive change in their schools and communities. We can't wait to watch them change the world!
|
|
Summer Program Dates: July 10, 2019 - July 29 2019
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
