Youth

KC Civic Engagement

The Kansas City Program of the American Friends Service Committee invites school and youth programs working with high school-aged youth to participate in creative projects, which will use the arts to engage youth in issues of war, peace, economic justice and hope for the future.

Eddie Conway Freedom School summer 2012 participants

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Eddie Conway Freedom School participants engage in a discussion about how to build good credit. Life skills like this were taught during the summer session, in addition to history, communication skills, and community organizing.

Photo: Bryan Vana

Imagine living right next to a gas station and being forbidden to walk there for a snack. For many of Baltimore’s youth, like Octavia Chase, this is a reality. "My parents don't really allow me to go outside," Octavia shared. "The neighborhood doesn’t seem bad, but if I can’t go to a gas station that’s right there, there must be something wrong. That bothers me." But the high school student found an alternative environment in the Eddie Conway Freedom School, where she can actively give back to her community and attempt to change it for the better.

Joshua Saleem and LA youth

Joshua Saleem, AFSC Peace Education Program Director in St. Louis, center, visits with youth involved with AFSC's youth work in Los Angeles.

At-risk youth will take a critical look at their community's needs through a new program in St. Louis, which starts its work this fall. Joshua Saleem, director of the new program, says the future of the city lies with these youth: "AFSC's role is to empower them to do the hard work of making their immediate circle one of peace, and then extending that circle to their neighborhoods and schools so that there's a community of peace there as well." 

Students Learn Logan History

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Images available on Flickr

Photos: Lida Shepherd

Location

Logan, West Virginia

United States

Map & Directions: Google Maps

During their summer break, students from the ACE mentoring program in Logan County toured Southern Community and Technical College where they learned about all the different college options available right in their backyard.  After the tour, we took a trip over the mountain to Blair Community Center and Museum.  The students learned about the historic labor struggle known as the Battle of Blair Mountain, coal mining's effect on water quality, and what life was like in the coal camps of Logan County.  

ACE Students Visit GW and Washington D.C.

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Images available on Flickr

Appalachian Center for Equality program participants traveled to the Washington, D.C. area in April 2012 to visit the Sandy Spring Friends School as well as George Washington University, national memorial sites and the National Museum of American History. Photos: Bryan Vana

During their spring break, students from the BAPs (Believing All is Possible!) mentoring program at Logan High School took a trip to Sandy Spring Friends School in Sandy Spring, MD and Washington D.C.

At Sandy Spring Friends School (SSFS), Logan students shadowed SSFS students to their classes and attended a schoolwide Quaker meeting, where they were amazed that hundreds of high school students stayed in quiet reflections for over thirty minutes.  The kids visited the school gardens and got to go zip-lining too!

Ignition of the Peace Torch

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Lighting the Peace Torch during the Archipelago Cultural Festival.

Hundreds of people gathered recently in the Tegal Terban field of, Yogyakarta, Indonesia to watch the Archipelago Cultural Festival. It featured numerous cultural performances by students and groups from all over Indonesia, and culminated in a commemoration of the Youth Pledge Day celebrating unity and nationalism.

The youth group Archipelago Rainbow Circle, Terban village residents and Jorje TV Station collaborated to produce the festival.