Working Toward a Culture of Peace

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

CONNECT seeks to create safe families and peaceful communities by transforming the beliefs, behaviors, and institutions that perpetuate violence. Peace-building is a cornerstone of CONNECT’s foundation and work. It is therefore fitting to begin the year by partnering with LIFE Camp, Inc. for New York City Peace Week 2019. In fact, we have participated in Peace Week every year since its inception nine years ago.

Peace Week is a weeklong series of events from January 15th – January 22nd in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of nonviolence. The goal of Peace Week is to create a culture of peace throughout New York City for seven days through events, activities and personal action. CONNECT celebrates and dedicates all of its events and activities during the entire month of January to PeaceWeek.

To us at CONNECT, a peaceful world is one where individuals, families and communities live in safety and free from violence; a society guided by the values of mutuality and respect, accountability, and compassion. To build cultures of peace, it is critical to challenge injustice and cruelty in all spheres of life. Those of us who work every day to end violence and build peace know and the research agrees that it is just as important to pay attention to what happens in the so called “private sphere” of parent- child, gender and sexual relations as it is to the “public sphere” of politics and business.

Through CONNECT’s transformative education and programs, we offer people the opportunity to engage in critical conversation about the conditions that create violence, and strategize together about what we need to do to build lasting peace in our lives and communities. Our circles, roundtables, workshops and seminars are safe spaces where people can name and challenge the dynamics of power and control and explore the way these dynamics create and sustain violence in our particular racial, ethnic and sociocultural locations. Creativity is realized. New ways to resist and transform violence emerge and healing begins to happen. And healing is necessary for building peace together.

Though our goal for a culture of peace has not yet been realized, we believe that peace is possible and remain hopeful that we are closer to it with each passing day. We are proud to partner with so many people and organizations: community leaders, service providers, healthcare professionals, faith leaders, educators, elders and youth who work hard every day to prevent intimate, interpersonal, and community violence in their lives and in their communities. We invite you to join us in this work.

What does a culture or world of peace look like to you?

You can learn more about Peace Week and sign the Pledge for Peace at http://www.peaceweeknyc.com.