PeaceJam DC

Vital Stats

Sarah T

Washington, DC

  • people helped120
  • People Doing It 20

The Problem

Washington, DC is extremely segregated. Its nickname is "Chocolate City" for the 60% African American population that lives there, a largely unknown demographic. The vast majority of tourists and politicians who make their way to DC will never set foot East of the Anacostia river, where the majority of this African American population is found. Here, we find poverty, violence, and restricted opportunity. While there are over 30 grocery stores West of the Anacostia river, there are only 3 to the East to serve almost half of DC's population. Liquor stores, fast food restaurants, and hair salons line the streets, accompanied by garbage and unemployed individuals - stark in contrast to the gleaming white buildings and crisp lawns to the West. This other side of DC's is a well-kept secret, isolated from the rest of the city. The metro rail system makes travel within the East and West easy but travel between them complex, time consuming, and expensive. And so the two worlds rarely touch, and the Eastern face of DC is left to suffer. Growing up in these "ghetto" conditions is discouraging for school-aged children. Many of their parents dropped out of high school, are unemployed, or subject them to abuse or neglect. Homework is rendered more difficult when parents do not know how to read or do algebra and cannot help their children. Poor nutrition limits energy and concentration levels; healthy food is expensive. Similar conditions to these could be found in almost any poor inner-city environment. In DC, however, there is the sick irony that this neglect is taking place in the nation's capitol. The great forum where America's decisions are made, Capitol Hill, is visible from the windows of the schools in which we work. When a child can stand in the midst of trash and poverty and see the seat of the nation's power, it makes sense that they would feel disconnected and lose faith in the formal systems of change. The result is depression, frustration, and resentment, which manifest themselves in rebellion, gang violence, and social self-removal. The DC public school system too often labels these children as delinquent, mentally retarded, or just hopeless. They are placed in special classes and institutions, but are never given the chance to shine and rise to their full potential because they are systematically labeled as problems when they are simply victims of structural inequalities and poverty. And so the cycle continues, with children leaving school feeling discontent and hopeless to make a difference or to find happiness in the world they live in.

Plan of Action

PeaceJam is an international service-learning organization founded by a couple from Colorado and a team of several Nobel Peace Laureates. It has spread now to eleven countries and includes 12 Laureates who travel to PeaceJam conferences to share their stories with the youth. It exists in every region of the United States except for the Mid-Atlantic. Our efforts to introduce PeaceJam in Washington, DC are the beginnings of an effort to start a PeaceJam chapter to serve the Mid-Atlantic region. This is a very long-term goal; our short and mid-term goals are to grow the program at KIPP high school in Anacostia, a neighborhood just east of the Anacostia River in DC. The PeaceJam curriculum has three pillars: education, inspiration, and action. Education comes through facilitated discussions on current events and issues, the Nobel Laureates inspire the youth with their stories and their presence, and the youth take action through the service projects that they design themselves. PeaceJam in Washington, DC, began just last year on Georgetown's campus. I spent the summer of 2009 working to form a partnership between KIPP High School in Anacostia and Georgetown University. Throughout this past year, PeaceJam has grown in membership on campus, and we have worked to establish ourselves as a student organization. We now have official club status, and have been traveling to KIPP for the past semester. Our partnership with KIPP is very strategic. KIPP stands for Knowledge Is Power Program, and it is a system of charter schools that runs all over the country in low-performing areas. KIPP is designed to engage kids in school, prepare them for college, and keep them out of trouble. It does this through extended school days - from 7:00 AM until 5:00 PM - with mandatory extra-curricular activities integrated into the day, and innovative teaching methods that keep kids interested. When I first learned about KIPP, I thought that PeaceJam would be a perfect fit. KIPPers (KIPP students) are required to complete a community service quota every year, and PeaceJam's participatory model meshes very well with KIPP's model of engagement and empowerment. I approached the KIPP staff with a proposal to have PeaceJam fulfill KIPP's community service requirement, and they accepted enthusiastically. We worked out a program with weekly visits from Georgetown students where they would conduct "class:" discussions, activities, debates, etc centered around current issues and their solutions. One Saturday every month, we would take the KIPPers on day-long service trips that tie into what we discussed in class. While we have had small begnnings, our vision is that PeaceJam will be required for all KIPPers at the Anacostia high school. Each year from freshman to senior year will be a different theme. All freshmen will learn about the environment, sophomores HIV/AIDS, juniors poverty and hunger, etc. As the program develops, we plan on creating leadership positions for the KIPP students as well, handing over responsibilities such as planning the Saturday service events to the KIPPers in order to give them more control over the program and teach them leadership and responsibility. We have started with a small team of about ten PeaceJam mentors at Georgetown and a pilot class of 6 students at KIPP. We tested out our program model and curricular design on this class, and got very promising results. This past year, our focus was on the environment. Our service sites were park clean-ups and invasive plant removal, giving the kids a chance to get outside and get their hands dirty. The KIPPers reflected at the end of each service event, and their words were powerful and moving. This coming year, we look forward to expanding into the sophomore class. While we do not have the capacity to support the entire freshman and sophomore classes, we will have more Georgetown mentors and more classes of KIPPers. The process has been slow and at times difficult, but KIPP has been a wonderful partner and the Georgetown students on board have been fantastic: enthusiastic, creative, and flexible, working hard to make this program what it is now. While we have only completed one year with one class and one project, we look forward to spreading PeaceJam's message of service and empowerment to the rest of the KIPP high school in the coming years.
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