Engaging Youth To Resolve Conflict and Envision Peace

When I reflect on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, my mind draws back to a memory of me sitting in my kitchen on the evening of 9/11 trying to finish my algebra homework.

I remember trying frantically to solve equations, as if this would resolve the world, but I couldn’t get my mind to perform the simplest calculations. Adding and subtracting became impossible math—the numbers would jumble in my mind and the equations would inevitably fall apart. Finally, after I erased a giant hole in my paper, my father asked me to stop. “Of course you can’t do it right now” he told me  “look what has happened,” he said pointing to the horrific images drifting over the television screen…”you need to stop. Your teachers will understand.” After some resistance, I put my pencil down and took a deep breath, finally letting go of my math homework and opening to the incredible suffering our county was experiencing.

Then my dad started cry. It was painful seeing my grown father cry. He was sobbing, with his shoulders hunched over, shaking violently in front of the glowing images of burning towers. I tried to tell him it was ok, not because it felt ok to me, but because I wanted him to stop crying. It disturbed me to see this man who was my protector break under the weight of this terrible hardship and grief. I remember feeling deeply helpless.

My sense of helplessness grew in the days following the attack, as it became more and more clear that these acts of violence would lead to more violence, death, and destruction. Our country was going to war again and I felt powerless as a young adult to voice my feelings or share my hope that we could find healing, solidarity, and peaceful solutions even in the face of this unthinkable cruelty. At the time, I badly needed an outlet to seek understanding, express my frustrations, and to channel my hopes that goodness and love could arise in the aftermath of tragedy; I needed avenues for expression and service.

It was this same desire to give youth meaningful, supportive avenues to relate to violence and tragedy that inspired .

The projects honors 9/11 by supporting youth today in responding to violence they experience through dialogue, service, artistic expression, and creative visioning. Youth are exquisitely sensitive to violence and are often deeply affected by bullying, exclusion, harassment and self-hatred. They need opportunities to understand, and reflect on their experiences of conflict openly and creatively. Yet, unfortunately, it is common practice to exclude youth voices from important community conversations about violence, leaving young people to haphazardly process complex emotions alone. Without a chance to safely respond to violence they see and experience through dialogue or proactive service, young people are left without agency or hope.  

It’s time we asked youth: what is fueling violence in your lives? What are the struggles you are facing and what steps could you take to move towards reconciliation and peace? What would a peaceful community look and feel like for you? What tools, strategies, and resources can we offer to support you in creating that kind of community?

The 9/11 Projects For Peace answer the call to give youth a voice in addressing community violence and envisioning peace. The projects, which include three drop-in stations across the county on Sunday 9/11, and in-depth workshops in the week to follow, give youth an avenue to share about the conflicts in their lives and to feel empowered as they envision hopeful solutions. Through the peacetiling art activity, youth have a chance to share what they want to see, feel, and experience in a peaceful community—and to convey that vision of hope to others through artistic expression. We plan to gather their answers in the form of 6-foot-by-6-foot peacetiles into a community installation of 200+ tiles from youth across Santa Cruz County to create a visual voice for peace. We hope their collective works will inspire the community to listen to youth and value their ideas and visions for addressing conflict and creating a more vibrant, healthy, and supportive community.  

Most importantly, we hope the tiles will inspire greater civic participation and action across age groups to establish greater unity and understanding in Santa Cruz.

9/11 was a dark, painful event in our nation’s history, but it also demonstrated our tremendous capacity for compassion, selflessness and our ability to collectively envision solutions and rebuild. It is in this spirit of unity, that we offer this opportunity for our community to create an inclusive vision for a future that honors the ideas and contributions of youth, and recognizes them as invaluable agents of peace and change.

Youth of all ages are invited to participate in our free, drop-in peacetiling activity on Sunday, Sept. 11, in Watsonville at from 12-2:30 p.m. We also invite middle and high school students to attend our leadership training and workshop on Monday, Sept. 12, at the for an intensive peacetiling workshop with discussion, reconciliation activities, and tile making. The peacetiling stations and workshops are free and open to the public. For more information about the Peace projects or to RSVP for a workshop, contact Laney at lead@scvolunteercenter.org