Pebbles of Peace Reunion and Open House

April 28, 2007

Over 60 youth and adults gathered for the Pebbles “reunion” and open house at St. Martin de Porres.

Many groups brought display boards to illustrate their projects. There were tables of activities where youth and children could fold Japanese peace cranes, decorate Lakota peace rocks, write letters to political leaders, sign our banner, or have something good to eat.

 We began and ended our student presentations with prayer – in the form of Praise Dance.

Mayor Tom Barrett and Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor attended to hear the presentations, see the display boards, and talk to the students.  One impressive display was done by Messmer High School; they created a map of the murders committed during 2007, and wrote up small cards with names and descriptions (age, gender, circumstances) of each victim and lit vigil light candles in honor of their memory.

Even a brief listing of projects and groups gives an idea of the creativity and inspiration of the young people who have worked on peace activities during the school year:

United Community Center’s “Life Changers” combined area “clean-ups” and a walk for peace with opportunities to visit with law enforcement officials.

Casa Romero high school youth performed skits promoting leadership and non-violence for students in grades 4-8. They also celebrated the traditional Mexican Posadas with a political twist – by emphasizing the identity of Mary and Joseph as unwelcomed migrants, searching for a safe place for giving birth to their child Jesus.

Prince of Peace youth and parents participated in a retreat to bring together families and promote more peaceful relationships at home.

CEO Leadership Academy focused on their peer mediation program to increase respect and reduce violence.

Early View Academy is creating a student council leadership program.

Mother of Good Counsel identified tension between their youth who attended Catholic school and those who attended public school; they held a social event (pool party) to find unity and build community.

High School of the Arts created a safe comment box, similar to “Post Secret,” in order to identify acts of violence and acts of peace. They were surprised to see so many more violent postings than peaceful ones.

Heart Love Place is planning a “Pebbles of Peace” focus for their Back to School Block party in August.

Believers in Christ Christian Academy is creating a mediation plan to involve student and teacher cooperation when dealing with school conflicts.

Marquette University High School held an AIDS education, awareness and outreach program.

Messmer High School did several activities. They held  a peace rally for younger students at Messmer Prep School on Holy Thursday; during lent, they prepared meals at Casa Maria and built relationships with the staff and guests, and tutored students in math; they held a Darfur Awareness Week at Messmer High School, and they created a Milwaukee Homocide Awareness project, with a map and vigil lights for each murder victim in 2007.

The House of Peace evaluated their Teen Leadership program, using the criteria of the five essentials taught at Pebbles, and will implement two changes to next year’s program, increasing “physical and emotional” support for both the House of Peace staff, and for Teen Leader graduates.

Evaluations

On the day of the Pebbles reunion and open house, participants rated how strongly they agreed with the following statements, on a scale of 1 (I don’t agree at all) to 10 (I agree completely).

-Attending Pebbles events has raised my awareness about peace and violence issues. 

Youth Comments:

I learned to deal with problems in non-violent ways... 

If one person tells another person about peace, and then that person tells another, our world could get the message that peace should dominate our world, instead of war and violence….

If we instill peace to all youth, then the future will be prosperous for the whole world…

Milwaukee youth should gather like this each year to discuss issues of violence and find ways to address it because Milwaukee is a very violent city and today’s youth are highly responsible…

Adult Comments:  

The youth presentations were outstanding... 

I enjoyed myself and hope to come to more events…

I got involved with working on the teen project – it was a whole new experience for me…

Pebbles is an open door for youth expression, something we really need… 

-Pebbles improved the way my group approaches conflict; we’re more peaceful now.                  

Youth Comments:          

Yes, we are more peaceful. We learned from other people’s experience...

They have encouraged people to spread the non-violence theme more…

I learned how to solve problems more peacefully. This is important because we need the building blocks for peace. Youth coming to this year hear will help them see different ways to work out their problems and conflicts…

I learned different peacemaking skills and I learned how to use these skills in everyday situations, not just during the Pebbles event.

Adult Comments:

Our teens still use the skills they learned at pebbles last November…

We laugh each time someone starts out with, “I feel frustrated when you do that…” because I know they learned it at Pebbles! And problems get worked out more easily because we’re all laughing at how we always use that formula!

-We used the concepts from last November in our project and/or project planning.            

Youth Comments:

We know better what to do when we feel like using violence… 

I learned we can all work together sharing leadership and bringing forth “creativity through diversity” to reach a common goal…. 

The “five essentials” we learned give us a way to organize ourselves to get results in our efforts in the future…

What we learned keeps everyone equal, top to bottom, sharing leadership and that has an impact on the group effort…

I always think, “Am I walking the talk? Or just talking the talk?” I have to walk it, not just talk it.

Adult Comments:

We used the project planning sheet to plan our project…

We used the idea of peace more than the actual five things we learned…

Coming to this was a good review of the five things we talked about last November, especially “walk the talk”…

We focused on shared leadership from the top to the bottom…

-I would recommend attending Pebbles to youth and their adult leaders. 

What would you tell them about Pebbles? 

Youth Comments:

It’s wonderful… Pebbles was great and you could learn a lot of things…

We became more aware about things that are overlooked by many people.  You should go. It would change the way you think and you might want to do something about it… 

I learned that people actually do care about what youth have to say…

Milwaukee youth need to keep coming together like this to show there are more people out there trying to find better ways to solve conflicts in a positive way…

Teens are the future and I think the general view of the public is that teens are the ones causing the problems in Milwaukee, but when a group comes to talk about peace, we prove them wrong… 

Milwaukee youth really have to come to this because of the increase in violence.  If the violence increases, then we should increase. That way the pebbles can overrun the boulders of violence…

Adult Comments:

It’s about love, peace, and unity… 

It’s a great way to get youth involved, and to join local leaders in community to see the other 98% and what impact they have on the community…

It is a great experience…

Don’t miss this next year. Put it on your calendar NOW.  It’s on mine…

You think your kids will miss a day of school. Actually, they get a day of super education…