When Youth & Peace in Action kicked off on September 21 - International Peace Day - The Interact Club at Roswell High School held a kick-off meeting at Lucky’s Burgers & Brew to watch the kick-off together! The Foundry School held two kick-off events during the day to engage as many students as possible. Later that week, HomeStretch held its kick-off and talked about what peace is to them.

We remain thrilled that District 6900 is a Champion District in the Youth & Peace in Action (YPA) initiative. Fifty-seven high schools and youth clubs/organizations from across District 6900 are participating in 2021-22! Thousands of students will enroll this month in the YPA Online Peace Platform and join in the My Peacebuilder Foundations course, which results in a certification from NewGen Peacebuilders and opportunities for additional training and completion of peace projects.

Learn more about YPA through this short video, which premiered on Sept. 21 during the YPA Kick-Off event.

In addition to the opportunities provided through YPA to high school students and educators, all Rotarians in participating Districts (including D6900!) have access to a Guiding Young Peacebuilders course which links essential elements of My Peacebuilder Foundations with additional content on the fundamentals of “positive peace”; tips on developing successful peace projects; and Code of Conduct guidelines and principles for working with peace project teams.

Registration takes just a few minutes and ANY Rotarian in D6900 can register for the Guiding Young Peacebuilders course. Visit this url to register: www.tinyurl.com/GYPRotary

(click here to see a short video of the registration process).

Aspects of the learning include:

• Issues that interest young people 14 to 18
• Rethinking peace – moving communities beyond the absence of violence toward long-term resilience and peace
• Creating comfortable virtual and live spaces for young people
• Using technology for team communications and management

Contact Andre Marria (email at amarria@hotmail.com) or the YPA Team (info@youthpeaceaction.org) with questions.