Our Mission:
Kids4Peace Boston educates, trains and inspires Christian, Jewish, and Muslim youth from diverse backgrounds to become interfaith peace leaders.
Kids4Peace Boston (K4PB) is an interfaith youth leadership organization that creates opportunities for young people, ages 12 – 18 (grades 6 – 12), to build relationships across faith and other boundaries and become ambassadors for coexistence and justice. Through a sequence of school year and summer programs, we equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and relationships to promote interfaith understanding, advocate for social change, and take action for peace and justice in Boston and beyond. K4PB believes that youth can and must change our world!
Our Work:
Kids4Peace Boston offers an integrated, year-round Peace Leader Program focused on the peace building aspirations of middle and high school youth from many different communities throughout the Boston-area.
Among interfaith and peace building organizations, Kids4Peace Boston is distinctive in several important ways:
- Youth may join K4PB programs as early as age 12 (during the summer before 7th grade) and continue to participate throughout the rest of middle school and high school, encompassing important years when youth define their personal identity, values, and sense of justice.
- During their time in K4PB, youth foster relationships across boundaries, gain and use peace leadership skills, develop global and local insights on peace and justice, build an appreciation for the faiths of others, and have fun together!
- K4PB builds bridges among a diverse group of youth, families, and communities. Boston-area participants represent a wide spectrum of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious practices, urban and suburban neighborhoods, ethnic backgrounds, races, and income levels.
- During monthly school-year experiential learning activities and 1-2 week immersive summer programs, participants actively learn, apply, and improve their leadership skills. (Learn more about our Youth Empowerment Model)
- During high school, some of the summer opportunities, enable K4PB teens to develop a broader perspective on peace and justice through interactions with Israeli and Palestinian peers. Together, they learn how faith can nurture peace and how they can take action to promote understanding.
K4PB middle school and high school youth can be found throughout Greater Boston promoting interfaith understanding and working towards justice and peace as they:
- Lead the annual K4PB Day of Action, dedicated to fostering change through advocacy and dialogue
- Conduct workshops that promote interfaith understanding for youth at local temples, mosques, churches, and schools
- Stand up for tolerance and diversity in their schools and communities and resolving real-life conflicts that arise around them
- Engage in service projects in their towns and neighborhoods
Kids4Peace Boston is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization that collaborates with many partners including Kids4Peace International (Kids4Peace Jerusalem and other American Chapters), Jerusalem Peacebuilders, the American Youth Foundation, and many local churches, mosques, and temples.
Kids4Peace Boston Board of Directors:
- Monica Arkin- Doctoral Candidate, Clinical Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston
- Sidrah Baloch- Research Analyst, Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University
- Father Mark Brown
- Pamela Chester- Editor, Taylor & Francis
- Harriet Goldin- President, Goldin Foundation for Excellence in Education
- Matthew Loper- Director of Programs, American Youth Foundation
- Robert Lurie- Retired Health Care Executive; President, K4PB Board of Directors
- Seeme Moreira- Realtor, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage; Treasurer, K4PB Board of Directors
- Barbara Sahli- Educator and Project Developer, Muslim Youth Voices
- Peggy Stevens- Founder, Kids4Peace Boston; Vice President for Programs, K4PB Board of Directors
For more information or to support our work, contact Sindy Wayne, Kids4Peace Boston Executive Director, sindy@kids4peaceboston.org
