{"id":723,"date":"2017-12-10T10:50:02","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T16:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peaceandeducation.org\/?page_id=723"},"modified":"2025-04-16T19:11:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T00:11:55","slug":"peace-education-coalition","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/peace-education-coalition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peace and Education Coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nAbout Us\n<\/h1>
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\nThe Peace and Education Coalition, a 501(c )3 founded in 2001 by a group of local committed stakeholders in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the near southwest side of Chicago. Together, our stakeholders and residents live the mission to develop leaders and foster neighborhood networks that promote education, strengthen families, and build peace through social justice. Read more about the mission and values, as well as the history and current activities of the work of the Coalition here.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>
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\nHistory\n<\/h2>
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In the late 1990\u2019s, there were numerous shootings and deaths of BOTY youth.\u00a0 The public elementary schools were mandated to improve student scores.\u00a0 However, the violence was interfering with progress being made. The principals at Chavez and Hamline Schools were in conversation with Phillip Jackson from Chicago Public Schools about this issue.\u00a0 Phillip suggested a meeting be called with all interested parties to address the issue of youth violence. (Phillip is currently the CEO of the Black Star Project impacting Black youth nationally.)<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>

The principals developed a list of invitees, which included all neighborhood principals, clergy, law enforcement, elected officials, park districts, and community based organizations.\u00a0 This meeting was held at the Chavez School in November,1997. This group did grow into the not-for-profit Peace and Education Coalition of Back of the Yards, New City (PEC).<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>

Approximately forty groups were represented.\u00a0 As the PEC continued, it relied upon the expertise of the various groups within.\u00a0 An important piece was the work Fr. Bruce\u00a0Wellems.\u00a0 He, in conversation with park district employees, realized how needy our youth were for an outlet of their anger and hurt.\u00a0 Fr. Bruce created Reflection Groups providing a safe place for our youth to have a voice.\u00a0 One thing learned was that many of these youth were dropped out or put out of high school.\u00a0 They were not successful in a traditional educational setting.\u00a0 Thus, working with CPS, in July, 1998, the Sister Irene Dugan Alternative High School was created in the neighborhood.\u00a0 It has since expanded to two more campuses and to date more that 500 youth have completed their diplomas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>

The BOTY is a community divided by school attendance boundaries, parishes, aldermanic wards, major streets and so on.\u00a0 In February, 1998, it became apparent how divided yet connected the neighborhood was.\u00a0 An eleven year old student from Seward Academy, was shot and killed in front of Chavez School, by two Daley students.\u00a0 At the request of the newly formed PEC, CPS provided a grant to implement a sports program between and among the elementary schools.\u00a0 It was the intent of the program to blur the lines that so divided the community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>

The forces behind the implementation of many of the endeavors included Fr. Bruce\u00a0Wellems\u00a0of Holy Cross, Marcey Reyes, Principal of Seward Academy, and Sandra\u00a0Traback, Principal of Chavez Multicultural Academic Center.\u00a0 Other members of the Coalition have supported their efforts tirelessly.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>

The mission of the PEC is to use education as a way to reduce and prevent violence. Poverty is very\u00a0prevalent in\u00a0the neighborhood and presents significant challenges to the residents, especially the youth. So the PEC uses its partnerships to collaborate and maximize all grant and contribution dollars.\u00a0Since\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0inception the PEC has been an\u00a0all volunteer\u00a0not-for-profit organization with very little overhead.\u00a0 Therefore, all the money raised for scholarships ($500,000 to date) or youth programming is used for that stated purpose only.\u00a0 The Board of Directors DO NOT receive any compensation for their efforts.\u00a0 However, beginning June, 2017, a CEO was hired to grow the PEC and create a long term plan to serve the BOTY community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>

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\nOUR MISSION\n<\/h2>
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The Peace and Education Coalition (PEC) develops leaders and fosters neighborhood networks that promote education, strengthen families, and build peace through social justice.<\/p>

Peace and Education Coalition VALUES<\/strong><\/h3>

We believe that the development of a common mission depends on membership commitment to the following values:<\/p>

\u00b7 To learn and understand the (hi)story of the families, organizations, and the neighborhood<\/strong><\/p>

These stories, woven together, express a common thread of struggle, determination, and resiliency which has marked this community since it was built to serve the workers of the Stockyards (1865-1971).<\/p>

\u00b7 To learn and appreciate and promote the culture of the Back of the Yards<\/strong><\/p>

Some expressions of these, though not an exhaustive list, include: interwoven relationships often dating back multiple generations; organizing by local residents; processions commemorating various occasions; programming in the arts such as murals, marimba, and ballet folklorico; exposure to the natural world outside the neighborhood through camping and outdoor experiences; and many more examples of cultural and neighborhood pride.<\/p>

\u00b7 To promote health and wellbeing<\/strong><\/p>

Despite the many challenges faced in this community, we believe in asset-building rather than deficit-based strategies.<\/p>

\u00b7 To dedicate time to the development of common trauma-based standards of services and training in such.<\/strong><\/p>

Our children, youth, and family deserve nothing less than the best practices available in any given set of services, and to know that wherever they go in our community they will be treated and cared for with dignity, respect, and cultural\/linguistic competence. This requires commitment to common training and willingness to participate in evaluative followups.<\/p>

\u00b7 To \u201chire locally\u201d to the extent possible<\/strong><\/p>

Since those who have spent considerable amounts of time living in our community have a special sensitivity to the local culture they can help craft strategies that are more effective. Our youth and adults merit the opportunity to show and develop their work skills within the business, educational, health, social, governmental and political community of the Back of the Yards. Those who live in our community are directly impacted by the work of coalition members and should have leadership positions within the member-organizations, whenever possible. At the very minimum, those who live in our community should have access to positions working with member-organizations.<\/p>

\u00b7 To contribute to \u201ctelling the story\u201d of the Back of the Yards<\/strong><\/p>

To promote the development of common projects, it is important we are willing to share narratives and statistics that tell the true story of the Back of the Yards, for the sake of the people of this community as well as to inform those outside.<\/p>

\u00b7 To believe in this community and not lose hope.<\/strong><\/p>

The resident families and youth face multiple challenges on a daily basis and look to organizations and institutions to offer strength when their own may be fading.<\/p>

\u00b7 To stand alongside and accompany community residents as they realize their sense of agency (power) to enact change.\"<\/strong><\/p>

We acknowledge context and the power imbalance that systemically deprives residents and the community from radical progress, and we recognize that slow progress isn't due to lack of power or ongoing efforts from residents but can be attributed to system level factors.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About Us The Peace and Education Coalition, a 501(c )3 founded in 2001 by a group of local committed stakeholders in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the near southwest side of Chicago. Together, our stakeholders and residents live the mission to develop leaders and foster neighborhood networks that promote education, strengthen families, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1951,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-723","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"campaignId":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30619,"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/723\/revisions\/30619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceandeducation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}