Youths Speak Up About BAY-Peace
"It is an interesting experience to be a young person living in Oakland with all the violence and oppression against youth, but it feels amazing to have a voice to know that you can make a change in your community.
At BAY-Peace we have the opportunity to make that change and to have our voices heard. An important aspect in any healthy community is to be able to hear how everyone is feeling about what goes on around them."
- Sadik
"Having the opportunity to be a leader is amazing. Knowing that my community's voice is being heard and that we are the solution to violence, discrimination, and stereotypes is fascinating. BAY-Peace gives us these privileges and helps us with our leadership skills."
- Meylin
"BAY-Peace offers young people a place to express and articulate their experiences growing up in a violent city through resistance arts and political education. It also offers us all a space to come to when we want an escape from our daily struggles.
The office is a second home, and the team members are our second family. BAY-Peace offers programming at different schools, and at different community spaces. However, what separates us from many nonprofits is our internship program.
I started out as an intern, and I can confidently say that it is the most powerful program we offer. Not because the programming itself is special, but because the interns themselves are the program. They have decision making power over what they learn, how they learn it, and how they choose to apply what they are learning.
Without the BAY-Peace internship, the confidence I have in life, and in my ability to influence a classroom wouldn't be nearly as high as it is now."
- Tele'jon
