‘Peacemakers’ Expand To North Tonawanda
The Peacemakers organization in Western New York is expanding to other local communities.
Saturday was the first organizational meeting for the North Tonawanda chapter.
The meeting focused on Peacemaker protocols and the best practices in building a relationship with the community.
The Peacemakers mentor youth into healthy lifestyles working to build relationships, gather information, and mediate gang conflicts to prevent violence.
The objective of the Peacemakers chapters around Western New York (according to their Buffalo website)...
is to provide proactive intervention into the cycle of violence in the lives of gang-involved or at-risk youth. The staff of the programs in other Western New York communities has been drawn from existing peace-making groups that have evolved naturally in response to community needs. These groups - Back to Basics, The Buffalo United Front, F.A.T.H.E.R.S., MAD DADS, No More Tears, and the Stop the Violence Coalition - have their own history and their own unique way of participating in the efforts to stop youth violence.
Organizers say they’re still assessing the needs of North Tonawanda, but they’re looking forward to working with other cities to better the community.
Kristina Vince Garland is Coordinator for the North Tonawanda Peacemakers...
“Each chapter is unique, so one of the things we’re really going to look to do today is to in our next few meetings is figure out what our neighbors see as priorities and then we’re gonna move forward positivity to make those improvements.”
The North Tonawanda peace-makers is the 5th branch in Western New York.
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