Center for Teen Empowerment - Boston, MA | Somerville, MA

YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCES

2010 PEACE CONFERENCES!

Somerville's Youth Peace Conference, Rising from our Roots, was held on April 10 Somerville High School. Read about it in the Somerville News: Hope reigns at peace summit and in the Somerville Journal: Fourth annual Somerville Youth Peace Conference draws hundreds.

Check out photos from the conference, and read about one of the youth who worked to organize the conference.

Boston's 18th annual Youth Peace Conference brought 500 people to the Jeremiah Burke High School on May 8. This year's theme was Think Outside the Block: Change is Around the Corner. Check back soon for photos.

BOSTON YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCE 2009

Boston's 17th annual conference on May 9, themed "Reality Check," was a great success. Read about it in the Boston Globe. Listen to TE's executive director discuss what can be done about youth violence on WBZ radio.

SOMERVILLE YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCE 2009

Somerville's 3rd annual Youth Peace Conference brought 700 youth and adults to Somerville High School on April 4. This year's theme was "The Faces of Change, The Changes We Face." The day featured music, food, theater, dance, speech, poetry, rap battle, service fair, and community building. Read about it in the Somerville News: Somerville Journal.

Sponsored by Teen Empowerment, Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the City of Somerville, the Somerville Public Schools, and the Somerville Police Department.

ROCHESTER YOUTH CONFERENCE 2008
Breaking Generational Curses

Rochester's 5th annual Teen Empowerment Youth Conference drew hundreds of youth to Monroe High School on November 8 for a thought-provoking stage presentation featuring a youth-written play and speeches by young people. The day also included an information fair with many local agencies offering their resources to youth. More information

BOSTON YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCE 2008
Step Up to Change: From the Strand to the State House

TE's 16th annual Boston Youth Peace Conference brought 700 youth and adults to the Strand Theater in Dorchester on May 10 for a powerful afternoon of theater, rap, and speeches by youth, as well as the TE-produced video Voices from Behind the Wall. See our News page for links to articles about the video and the conference. Click on the YouTube link at the top of this page for a portion of the video. In this clip, inmate Anthony Warren apologizes to the child, Kai Leigh Harriott, who was paralyzed by a shot he fired.

SOMERVILLE YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCE 2008
Uniting the Ville: Real Stories, Real Change

More than 600 youth and adults came to the conference on Saturday, April 12, at Somerville High School. Read about it in The Somerville News, The Boston Globe, and the The Somerville Journal.

The conference was hosted by Teen Empowerment, the City of Somerville, and Mayor Joseph Curtatone, and sponsored by The Somerville News, Somerville Public Schools, and the Somerville Police Department. Full list of partners (1-page download)

YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCE HISTORY

Boston neighborhoods in 1993 were engulfed by an epidemic of gang violence. Almost every day a young person was shot or killed by another youth. In response to these tragic and painful events, the youth of Teen Empowerment organized the first Youth Peace Conference. That conference, held May 5, 1993, attracted more than 250 teens from rival factions, produced a lasting peace treaty among five gangs, and set the stage for the dramatic decline in gang and youth violence that followed over the next several years.

Teen Empowerment has held the Youth Peace Conference annually since then in Boston, bringing together hundreds of teens to build relationships, explore important issues such as education, jobs, crime, and police-youth relations, and celebrate the power of youth to take action for positive change. TE's youth conference in Rochester has been organized annually since 2004, and our Somerville site held its first conference in 2007.

Segments of Boston Peace Conference shows are available on DVD.