The Youth Peacemakers Program is an intensive violence prevention, job-readiness, and pre-college/trade school preparatory program that empowers approximately 25 enrolled youth aged 14-18 and young adults age 18-24 in East Baltimore to implement peacemaking broadly and deeply into their lives. Most enrollees in this program work (for $15 per hour) within the STEM & Healing Arts Peacemaking After-School Program at the McKim Center while receiving immersive job-readiness training, and engaging in peer support groups. They learn de-escalation through mindfulness, conflict resolution, trauma-informed care, restorative justice, and Social and Emotional Learning. Their work in the after-school program involves assisting with mentoring younger children, setting-up, cleaning-up, and supporting meal preparation and meal service. They also engage in regular healing circles like mediations and Amnesty Days. Enrollees learn the value of responsible employment as they become ambassadors for peacemaking. This program aims for participants to move out of their impoverished neighborhood, to attend trade schools to gain intensive specialized training, to go to college, and to build a better life for themselves and their families away from the violence and crime within which they are exposed in their current zip code.
The Parent Peacemakers Program is an intensive violence prevention collective of trained Community Heal Workers who are select parents or grandparents of youth enrolled in the Baltimore Wisdom Project's programming. With ongoing training and peer support, the parents build campaigns to cultivate peace broadly and deeply in their lives. They spread nonviolent messaging within their homes, within the schools of their children, their neighborhoods, and the streets, on social media and by word-of-mouth. Enrollees attend regular healing circles emphasizing peer support and receive training in de-escalation through mindfulness, conflict resolution, trauma-informed care, restorative justice, and Social and Emotional Learning. The parents receive stipends when reaching milestones for peacemaking, healthy food support, and limited wrap-around services like funds for transportation and medical emergencies not covered by health insurance. They also receive many referrals to agencies that help them with life's challenges. They engage in regular mediations and Amnesty Days. Several work part-time within other programs and to help govern the organization. One Parent Peacemaker, Sharon Williams, sits on the Board of Directors and is a Senior Program Specialist. The Parent Peacemakers partner with Wisdom Projects to guide its mission and work.
The STEM & Healing Arts Peacemaking Program joins with the Athletics Program at the McKim Center to form a comprehensive out-of-school-time holistic educational program for youth aged 6 through 18. Running from 3 pm to 6 pm 4-days-a-week, Mondays through Thursdays, STEM & Healing Arts is a standardized program emphasizing structured learning. STEM Education, the Planet Protectors Laboratory, and peacemaking. Select Fridays are reserved for field trips. This program also features a Healthy Foodways Program.
Each summer, in partnership with the McKim Center, the Baltimore Wisdom Project holds a 5-week summer day camp for youth aged 5 through 14 in July from 10 am to 3 pm, five days a week (Mondays through Fridays) featuring STEM lessons, athletics, and intensive training in peace education through conflict resolution, de-escalation through mindfulness, restorative justice, and Social and Emotional Learning.
The Planet Protectors Laboratories include three hands-on projects that uplift peace and wellness for the community.
A. The Planet Protectors Laboratory for youth aged 6-18 focuses on peacemaking for environmental justice through hands-on experimentation. Click here for an overview of this program.
B. The Poetry for Peace Literacy Project in which youth aged 11-18 read, write, and analyze poems and related traditions about peace to integrate wellness, literacy, creativity, and criticism within our STEM and Healing Arts out-of-school-time program.
C. The Parents For Peace Book Club in which parents in Wisdom Projects' programming gather to read and discuss books and articles that delve into issues of peace, nonviolence, and justice.
Conflict resolution through restorative justice is the programmatic glue that makes all of our programs impactful and effective, including the following projects on a weekly basis:
Providing safe passage with free/no-cost transportation for 10-15 youth is a vital element within the services that we offer as the official Educational and Health Services Partner of the McKim Center. Our Safety Specialists for Transportation pick up youth from school, take them to the community center for our programming, and then take them back home after programming is complete each day of the week. These services enhance the safety and wellbeing of select trauma-impacted low-to-middle income youth in our programming who need additional aid as they navigate life's challenges. Our Safety Specialists are drink/drugs/alcohol-free with clean backgrounds, driving experience, child-sensitivity, and caring demeanors.
To uplift safety, passengers must be quiet and make absolutely no disruptions or disturbances of any kind while riding in the vehicle.
Passengers must turn cellphones and all other devices to silent mode so as not to distract the driver.
The driver must not give the passengers anything, including water, food, and sweets.
The driver cannot allow passengers to charge their phone or interphase with, or touch the controls or mechanisms of the vehicle in any manner.
There is no drinking or eating in the vehicle and all food and drink must be completely stowed, bagged, and out of sight.
When speaking to each other, passengers must whisper so as not to disrupt the driver. No loud voices or behavior is permitted.
No fighting, play-fighting, verbal violence, physical violence, or disruptions of any kind are permitted in the vehicle.
Passengers must never touch or tamper with the windows and seats, and they must keep hands and arms inside of the vehicle at all times.
Passengers must never yell or say anything out of the windows of the vehicle, or gesture to people outside of the window. This can be extremely unsafe and provoking to people outside of the vehicle and we must avoid "road rage" reactions from people outside of the vehicle.
The driver must never be distracted; must use the cellphone primarily on Bluetooth or minimally; and not have extended phone conversations while driving unless it is an emergency call with the supervisor, police, or fire/emergency officials.
Short, brief phone conversations with the supervisor and the driver for safety are permitted.
For the text notifications (that the driver sends when the passenger has been safely dropped off at their destination), the driver should pause the driving and send the text notifications in a calm, safe manner.
Wisdom Projects’ programming empowers violence-surviving, trauma-impacted, and low-income predominately Black youth and adults in the high-crime neighborhood of Jonestown in East Baltimore City to overcome their trauma at home, in school, and on the streets.
Our programming prevents violence specifically for community members challenged by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-morbid conditions like depression, stress, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Healing PTSD requires holistic, intergenerational treatment and Wisdom Projects innovates with programming for both youth and their parents and families.
Guiding youth and adults to regulate emotions and see the world in a fact-based, environmentally-conscious, and civic-aware manner becomes a platform for broad and deep mental health solutions that forge healing for PTSD.
That is why our year-round programming (offered 6-days-a-week from Monday through Saturday) for youth and adults emphasizes life science, environmental justice, and literacy. Youth and families enrolled in Wisdom Projects’ programming realize the following clinical outcomes: