Nonviolence Project Description

Passing the Legacy of Nonviolence to Tucson Youth --
Creating a Nonviolent Youth Leadership Team


In honor of NAACP’s 100th Anniversary, a group of community organizations* are bringing civil rights pioneer Bernard LaFayette, Jr. to Tucson to conduct several presentations focused on applying nonviolence to today’s civil rights and human rights issues – immigration and border issues; LGBT rights; indigenous rights; youth violence, gangs, bullying and youth empowerment.

Dr. LaFayette was a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On the day that Dr. King was assassinated, he instructed Bernard LaFayette that the next focus of the civil rights movement must be to institutionalize and internationalize nonviolence. Dr. LaFayette has spent his life carrying out these instructions by conducting nonviolence trainings and setting up centers for peace and nonviolence across the US and around the world. He has worked with gang members in California, prison guards and inmates in Columbia, activists in Israel and Palestine, militia groups in Nigeria, and thousands of other individuals to shift their thinking away from the use of violence and introduce them to the power of nonviolence. In 2006, Dr. LaFayette initiated a new movement to pass the legacy of nonviolence to the youth of today. His visit to Tucson is intended as the first of a three-phase project to create a youth-led nonviolence training and direct action team.

PHASE ONE:
v Wednesday, February 4, 2009 (5:30 to 8:00 PM; Northwest Neighborhood Center) – Community Presentation & Reception -- Dr. LaFayette addresses a diverse audience of community members with stories from the civil rights movement demonstrating how nonviolent strategies can be applied today to key human rights issues within Tucson and Southern Arizona.
v February 5, 2009 (9:30 AM to 2:30 PM; U of A Student Union Ballroom) -- Dr. LaFayette (with a team of local facilitators) presents a training session for 150-175 culturally diverse youth drawn from middle schools, high schools, and the University of Arizona, challenging and inspiring them to become nonviolent leaders in their schools, homes, and neighborhoods.

PHASE TWO: The second stage of this nonviolent leadership project provides young people, who were part of the Feb. 5th workshop with Dr. LaFayette, an opportunity to participate in a two-day core nonviolence training (March 21-22, 2009). The training team for this event consists of individuals from Tucson and So. California certified by Dr. LaFayette (and his Center for Peace and Nonviolence at the University of Rhode Island) to conduct this two-day Introduction to Kingian Nonviolence.

PHASE THREE: A small group of inspired young people taking the two-day March training select to complete the two-week Nonviolence Summer Institute conducted annually in July by Dr. LaFayette and his colleagues at URI’s Center for Peace and Nonviolence. This final step will enable us to initiate a youth-led nonviolence training and direct action team in Tucson.


* Nonviolence Project Co-Sponsors: the Culture of Peace Alliance (COPA), the Black Chamber of Commerce, Our Family’s Community Mediation Program, Wingspan’s Anti-Violence Program, and the U of A’s Women’s Resource Center. If interested in becoming a co-sponsor or having your school participate in the February events with Dr. LaFayette, contact: COPA c/o Ann Yellott (991-6781; azyellott@aol.com).