About WAYSIDE                                                                   posted01/06/2004

Wayside is committed to a Youth Development approach in all of our prevention and peer leadership programming. The Somerville Violence Prevention Peer Leadership Program is addressing the identified need for violence prevention education through peer leadership activities which will bring positive prevention messages to the recipients of the programming, empower youth to use conflict resolution and mediation skills, and afford opportunities for meaningful participation to the youth who engage as peer leaders. The city of Somerville is currently experiencing an influx of gang activity and violence which greatly increases the need for a focused violence prevention program that is able to reach the at risk youth in Somerville. Research has shown that program focus, organizational structure and physical environment can vary widely among successful youth programs as long as the programming has "an emphasis on meeting the needs of the youth -- over programmatic concerns - a belief in the potential of each youth, a focus on listening, and providing opportunities for real responsibility and real work." (Benard, Bonnie. "From Research to Practice," Resiliency In Action. Winter 1996.)

Our strategies to improve self-sufficiency follow several parallel tracks. First, the training we provide to our peer leaders and the subsequent skill development which they achieve gives them increased sense of purpose and self-sufficiency. In addition, as paid peer leaders, they are also gaining self-sufficiency on a practical level, as they learn job skills. On another level, the peer leaders impart their skills to diverse audiences to foster a greater resistance to violence among our city's high-risk residents. The messages of nonviolent mediation of conflict come across powerfully when presented by youth to youth and strengthen the weave of the entire community by including youth as a powerful voice in community development. Several proven curricula are relied on in the Violence Prevention program, including Deborah Prothrow-Stith’s acclaimed Violence Prevention Curriculum for Adolescents, and Lenore Eggert’s Anger Management for Youth.

The Building Blocks of Peace project of the Somerville Violence Prevention Peerleaders is intended to have peer leaders facilitate art-based activities and educational workshops based on substance abuse and violence prevention and ways to stop negative gang related behavior. The preliminary planning meetings for this, our second year of the project, will take place in Clarendon Hills Community Center, Somerville and the Windsor St. Community Art Center, Cambridge. Workshops will take place in the Zeitgeist Gallery, Inman Sq. Cambridge, and the Windsor St. Community Art Center.

This project will be a collaborative effort between the Wayside Violence Prevention Peer Leaders, based out of Somerville Public Housing, the Windsor St. Community Art Center, the Haitian Coalition, CASPAR- (Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Rehabilitation) and the Zeitgeist gallery. The Cambridge youth, age 13-17, from the Area 4 Public Housing and the immediate neighborhood surrounding the Community Art Center in Cambridge will again be invited to participate. The project will take place between the months of January and August 2004.

This painting workshop will produce a portable mural or quilt, depending on the choice of the group. The youth participating in this initiative learn not only art technique in a variety of media, including hardboard, fabric and banners, and using acrylic and fabric paint, but are also given the opportunity to have brainstorming sessions about causes and possible solutions to problems in their community such as violence, substance abuse and negative gang related behavior. The session will be interpreted on the medium of the participants’ choice, which will be displayed in prominent public locations, such as the Cambridge and Somerville City Halls, the participants’ Schools and Libraries, and at Zeitgeist Gallery. The program encourages creativity and learning and fosters understanding between young people and adults of diverse backgrounds through the creation of these public artworks illustrating the analysis of the causes of violence and substance abuse in their community.

Information provided by Suzanne Boucher/Project Coordinator

Page design by Roland Cosby