SBY4P SUMMER CAMP, 2010

BACKGROUND:

Young people in the L.A. area and this country face an alarming array of challenges:

· Ongoing war on multiple fronts.
· Worsening environmental conditions, including global climate change.
· An economy in which corporate corruption has become commonplace, where basic services are increasingly privatized, and in which the boundary between informing and advertising is blurred.
· Skyrocketing school dropout rates for youth of color.
· Increasingly aggressive military recruiting tactics at high schools and colleges, often targeting young people based on their ethnicity or socio economic status.

In response, students at several South Bay High Schools have formed Peace clubs with the assistance of local grassroots organization San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice. The clubs are in varying stages of development, from experienced and ongoing to just beginning. Peace club members need support, mentoring, and networks to thrive.

GOALS:

The South Bay Youth 4 Peace Camp, 2009 will support the work of peace clubs and young activists by helping them:
· Develop and focus a core message to take to their peers and the community.
· Develop skills to use new media for communicating this message.
· Use materials created at camp as tools for a collective event, as well as for ongoing work.
· Understand how their activism fits into a wider context.
· Establish ongoing connections and continuity between newer and more experienced activists.
· Develop positive relationships between each other, and with mentoring adults.
· Sharpen their organizing skills and creative expression.
· Strengthen the work of youth peace clubs in Southern California.
· Share the experience of collaboration between organizations – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Ruckus Society, Coalition Against Militarism in our Schools (CAMS), San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice, South Bay Youth 4 Peace (the umbrella group comprised of peace club members).