The Department of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and The Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County will host the Peace Pal Mentorship Program at the Jim and Jan Moran Club on April 21 from 3 to 6 p.m.
The Peace Pal Mentorship Program is part of a research program from Associate Professor Alexia Georgakopoulos and Assistant Professor Cheryl Duckworth. The program is funded by NSU’s Quality of Life Grant. Because the grant’s initiatives include the improvement of the community and literacy, and the research team was already working in the community with anti-bullying and peace education with children, they had the idea to combine the two.
As part of the program, children aged six to eight will be paired up with mentors. The team is looking to recruit 100 mentors, who are 18 or older, from the community and NSU. The hope is that this mentorship program can become a model that addresses bullying.
“They are everyday citizens who are extraordinary because they’re going to make an impact on these kids’ lives,” Georgakopoulos said.
At the event, the mentors will sit with the children and read books with them about peace, bullying and character. The mentors will then ask the children what they learned about peace and whether their actions with their friends will change and talk about the book’s meaning. The children and their mentors will also receive a $12 Barnes and Noble gift card.
“Kids learn about math, and they learn about science,” Georgakopoulos said. “But when it comes to peace, we don’t talk about that. We don’t really teach them the value of peace. And, if you look at our world, you see that’s the most pressing human concern that touches the human race today. How do we promote peace?”
The event will include spoken word and opportunities for the children to be artistic.
“I think this event is very powerful because we bring in the arts,” Georgakopoulos said. “We’ll have them draw. We’re having them write an essay or lyrics to a song that represents what peace means to them.”
Because the program is part of a larger research study, Georgakopoulos and other researchers will survey the children to measure the program’s effectiveness and assess peace education literacy. To do this, they will measure students’ cognitive learning, behavioral learning, effective learning and the impact the program has on them. They will ask the children what they learned, what they feel about what they learned, if they will change because of what they learned and if they feel they will have an impact. Georgakopoulos said she hopes other people will see the research and decide to set up similar programs.
Georgakopoulos said she hopes that the mentors come back as well as she feels it is everybody’s responsibility to care for children.
“It’s not just teachers and parents,” she said. “At the end of the day, these kids are in our community. They’re our kids. Teachers and parents already are playing a role, so it’s our responsibility as people in the community because those kids are living with us, and we want to give them the best mentorship that we can supply to them.”
Georgakopoulos said that children need role models to look up to and feel safe.
“If every kid had that, there wouldn’t be as much bullying,” she said. “There would be much more inspiration for those kids to have a better life, and I don’t think there would be youth violence. Violence is often a manifestation of people’s fears that they’re not good enough. Most people who are bullies don’t have good role models at home.”
Peace Pal Program Graduate Assistant Yehuda Silverman said the books will be about sharing feelings, anger and peace. He said people never know how much an interaction can change a child’s life.
“You never know what effect you’re going to have on a child, even for that short amount of time,” he said. “Being there and showing them that you care and just having an interaction with the child is really going to make a difference.”
Georgakopoulos said the ultimate goals are to teach the children to be proud of being an ambassador for peace and to teach them to stop bullying.
“The program is going to give kids that power, through their mentor, to feel that they can act and speak,” Georgakopoulos said.
The Jim and Jan Moran Club is located at 27 South Dixie Highway in Deerfield Beach. For more information and to learn how to become a mentor, email peacepalprogram@gmail.com.
