PRE-REGISTRATION HERE: http://tinyurl.com/climatesummitpreregister

DATE: Saturday, April 18th
LOCATION: TBD

For the past seven years, the Peace Center has held our Creating Peaceful Schools education conference. The conference was developed in an effort to examine and put into practice frameworks educators can use to promote equity, peace, and justice. The conference has featured topnotch speakers and interactive workshops that aimed to provide educators with new tools and resources for transforming their classrooms by building communication skills, understanding the impacts of privilege and bias, as well as learning how to properly respond to incidents of prejudice, racism, and bullying.

This year, we are excited to announce that for the first time, we are partnering with 350ContraCosta to develop and center our conference around the theme of climate justice and the experience of local youth/student leaders in the movement as well as students concerned about the crisis. 

Last year, students from around the world made headlines for their unwavering commitment to defend our planet. They demanded action from policymakers to address our current climate crisis. This momentum is a part of a larger climate movement has been ongoing for generations, thanks to the dedication of many indigenous leaders and activists who continue to pave the way.

We want to use this momentum as a launching point for our conference. Behind incredible leaders like Greta Thunberg also exist thousands of others just like her, each making an incredible impact in their own communities. At this conference, we want to highlight, learn from, and find solutions alongside these student leaders working to make a difference in our own community. This conference would be a unique opportunity for students, activists, educators, and the public to come together to mobilize and work to build a cohesive and connected network of people who care about our planet. 

We want to use this conference as an opportunity to address some of the following questions:

  • What are student’s concerns and experiences about climate justice and how can they make a difference and find allies?
  • How do we leverage our own life experiences, strengths, and connections to create environmental justice and promote change?
  • What part can we do at home and on a larger scale to influence system change for a just transition to clean energy?
  • How can we take the ideas, learnings, and energy of the conference beyond just the ‘day of’ to exist as an ongoing, coordinated, organizing force in our community?

There is so much we can learn from one another and we find it imperative that students are central to this discussion. The Peace Center has been privileged to meet and learn from a number of local, grassroots groups dedicated to fighting for our planet. We are excited to work alongside the 350 Contra Costa (a local group of 350 Bay Area) to make this happen.

STUDENTS!!!

We want YOU to get involved. We are seeking local high school and college students who are interested in helping to organize the conference with us and gain experience in public speaking, community organizing, event planning, and the nonprofit world!

If you are an interested student or KNOW of someone who might be interested, please contact our executive director, Andrew Kodama by email. (andrew@ourpeacecenter.org)