Final Reflections – Past and Future
I’ve spent my last day as Director of the Peace Center, after 14 years, cleaning out my office.
We’d tossed and archived a lot of old files over the years, but it’s amazing how much paper from the past still remains. In the back of a file cabinet today I discovered a stack of file folders from the 1980s, most labeled in the faded cursive script of some previous staff member. A brochure from decades ago describes RPEC’s work as educating “about the dangers of the soaring budget of the United States Department of Defense and the threats posed by nuclear proliferation.” Worn three ring binders with decades-old training materials on bias awareness, racial equality, and parenting for peace, rest in a closet.
The Peace Center was founded in 1980, and when I arrived on staff in 2005, it had already had a 25 year presence in the Richmond region. The center had taken stands on Central America. It had done work in prisons. It had established extensive conflict resolution programs. It had led interfaith work.
My goals when I joined the staff were to:
Build the Center into a stronger voice for peace and justice. I wanted RPEC to impact the local conversation. I wanted to bring critical perspectives into the public discourse. I wanted to see actual change result from our efforts.
Teach peace and justice, build inclusive spaces, and partner extensively…but also challenge power.
Center racial justice and healing as key to the work of “peacemaking.”
Empower the youth of our region to be leaders for peace and social change.
So much work remains to be done on each of these goals. The work is never finished.
I’m proud of the steps we have begun to take together.
With a tiny staff, and a lot of love and commitment from a lot of people… we stepped into difficult conversations; we took stands for justice; we deepened the peacemaking skills of thousands of people; and we catalyzed thousands young and old to stand together for a more just community and world.
Going through old files reminds me of some of the highlights from the past 14 years. I want to share just a few…
2005
I joined the staff in October, joining the small but devoted part-time staff of Johnnie Taylor and Paul Fleisher. Our country was in the middle of the Iraq War.
2006
In 2006 we held two large public forums on US foreign policy: Iraq: Untold Stories convened GIs, Iraqis and others who’d been directly impacted by the war in Iraq to share their stories about the war’s impact on their lives and families, and Torture and the War on Terror, held the very week that Congress was debating torture, drew a standing room only crowd of 350 concerned people.
Working with the board member Ram Bhagat, we started what would become an annual tradition, holding the first ever “edu-concert” in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in collaboration with Drums No Guns.
That fall we launched the Peace Center’s youth conflict resolution team; holding our very first weekend-long conflict resolution training for 30 Richmond teenagers who would become certified as RPEC conflict resolution facilitators and then have opportunities to lead workshops with other youth.
2007
We developed a new Racial Justice in Richmond discussion series, which reached hundreds of people over the next five years. The program was developed through a participatory planning process with involvement from board members including Cathy Woodson, Iman Shabazz, and Tony Scott. We aimed to convene community members for deep learning about the roots and persistence of racial inequality in our region, and shared visioning of a more just region.
We began coordinating the statewide boots exhibit Eyes Wide Open Virginia together with Richmond Friends Meeting and Midlothian Friends Meeting. This exhibit of combat boots and civilian shoes encouraged reflection about the human and economic costs of our wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of the Iraq war it had traveled to nearly every corner of the state.
2008
We succeeded in convincing Richmond Public Schools to give high school students an “opt out form” in order to make it easier for parents to remove their child’s name from the lists their schools were providing to military recruiters.
2009
We held public forums on Iraq, Gandhi, and Israel-Palestine that year….and Santa Sorenson began coordinating the Center’s conflict resolution programs.
2010
Three-hundred people attended our Overcoming Richmond’s Racial Divide forum featuring Anne Holton, Iman Shabazz, and John Moeser.
I initiated the first of its kind Israel-Palestine Listening Circle for Jews, Arabs and allies, working with Shari Motro and Cricket White.
2011
We led 25 conflict resolution workshops all over the region that year, and Santa Sorenson and Ram Bhagat went to Burundi to learn HROC, a trauma healing approach, in order to deepen trauma healing work in Central Virginia.
RPEC continued to support the housing justice coalition REPHRAME in demanding that public housing residents be able to drop their rent payments at a local venue rather than having to mail their rent out of state.
American peace activist Kathy Kelly, recently returned from Afghanistan, came to Richmond to speak.
2012
We held No One is Bulletproof, a youth forum on gun violence prevention, for area teenagers, working with the Armstrong Leadership Program and other partners.
We held a public forum on peaceful alternatives to war with Iran.
2013
We cosponsored the Women, War & Peace in Africa conference at VCU.
We met with Sen. Kaine and met with staff of Sen. Warner, and collected signatures to urge Virginia senators to protect human needs and the social safety net, raise revenues without harming the poor, reduce Pentagon spending, and seek ways to reinvest in communities affected by budget cuts.
We undertook our first Tax Day Action to educate Richmond taxpayers about how much of our income tax dollars go to support war, handing out hundreds of flyers to tax payers at the post office on Tax Day.
2014
We began partnering with the Virginia Historical Society on the Created Equal film series, which reached hundreds of community members.
We held a discussion of the book “The Lemon Tree: An Arab A Jew and the Heart of the Middle East” at the Tuckahoe Library.
2015
We expanded our youth programs, dramatically increasing the number of young people involved in the Richmond Youth Peace Project.
The Virginia House of Delegates commended the Richmond Peace Education Center for 35 years of service.
We urged Virginia’s Senators and members of Congress to support the international agreement to peacefully limit Iran’s nuclear program, collecting hundreds of signatures and sharing them with elected leaders.
2016
In 2016 we began a new school year long site based youth peace team program at Albert Hill Middle School.
When Henrico County public schools banned the video “Structural Discrimination: The Unequal Opportunity Race,” we had youth at our Summit watch and discuss the video in small groups, and spoke out at the Henrico school board meeting.
In September, 15 years after 9/11, we held a major conference, Reclaiming Democracy, together with ACLU of VA and other partners, examining the erosion of civil liberties, targeting of immigrants and militarization of society since September 11th.
In the aftermath of police killings of Alton Sterling and Philado Castille, we worked with Ram Bhagat to pilot Building Resilience for Challenging Systemic Racism, a weekend long trauma-healing workshop for activists and allies, with 33 participants of varied backgrounds and ranging in age from 22 to 81 years.
2017
In 2017 we launched the Jackson Ward Youth Peace Team for middle school and high school age youth in Gilpin Court.
When after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, armed white supremacists threatened to march on Monument Avenue, we helped catalyze hundreds of people to stand together in a spirit of love and people power, in a rally at the Maggie Walker Monument and a march to Monument Avenue, to defend our diverse city.
2018
One year after the inauguration of Donald Trump, RPEC hosted the After the March activist convening. We spoke to the Monument Avenue Commission to call for monument removal. We were a key player in March for Our Lives—catalyzing 5000 people to march against gun violence in a protest that centered the voices of impacted Richmond youth. We also provided trauma healing programs for youth in the court system, in partnership with the city.
2019
We started the year with a youth lobby against gun violence at the General Assembly, then later in the year we partnered with NAACP of Richmond to hold a large vigil against gun violence at the General Assembly special session.
We launched Anti-Racist Parenting workshops.
We held a Teach In on Immigrant and Social Justice on the International Day of Peace.
Certain programs we have done every year: the Youth Peace Summit convening young people from across the Richmond region; the Peace Essay contest that gave thousands of young people the opportunity to reflect on and write about a question related to peace; the Generation Dream youth production in honor of MLK, Jr., which lifted up voices of young people from many cultures and backgrounds, giving them a platform to make their voices heard; and of course the annual Member Dinner, Peacemaker of the Year Award, and fundraising auction. We also supported the Family Peace Festival for many years, and our conflict resolution and trauma healing programs reached thousands of people, from housing authority staff to new teachers to nonprofit employees to youth.
We have stepped into challenging conversations. We have been part of coalitions addressing local, state and national issues. We have connected youth across lines of class and race across our divided region, and we have nurtured and empowered young leaders.
Even so, much difficult community work stills lies ahead of us. Our nation is in crisis. The triple threats Dr. King warned of, of militarism racism and materialism, endure. At this time, well meaning people with privilege must do the work necessary to avoid causing harm and to be authentic allies in community spaces and movement spaces. And we must build movements that both model and help bring about greater degrees of justice, and that have the power to bring about real change.
That means not looking away from tough questions:
How does the Peace Center, as a multigenerational, multiracial organization committed to equity and community change, and committed to learning and growing, truly model internally the values of inclusion that we promote externally? We have more work to do.
How do we broaden and deepen coalitions capable of resisting effectively? How do we move ideals of peace and justice from the margins into real system change?
These are hard questions, that demand courage, and self examination and love. They will be important to the Peace Center’s next decade. I look forward to continuing to support the work as a community member.
Thank you all for your partnership over the past 14 years! And thank you for your continued support of RPEC. It has been a joy and privilege to serve this organization and the Richmond community.
–Adria Scharf