Kid's Nonviolence Week

This summer, Project Downtown Saint Louis partnered with a local prominent African American church in Jennings, Missouri to host our first annual “Kid’s Nonviolence Week.” After having brainstormed with the Pastor of New Northside, Rev. Rodrick Burton, we decided that one of the most important skills that children from under-resourced families lack is the knowledge of how to resolve conflicts without reverting to violence. This temptation to deal with conflict through violence leads many children down the path of suspension from school to an inability to maintain employment and unfortunately, often to prison. Rev. Burton is constantly working with the Better Family Life organization at their “De-escalation Center” to prevent ordinary disagreements between adults from growing into full fledged homicide. Our hope with this week was to introduce these children to concepts such as emotional regulation, the responsibility of their actions, forgiveness, and many more to start them from an early age, not on the path of violence, but on the path of peace.  
Another major obstacle for low-income families with young children in the summer is the absence of the “Free Lunch” that they are provided by the school district when school is in session. This was an easy problem to address because, as you would expect, Project Downtown Saint Louis thrives at providing quality free food. Each day we provided lunch and a snack for the kids to relieve some more financial burden from the families that we serve. We were even able to employ a local grandmother of some of the kids to make candy apples as a special treat for the kids at the end of the week-- simultaneously supporting her local business and providing a special snack for the children!
Each day of our 4-day seminar we had more and more students attending. The children were very receptive to the material and were always disappointed when the day had to come to an end. While fun was a priority for us, the material about nonviolence was the most important aspect of our week with the kids. The first day we discussed how emotions work and our ability to control our actions once we experience emotions like anger, jealousy, sadness, and frustration. The second day we introduced the idea that “Disagreements are Okay!” Disagreements are bound to happen in all of our lives and our job is to use them as opportunities to learn, understand, and possibly forgive each other. The third day we gave them opportunities to think of “Helpful, not Hurtful” responses to age appropriate disagreements. We talked about kindness as an alternative way to deal with conflict in their lives. The final day our focus was on the fact that each person is “In-Charge” of their own actions and can always choose to respond in a way that improves the situation. In the short time that we had with them the kids seemed to really grow in their ability to notice conflict before it got out of hand and deal with it in a more productive and healthy way!
One beautiful comment that someone made during the week was that they loved how Muslim people, who are often wrongfully depicted in the media as being violent, especially to other faiths, were partnering with a local church to invest in the children of the community in a way that leads to more peace! Project Downtown Saint Louis is excited to continue to make small, faithful steps towards making this world, and particularly this St. Louis community a better place--- “serving compassion one meal at a time.”

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