The Little Rock Job Corps Center kicked off the Youth 2 Youth: Partners 4 Peace (Y2Y) campaign. Y2Y is a nationwide student-led campaign to prevent violence in our community.

Last week, the Y2Y Student Ambassadors Nora Gunn, Michael Terry, and David Valtierra assisted the CSIO and Wellness departments performing skits for Suicide Prevention Awareness and sharing violence statistics with the student body during the awards assembly.

This week, we had several activities around the center to continue the campaign. Monday morning, during the student business meeting, student ambassadors Nora Gunn and Michael Terry shared with students by giving an overview of Y2Y and how any and every one can become involved. They then showed a video by Shane Koyczan titled “To This Day” which shows the effect that bullying can have on people.

Monday evening, an interest group meeting was held for individuals that wanted to join the Y2Y initiative and sign pledge cards to be a part of the solution and assist the student ambassadors with future Y2Y events on center and in the community.

On Wednesday, students participated in a “Mix It Up” lunch. The table in the cafeteria were labeled with different candy pieces. As students entered the cafeteria, they were given a piece of candy and instructed to sit at the table with the same candy piece that they were given. This gave students an opportunity to get out of their “comfort” zones and meet with other students that they may not normally associate with on a daily basis. Topics of discussion were placed on each table for conversation pieces.

Leading up to Thursday nights “Rock It Out” assembly, a group of students held a Peace March through the campus leading into the assembly. The students carried posters with non-violence quotes from famous people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Ghandi to name a couple. After the assembly, students were shown different movies on campus that showed the effects and long term effects that bullying and violence can have on someone and families.

Y2Y will be an ongoing initiative. The Y2Y committee would love to hear of your ideas for future events that we can all be involved in. Be on the lookout for the flyers around campus announcing when and where meetings are held and please join us! See you there!

If you would like more information on the Y2Y campaign, visit www.jobcorpsy2y.com .