- The Center for Arts Activism
- The Center for Education for Liberation
- The Center for Wellness
- The Center for Youth and Community Organizing
- The Center for Community Justice
- The Center for Community Development and Planning
The fires that led to the devastation of the South Bronx in the late 60’s and early 70’s still rage in my mind. I witnessed them day after day as a little girl perched on the ledge of my ninth floor window in the Bronx River Public Housing Projects. I was too little to understand things like "Planned Shrinkage", "Urban Renewal", "Disinvestment" and "white flight" back then. All I knew is that they were frightening and tumultuous times for me and all of the children of the South Bronx.
No wonder so many of us ran away. Understanding only that our success in life would be measured by how far from the "ghetto" we could someday escape.
In this sea of uncertainty, hundreds of young people, like me, anchored ourselves to the love offered us at the Youth Group of Holy Cross church. There we were formed as leaders and guided in the Franciscan principals of simplicity and servant leadership. It was our sanctuary, a place of refuge during those difficult adolescent years.
Teetering on the edges of these two very different realities, I began to grapple with questions that I know many young people struggle with ... I asked, "Does the God I know in there see what is going on out here?" "Does the One I worship on Sunday, understand how ugly it can be on Monday?" "Does He care?" I prayed that I could find a place where my faith could do more than get me to heaven, when all hell seemed to be breaking loose around me.
I had to experience one final fire before my questions would be answered. In 1992 after Fr. Mike, then pastor of Holy Cross, led the parish in an Anti Drug Prayer march, drug dealers vandalized and torched the church in retaliation.
Led by Fr. Mike and the youth group, we refused to let evil and despair have the last word. We marched again and as I witnessed the sea of people on that day…children, mothers pushing baby strollers, elderly men and women, immigrant families…those that the world would consider powerless…I understood so very clearly what true power was! It was there, God said to me, in His children from the center to the margins coming together not just hoping for miracles or praying for change but making it manifest by the power of our will and the courage to stand up and do something!
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice was born on that day. Throughout the past 13 years, we have worked to create a space that forms young people to be prophetic voices for peace and justice and we have dared to believe 2 fundamental things: 1) We can rebuild our neighborhood 2) armed with faith and trained as community organizers, youth can lead that movement
And so they brilliantly have!!! Their accomplishments are numerous. They lead campaigns for environmental justice, community health, decent housing, police reform, education and immigration.
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice stands in solidarity with these young comrades. Our presence reminds them that they are not alone and that we are committed to nurturing their mental, physical and spiritual development even as they work on the development of their community.
I no longer despair or wonder if God CARES. I have seen God bend down to pick up garbage along the Bronx River…I have heard her testify at hearings against highways that bring trucks and soot and asthma in my neighborhood…I have heard him stand up against the police officer that would stop and frisk him simply because he is a brown child. I see God care in the young people and staff of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice every day.
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