Hands Of Peace

Alumni programs - following the initial summer program, hands of peace nurtures impactful leaders by developing critical thinking, conflict resolution and peacebuilding skills in our alumni, who now number over 840, ages 16-38. Recognizing that youth leadership development takes time, especially in the midst of the stressful israeli-palestinian conflict, regular alumni seminars for american, israeli and palestinian alumni include ongoing dialogue and skill building workshops in subjects such as design thinking and social entrepreneurship, public speaking, media literacy, storytelling, conflict analysis, reconciliation and resilience. Whether by delegation or across the four delegations, americans, palestinian citizens of israel, jewish israelis, and palestinians from the west bank and east jerusalem, alumni connect to analyze the challenges they are facing, plan the contributions they can make to their communities, and strengthen the connections they need, both within the alumni group and with other community leaders, for access to additional expertise and resources. Alumni can also take leadership roles within hands of peace as chaperones, facilitators, committee members and board directors.

Raising youth voices - raising youth voices brings the youth leadership lessons of the summer program to local youth in san diego. Raising youth voices offers facilitation training workshops to underserved communities, recruiting refugees, immigrants and low-income teens ages 14-15. After learning facilitation skills, participants practice those skills by facilitating conversations in their homes, schools, houses of worship, and at hands of peace events. Summer program scholarships for four raising youth voices participants bring a variety of backgrounds and lived experiences into the summer program. This diversity more accurately represents the diverse populations in san diego and the u.s. To the middle east summer program "hands." the grant received underwrote the fees of four participants in the 2022 summer program.