Youth-Led Mutual Aid & Advocacy
Richmond Peace Team was a collective that facilitated youth-led and centered spaces to empower skill-building around self-regulatory behavior through creative curriculums, self-love, and self-advocacy practices.
We established ourselves at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic and during the Uprising for Black Lives in the US South. Previously three of our collective leaders had been working at a non-profit with a group of “at-promise” young people in the Jackson Ward Neighborhood of Richmond, Va. We were all laid-off at the same time, and took to our community and social media to raise funds to continue our planned programming and support our young people and their families through building a mutual aid meal train.
We worked with other mutual aids in the area and were able to continue programming and supplement with material support for over a year. The Richmond Peace Team adult leaders were Brandon Lovee, Zenobia Bey/Community 50/50, Keisha Cummings/2Love, and myself. When we transitioned out of mutual aid the youth programming was continued on under Community 50/50.
Along with facilitating and curriculum building I was also responsible for (along with youth leaders) running our social media/fundraising tools, you can find our Instagram account here.
Zenobia Bey, Brandon Lovee, Keisha Cummings, Cristina Leoni-Osion, Summer 2020
The Jackson Ward Youth Peace Team performing Black Mothers, Black Rules with Brandon Lovee and Zenobia Bey, coordinated by Cristina Leoni-Osion
Our Values
Being responsive and flexible to the needs and mental health of the youth
Meeting young people where they are
Providing safe and liberated space for young people to express themselves fully
Believing in the potential of each and every young people
The healing power of creative expression
Anti-Racism
Transformative/Restorative Justice
Accessibility
Community collaboration where we work as allies and not competitors with other community members and organizations that align with our values
Love
Liberation
We value being responsive and flexible to the needs and mental health of the young people that we work with. By listening to our youth and meeting them where they are, we create an environment of trust and respect that nurtures leadership and confidence.
We believe in the genius and exponential potential of young people in spite of the lack of opportunities and access. Because of this demonstrated, mutual respect, our Youth Leaders agenda plan, value align, write their own circle guidelines, and facilitate for their peers.
We use circles as a restorative and transformative justice tool, to learn how to build sustainable and more resilient responses to trauma and conflict.
Self-Love.
Through tours of Historic Jackson Ward learning about our rich history, time spent on the basket ball court putting our conflict resolution skills into action, or celebrating our Gilpin Court Community we practice, build, and share our self-love through our circle practice, where the youth always lead and through service to our community, such as our Meal Train Mutual Aid.
Advocacy.
We take time to meet, listen, and share with community advocacy experts and organizers. It is important for young people to have knowledge of their educational rights and policies and laws regarding themselves and their community. Through encouraging youth to grow into leaderships roles within the Team we empower them with the tools they need to advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Creativity.
Many of our adult facilitators are practicing artists of various disciplines who bring their creative energy into our practice of restorative justice and trauma-healing work. We love to celebrate and share our vibrant and innovative culture through spoken word, drumming, dancing, and singing. Our creative practice helps us build trust and empathy within our team so that we can continue to grow, heal, and inspire.
“We all bring different things to the collective. We’re four different people and four different backgrounds; I think that’s what makes this so unorthodox, coming together with different skill sets,” says Bey, operations manager of the team and a Virginia State University graduate.”
— Zenobia Bey, quoted in Richmond Magazine’s article What They Need by Eileen Mellon