Peace Day Philly by Lisa Parker

by Lisa Parker

The United Nations International Day of Peace, more than any other designated UN day, actively engages civil society across the earth. People, organizations and communities find meaningful and creative activities and action steps each year on and around Peace Day, September 21. Each year, the United Nations choses a global theme for Peace Day. The UN global theme for 2022 is “End Rac-ism - Build Peace.”

Peace Day Philly was founded in 2011 as a grassroots initiative for the Philadelphia region. Since then, Peace Day Philly has involved over 150 organizations offering 170 programs spanning the week in which Peace Day falls, with a special gathering on September 21. At this gathering, we share global and local messages of peace, enjoy drumming and guitar and observe the minute of silence at 12 noon (which takes place in all time zones). We end our gathering with the global intention, “May Peace Prevail On Earth.”

Each year, Peace Day Philly engages in outreach to organizations that can offer their own activities to the public or collaborate with Peace Day Philly or another entity to present a program related to peace or justice. Peace Day Philly encourages activities related to personal, local and global peace. How does an organization’s mission relate to peace? Peace Day Philly promotes all programs on our website including those offered independently by groups and organizations. Programs can be virtual or in-person. Peace Day Philly programs have been wide ranging, and have included: yoga, police and communi-ty, racial justice, anti-violence, combating racism, environmental issues, global issues related to peace including economics and peace, immigrant and African refugee issues, panel discussions around peace topics, refugee children’s art, meditations, films, interfaith understanding, community activities, concerts, creative activities such as peace poetry, and personal health and wellness. We favor col-laboration, so many Peace Day Philly programs involve one or more organizations.

Some of the organizations that have engaged in Peace Day have included: the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, the Penn Museum, Penn School of Social Work, Drexel University’s Office of Inter-national Programs, Interfaith Philadelphia, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual dis-Ability Services, Coalition for Peace Action, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia School District, Philadelphia’s Office of Violence Prevention and the Philadelphia Police Department. The Philadelphia Ethical Society and the United Nations Association of Greater Philadelphia have been our strong partners over the years.

Peace Day Philly has developed a website to make it easy for people, organizations and schools to plug into the day. Our website shares ideas for activities related to children/youth, non-violence, the arts, community, humanitarian aid, social justice, the environment, interfaith, health and sports. Four North American cities have adopted Peace Day Philly’s focus on “What Can You Do?” and have de-veloped their websites accordingly.

Unique nationally, Peace Day Philly encourages the Police Department to offer peace and justice actives in police districts across the city on and around Peace Day. Programs take place in communi-ties and schools, and range from child safety to antibullying talks, cultural performances to art activi-ties and peace projects. Annually, at least half of over 20 districts in the city organize something for Peace Day, many engaging youth. This year, we are working with the Police Department to create a march that will span across 3 police districts in high violence areas.

For the past few years, Peace Day Philly has collaborated with the Philadelphia School District to en-courage Peace Day activities in schools across the city, encouraging them to use the global day as a local day of opportunity. How can Peace Day provide a chance to begin the school year in a positive and unified way? Schools and libraries that have engaged in Peace Day have done peace poetry, peace art, pledges for peace, anti-bullying activities, marches, meditating, peace music, panel dis-cussions and more. In 2021, Peace Day Philly created a toolkit that includes suggestions for getting involved in Peace Day designed for elementary, middle and high school students. This toolkit was distributed across the school district last year.

As of 2018, Peace Day Philly became a non-governmental organization (NGO) affiliated with the United Nations. We have taken a leadership role with the International Day of Peace NGO Committee to connect and encourage ongoing involvement in Peace Day nationally and internationally and to share ideas for observing the day.

Peace Day Philly remains a volunteer, non-profit effort. We invite anyone with an interest in peace to volunteer for or contribute to Peace Day Philly. Contact us at peacedayphilly921@gmail.com.

- To learn more about Peace Day Philly, go to www.peacedayphilly.org - To view our past events, go to: http://www.peacedayphilly.org/events/ - To watch our video, go to: bit.ly/PDPVIdeo - To access our toolkit, go to: bit.ly/PDPToolkit

May Peace Prevail in Philadelphia - May Peace Prevail On Earth!

Lisa Parker is a graduate of Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work & Social Research. She is a Philadelphia native and social worker by training who has worked in various social services, anti-bullying, educational, cross-cultural, mental health and public health programs in a number of Philly neighborhoods. She also has experience in program development, implementation and evaluation, and has also been involved in the creative arts, theatre for social change and non-profit development and programming. She developed Peace Day Philly from a grassroots initiative in early 2011 through becoming a non-profit organization in late 2013. Since 2018, she has represented Peace Day Philly at the United Nations.