Lead Peace

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

Lead Peace is a partnership for learning between the county, school, university, and community. The goals of the Lead Peace service learning program are to improve middle grade students’ school connectedness and success, foster their positive community involvement, and reduce risk for violence. Village Social Services is housed in a North Minneapolis neighborhood by Hennepin County as a proactive response to disproportionate levels of poverty, school failure, and other social problems. The Lead Peace program began when the Village Social Services approached the University of Minnesota Prevention Research Center (UMN-PRC) to explore how a youth development framework could guide their efforts in preventing adolescent health and social problems. With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Village Social Services and UMN-PRC collaborated on a school-based service learning program, evaluating impacts on 6th to 8th graders’ social health, school connectedness, and success. They teamed up with a network of committed partners including the Minneapolis Public School District, Kwanzaa Church’s Nia-Imani Youth and Family Development Center, and other key neighborhood non-profit organizations. Lead Peace evaluation findings are quite promising as students who have been enrolled in the program have reported greater interpersonal skills, more cooperative peer behaviors, stronger peer attachments, and greater school connectedness than do students in a controlled condition.