YMCA Peace Building Efforts
For over 150 years, the YMCA has believed in and promoted peace building efforts both at home and abroad. As a values-based charity, we are dedicated to teaching children and youth about the many dimensions of peace while also instilling values such as tolerance, inclusiveness, caring, respect, and responsibility for others.
YMCA World Peace Week Encourages Personal Acts of Peace
Each year, YMCA Canada supports local Associations in their efforts to promote peace building efforts, both here and overseas, during YMCA World Peace Week. In addition to activities for children and youth, many associations award
peace medallions to honour local residents committed to peace initiatives.
The theme of Peace Week, held from November 17-24, 2007, is "The power of peace...the power of people". The 2007 theme emphasizes how actions for peace connect people to each other while recognizing, in this 20th anniversary year of the YMCA Peace Medallion, the important role of the catalyst, the one who inspires us all to join the journey towards a more peaceful world. During the week, YMCA associations across Canada are urging people to make peace their personal cause and to tap into the collective power of people who want to make a positive impact in the world.
Building peace begins at home, through our relationship with those around us. By using our values we can shape the way we act everyday with our families, colleagues, friends and people in the community. Change occurs organically, step by step, day by day, person by person. One small step often leads to a bigger one. Once people see the difference they can make, they start to look at making more interconnections locally, globally, or environmentally. Whether people work in unison with others or on their own, we have the ability and the power to improve the social, economic, political and environmental conditions in the world today.
We hope that you, too, will commit to making everyday peace building activities a part of your life. No matter how big or small, an act of peace can encourage and engage others to do the same. While we may not bring world peace, we can make a difference one act at a time.
