FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 16, 2019

Eli McCarthy, DC Peace Team
510-717-8867, esm52@georgetown.edu

Bob Reeg, Peace Through Action USA
202-827-5967, breeg@peacethroughaction.org

(Washington, DC)—DC Peace Team and Peace Through Action USA announced their intent to work together to increase peace between people and groups in District of Columbia neighborhoods experiencing intractable community and interpersonal violence.

Through the collaboration, Peace Through Action USA will assign a national service participant to DC Peace Team. The peace agent will help the team increase the scale of its nonviolent skills building activities and expand its reach to neighborhoods in the city with the greatest need for additional nonviolent alternatives to engage conflict.

“For eight years, DC Peace Team has been learning from and mobilizing community members to teach our neighbors peaceful practices like bystander intervention, nonviolent communication, unarmed civilian protection, and restorative justice processes. We want to do more, especially partnering with and offering our services to DC neighborhoods that could benefit most. Our collaboration with Peace Through Action USA will bring their subject expertise and other resources to help us grow,” said Eli McCarthy, coordinator of DC Peace Team.

“We are delighted that DC Peace Team has invited us to support their important community development work,” said Bob Reeg, Peace Through Action USA chief executive officer. “The national service program model we use is a perfect fit to the growth aspirations of the DC Peace Team. We can’t wait to see what this group of community peacebuilders will accomplish with a compensated peace agent adding dedicated time and talent to their effort.”

The organizations’ top priority currently is securing gifts of money to implement the collaboration. They invite donations from residents of the metropolitan Washington DC region, local and small businesses, service clubs, religious congregations, community and family foundations, and others. The organizations have set up a giving page (http://bit.ly/peacegivewdc) and text-to-give number (text “Give” to 202-410-0372) for collecting donations.

Also, the organizations invite people to get involved in their activities by liking them on Facebook (DC Peace Team Facebook Page) (Peace Through Action Facebook Page).

DC Peace Team cultivates the virtue of nonviolent peacemaking and key corresponding practices. DC Peace Team empowers ordinary civilians to increasingly serve their communities particularly as nonviolent peacekeepers, and by extension as peacemakers and peacebuilders.

Peace Through Action USA activates and equips Americans to implement practical peaceful solutions to aggression and violence in their communities and our country.

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