United Nations/International Day of Peace
RSYP offers education and networking opportunities for local youth to become involved with the United Nations by visiting the UN headquarters in New York for conferences, weekly NGO briefings and special exhibits.
How can you get involved?
1. Attend a briefing with RSYP. Check the UN NGO website for a calendar of weekly briefing topics, and let us know which one you’d like to attend. Please contact us at least 2 weeks in advance so that we can help arrange a security pass, transportation, and a staff person to accompany you for the day. If you are interested in attending a briefing, you may contact email hidden; JavaScript is required or email hidden; JavaScript is required.
2. Attend the International Day of Peace youth conference in September. Sign up through RSYP in August to reserve your spot.
3. Join the Local Initiative for Peace (LIP) group. Coordinated by Faren Worthington, Erin Hennessey, Olivia Jenssen, Molly Clark and Emilyn Bona, this group formed in 2008 in order to create tangible projects that promote peace. The group has partnered with the BARKA Foundation and began a pen pal correspondence with youth in Africa. They have raised money for BARKA’s annual Walk for Water to fund new wells for the people in Burkina Faso. The group will host a brief intro course in Summer 2009 for new recruits of RSYP’s United Nations delegation. Please contact email hidden; JavaScript is required if you are interested.
4. Create your own local peace project. For support, guidance or funding, begin with a youth-inspired project proposal.
5. Join local peace celebrations, like the one we held last year for IDP at the skate park. Bring your art, music, or ideas and help us promote peace by expressing what it means to you.
History OF RSYP’s UN involvement:
One constituent’s proposal to participate in the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of Peace (IDP) youth conference in 2005 has resulted in a long-term partnership with the UN and inspired RSYP youth to participate directly in the global community.
The NGO planning committee for IDP asked RSYP to join the planning efforts for the annual UN youth conference in 2006, and we have enthusiastically involved youth every year since. RSYP’s role on this committee is to create events and projects that will raise awareness about IDP among youth on the local, national and international levels, with the goal of engaging youth in reducing violence within their communities. The participation of several dedicated RSYP constituents on the planning committee is helping to change perceptions of what young people are capable of, and is ensuring that youth have a strong voice in the organization of the youth conference (previously planned solely by adults). RSYP has brought more than 80 youth to the UN to participate in events since 2005, and has collaborated with groups in Pittsfield and North Adams who have begun to do the same.
Over the last three years, RSYP’s young constituents have created music, public service announcements and video projects for the IDP, and four constituents have performed their original music at the UN conference. RSYP is currently involved in the application process to achieve official NGO representative status.
United Nations New York International Day of Peace 2008
“So Much in the World” by Aposoul
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“One Day” by Merc Love
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International Day of Peace PSA by Dominik Omega
Featuring original rhymes by Sofia Snow, Viceversah, D.R.A.M.A.T.I.C., and the Aposoul
This project was created in partnership with Pathways to Peace and is supported by the Lennox Foundation.
