FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 15, 2010

 

Contact: 

Terry Mason, Board of Directors, The Peace Alliance terry@lupineproductions.com

 

 

 

MAKING PEACE A POLICY PRIORITY

Center for Spiritual Living, 880 Hampshire Road, Suite V, Westlake Village, CA 91361

 

 

Los Angeles, CA.  In collaboration with the Center for Spiritual Living Westlake Village, The Peace Alliance is holding a training day for those who would like to see violence reduction and prevention become a policy priority, to save money and save lives.

 

Believing that a great need exists in our country and the world for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to preventing and resolving violent conflict, The Peace Alliance is an alliance of organizers and advocates throughout the United States taking the work of peacebuilding from the margins of society into the centers of national discourse and policy priorities – working to make it the bedrock of our personal, national and global interest and investment.

 

The event will be conducted by Terry Mason, Director of The Peace Alliance, together with Jerilyn Stapleton and Tory Haslinger, State co-coordinators of the volunteers in the greater Los Angeles region, and other local area leaders.

 

“Domestically, we suffer from a plague of school shootings and bullying, domestic violence, sexual assault, and gang violence,” Terry Mason said. “In the U.S., youth homicide rates are more than ten times that of other first-world countries, and a World Health Organization report estimates the cost of interpersonal violence in the U.S. is in excess of $300 Billion a year. Violence reduction and prevention needs to be a part of our economic recovery in this country, to save money and lives.”

 

Attendees to the free event will be provided with tools and information to become more actively involved in The Peace Alliance and the campaign for the Youth PROMISE Act (H.R. 1064, Bill S 435) and the Department of Peace legislation (H.R. 808), both currently before Congress. The three-pronged approach to proactively building peace crafted by The Peace Alliance will be explored, including the areas of Advocacy, Applied Peacebuilding, and Coalitions & Public Education.

 

The Peace Alliance has a youth-adult partnership with the Student Peace Alliance, which has generated a multi-generational constituency. Students with an interest in learning about proactive peacebuilding strategies of advocacy with Congress, decision-making, organizational structures and personal interactions are also invited to attend.

 

EVENT DETAILS: 

 

WHERE:    Center for Spiritual Living, 880 Hampshire Road, Suite V, Westlake Village, CA    91361

 

WHEN:       Saturday, March 6, 2010, 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Check-in 9:00 a.m.,

 

COST:         Free; donations to the Center for Spiritual Living are welcome

The Peace Alliance is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization leading a growing grassroots movement active in all 50 states supporting the Youth PROMISE Act, and the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace. For more information on this legislation and the campaign, please visit www.thepeacealliance.org

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