AT A GLANCE

Headquarters
Boston, Massachusetts

Social Entrepreneur
Eric Dawson, Co-founder & CEO

Year Founded
1996

Website
http://www.peacefirst.org/

Mission:

Peace First is committed to investing in young people’s ability to create positive social change - not someday, but right now. Its work is grounded in teaching young people the skills and commitments of peacemaking; empowering educators and parents to teach and model these skills and values; and creating social messages that show the power of young people to demonstrate compassion, courage and collaborative change.

Vision:

Peace First aims to unleash this untapped resource by teaching young people the skills they need to solve the problems that matter most to them, and investing in the ideas that will help change our world for the better.

Approach:

The Peace First Challenge is a call to action for young people around the world to identify an injustice they care about and solve it using the tools of compassion, courage, and collaborative leadership, supported by a $1,000,000 venture fund to power their ideas.

Issue the Invitation: Reach young people with stories that inspire action, through media, partner organizations in their communities, and champions they trust.

Take the Journey: Young people who accept the challenge will address an injustice in their community and go on both an internal journey of personal growth, and an external journey to create powerful problem-solving projects in the world supported by a digital hub.

Invest in Ideas: Incentivize young people’s work and invest in their ideas through a $1M VC Fund for Peace that will provide mini-grants to encourage projects, and larger investments, through the Peace First Prize, to grow their impact.

Digital Activity Center: The Digital Activity Center houses Peace First’s signature peacemaking curriculum. The Peace First curriculum is tailored to meet the development needs of young people and to help them develop and practice positive behaviors. The curriculum addresses themes such as friendship, fairness, cooperation, conflict resolution, and consequences of actions, all through the use of experiential activities and cooperative games.

The Peace First Prize: The Peace First Prize is designed to showcase young people who have confronted injustice, crossed lines of difference, and had the courage and compassion to create lasting change. The goal is to share the daring work of our applicants far and wide, invest in their leadership, and inspire others to make peacemaking a part of their daily lives.

Impact:

With over twenty-five years of experience working with young people, Peace First has seen how they can be powerful problem-solvers when they are called and prepared to do so. Peace First has launched a global Peace First Challenge with the goal of activating 1000 teams of young people, and reaching millions of students through its stories and messaging.