PeaceCasters

Based in Louisville, KY, PeaceCasters supports young leaders to be influencers on social media and in their communities by sharing stories from lived experience, practicing positive communication skills, and building community online and off. Their curriculum is based on three pillars: empowered storytelling, social media for social good, and online conflict resolution. The PeaceCasters program builds on Peace Ed’s 37 years of experience training youth and adults to build and sustain positive relationships, bringing these essential skills into digital spaces and onto social media platforms.

Impact of SCE Support

The Youth Influencers Program is a bold initiative that synthesizes 37 years of successful conflict resolution trainings with a unique social media curriculum in order to create a full-scope, youth-led program. The program empowers young people to use personal storytelling, healthy social media skills, and conflict resolution online in order to become positive influencers within their communities.

The goals of the program include:

  • Increasing conflict resolution skills
  • Decreasing feelings of isolation and exclusion
  • Improving teens’ ability to identify negative or harmful content online
  • Building critical leadership skills such as an increased level of comfort sharing personal experiences online and a greater
  • ability to connect personally to community civic and/or justice issues
  • Empowering youth to share their experiences with others and become positive influencers online.

PeaceCasters is a member of SCE’s Youth Voice Challenge cohort. This group of exemplary organizations seeks answers to the question: How can young people inspire their peers to use technology in healthy ways and make digital spaces better for everyone? Learn more about the Challenge here.

Why We Invested

The Youth Influencers Program engages youth as leaders at every step of the project, from empowering high school students as facilitators to hiring program graduates to lead this work. We believe that this program’s one-of-a-kind approach to youth leadership, unique position as a local direct-service organization, and focus on conflict resolution will make it a strong addition to this cohort.

PeaceCasters is a program that empowers young people in middle and high school to share their stories with the world in order to create change through digital and social media.
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