Buffalo Peacemakers’ Work Was Focus of Breakfast Event
Pastor James E. Giles, President & CEO
A Breakfast Event was held for the Buffalo Peacemakers on March 20th at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, 701 East Delavan Ave., Buffalo. Several speakers whose lives or businesses that have been touched by the Peacemakers were on hand to tell their stories.
The Buffalo Peacemakers Youth Violence and Gang Intervention Program officially began on August 12, 2013. Its mission is to mentor gang-involved and at-risk youth and help them move away from violence into a positive, peaceful life path.
From the beginning, the Peacemakers have helped to reduce youth violence in Buffalo. They also run an amazing mentoring program, Buffalo HEAT (Health, Empowerment, Attitude, and Teamwork). Its Safe Passage program helps children make it to school and get home safe and sound.
The Buffalo Peacemakers also comfort victims of violence and natural disasters in the city. Its most extreme challenge occurred on 5/14/2022 with the horrific racist mass murder on Jefferson Avenue. They are also working closely with Dr. Henry Lewis Taylor of the University at Buffalo, the Center for Health Equity, and the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to help change East Buffalo.
The Buffalo Peacemakers utilize the resources of its six peace-making organizations (Back to Basics Outreach Ministries, Buffalo United Front, FATHERS, GYC Ministries, MAD DOGS, and the Stop the Violence Coalition).
Pastor James E. Giles, is President & CEO, Dennis Walczyk, Chair of the Board; Peacemaker Carlanda Meadows, victim of violence, talked about how she was helped; Buffalo Police Capt. Steve Nichols (Ret.), spoke on why and how the Peace makers help the community.
Twelve Things the Buffalo Peacemakers Do
According to the Buffalo Peacemakers, there are twelve main categories of the Peacemakers’ work. They use the resources of their six peace-making organizations (Back to Basics Outreach Ministries, Buffalo United Front, FATHERS, GYC Ministries, MAD DADS, and the Stop the Violence Coalition) to:
1.) Work with gang leaders to mediate conflict and deter violence: “As soon as we learn of a developing gang conflict, perhaps by monitoring Facebook or other online apps, we reach out to the leaders to talk with them about the negative consequences of shootings. We often act as a go-between to reach out to their enemies to lower the tension and create a peaceful resolution.”
2.) Mentor at-risk youth. Funding from Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Buffalo Bills enabled us to create a year-long mentoring program for at-risk high school youth. It is called Buffalo HEAT (Health, Empowerment, Attitude and Teamwork). HEAT runs five days a week for at least two and a half hours – longer in the summer. Each regular meeting includes an hour long peace circle, a generous healthy snack, and an hour of fun, vigorous exercise.
The peace circles allow youth to explore critical issues to their development and safety like resolving conflicts nonviolently, dealing with a dysfunctional home situation, succeeding in school, getting ready for an employer’s expectations, learning how to treat others fairly and how to be a good friend, etc. The snack and exercise teach healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Community service days, trips to special places, and engaging with community leaders are also built in.
Meeting year-round helps them create great relationships between youth and specially trained mentors which counter adverse childhood experiences (ACES) that cause so much trouble. ACES create toxic stress, high anxiety, depression and hopelessness, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts and sometimes acts. Trauma also often produces a very reactive fight, flight, or freeze response to stress that an affected youth is not able to contain by thinking first. And that can end very badly. Through long term relationships with trained Peacemakers mentors, and by participating in an effective program, we empower at-risk youth to grow into centered young adults who contain reactivity in times of stress, think carefully about their future, make positive plans that they put into action, and use new interpersonal skills to make valuable contributions to their families and the community at large.
For example, one of our youth entered HEAT after having been suspended 6 times in his previous year at Riverside High School. In the restorative circles he was able to open up about the things that were making him act out. He also learned new ways of dealing with his anger and a new appreciation of how other people might be feeling. As a result, he joined restorative circles being offered by Peacemakers In School Mentors at Riverside and quickly became a leader, having a positive influence on the students there. He also succeeded in never being suspended and made progress academically. Eventually, Pastor Giles brought him to talk on a radio program about the reasons for youth violence in Buffalo. He told Pastor Giles that if it wasn’t for HEAT, he believed he would have quickly ended up in jail.
3.) Work in our public schools. Every school day we run a Safe Passage program for students going to and from 8 schools to enable thousands of students to mix safely with each other, refrain from fighting, and avoid police arrests and consequent school suspensions. We also send 2 specially trained mentors into two high schools every school day to reduce conflict in the halls and lunchrooms and to mentor at-risk students.
4.) Reach out to family members and friends of the victim after an act of violence has occurred to prevent revenge shootings, offer grief counseling, and sometimes offer material assistance to the victims’ family. When the Peacemakers learn of an act of violence, we immediately go to the scene to comfort family members, provide crowd control so that police officers can do their investigative work, and prevent retaliation by the friends and family members of the victim.
5.) Create a peaceful atmosphere at a variety of public events from Juneteenth with 65,000 participants over two days, to high school football games with hundreds of young people in attendance, to concerts at Canalside, to highly charged public demonstrations.
6.) Hold prayer vigils after violence and participate with the Buffalo Police in clean sweeps. Function as a go-between, linking residents and law enforcement so that each group learns to respect and work with the other. Encourage the community at large to report crime and help make their neighborhoods safe. Work with businesses, block clubs, and citizens to strengthen residents to take charge of their neighborhoods. Train and engage citizens in non-violent conflict resolution.
7.) Provide food, supplies, and needed information to community residents during times of difficulty. For example, during the Covid pandemic we delivered free lunches and electronic equipment to 3,000 students who couldn’t get to school to collect them. We also helped their families, and many other impoverished households, get needed food, PPE, and education about how to avoid the virus. During the May 14, 2022, mass shootings on Jefferson Avenue, Peacemakers literally helped people escape the store – then immediately comforted victims and went on to give away free food, diapers and toiletries across the street every day for two months until the TOPS store reopened. In the heavy snow in November and the Christmas blizzard of 2022 we brought food and supplies to scores of families who couldn’t get out. So much so that National Grid gave the Peacemakers’ parent organization, Back to Basics Outreach Ministries, a $200,000 grant to further develop our Mobile Response Team.
8.) Help businesses thrive by responding to calls for assistance when drug dealers or other problematic people are scaring away their customers. We also work with block clubs to help strengthen neighborhoods and participate with other neighborhood groups in collecting litter and creating attractive spaces.
9.) Work with WNY state and federal political leaders to support needed gun control legislation and strive to stop the flow of cheap handguns into Buffalo from states with weak laws like Ohio and Pennsylvania. We also sponsor a credible messenger program on Black radio stations and community billboards to guide youth to not carry guns and to provide inspiration to live productive lives and accomplish great things.
10.) Provide court advocacy to youth in trouble with the law as well as good advice and/or counseling to their families. Help youth avoid jail time when possible and help them find alternatives to what got them in trouble such as successfully entering a job training program.
11.) Work with our partners in law enforcement, judges, and community groups to share information with each other and work together to reduce gang and community violence.
12.) Work with partners such as Dr. Henry Louis Taylor of the University of Buffalo and the Mother Cabrini Foundation to make lasting positive changes on Buffalo’s East Side. Known as the East Side Neighborhood Transformation Project, our aim is to create a model neighborhood in a very poor area which will then be used to impact the whole East Side.