Peers Building Justice (PBJ)

Peers Building Justice (PBJ) is an after-school youth group focused on empowering youth to create positive change in their communities. Once a week, youth meet over dinner and play games, learn new skills, and strategize around creating change in their community. As anti-violence educators, we recognize that interpersonal harm and abuse thrive in isolation and seek to give youth tools to advocate for their wants and needs both independently and collectively.

PBJ aims to:

• Build skills for youth to be active decision-makers in their communities 
• Create a joyful and transformative space for youth to show up genuinely, work together to address problems, and experience generative conflict 
• Inspire arts-based events and projects to fight oppression
• Combat individualism and build youth power!

Our why:

PBJ employs a social justice, anti-oppression, pro-liberation framework that incorporates principles of Positive Youth Development (PYD). We believe that in order to end violence in our community, we must understand and challenge the varying forms of oppression people experience, all of which contribute to teen dating violence and sexual assault.

Youth lead the way in unpacking the struggles that face our communities every day by examining local history and critically analyzing ideologies that contribute to oppression. This approach allows individuals to think critically about their relationships and gain tools to build and maintain healthy relationships.