P.E.A.C.E. Contest launched in Cambridge to get youth more involved

CAMBRIDGE, Md. – In Cambridge the community has started a new initiative to help local youth find solutions to their issues.

Community leaders who are excited to get the youth more involved, whether it lowers crime levels, make students more aware, with this project, Cambridge will have a better tomorrow. “To bring the community together and have a discussion about a project that we’re excited about for our youth,” says Deborah Wilder with the National Council of Negro Women.

That project is the P.E.A.C.E. Youth Arts and Culture Competition. Meaning to Protect, Encourage, Advise, Challenge, and Empower local youth. It’s a program that students can get involved in to find solutions to their problems. “We are giving the children of our community the power to address some of the issues no one telling them how to address the issues but for them to tell us as we the policymakers, people who actually vote how we actually address the things that are important to them,” says Former Cambridge Mayor and Contest Organizer Victoria Jackson-Stanley.

Anyone in the Cambridge community can get involved in the project: “They’re 8th graders through 12th graders, 13 to 19, and the idea is that they will develop their own medium it could be spoken word visual, music, all kinds of video things,” said Jackson-Stanley.

Organizers say getting the youth involved at an early age is the key to improving the city of Cambridge. “When you get engaged early on in life they see the need and they stay engaged less likely to get involved in those activities that are frankly not good for them or the community,” said Wilder.

With this initiative, organizers say local youth will be better set up for decision-making later in life. “We want youth especially to know what’s going on in their neighborhoods to know what’s going on in their communities so that when the time comes for them to vote they understand the reasons behind it and the need for voting,” said Wilder.

There will be 12 finalists in the competition and there will be a cash prize for the winners. The judges for the competition will be announced at a later date.

For more details about the competition, you can contact Janice Mathis at 404-394-1500.