DePaul University will co-host a series of initiatives this spring as part of “Blue for Peace,” a yearlong community service project designed to raise awareness of and address violence against youth in Chicago.

“We Are Chicago,” a citywide symposium, will be held on April 24 at DePaul’s Lincoln Park Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will bring families who have experienced the loss of loved ones due to violence together with more than 100 Chicago community leaders and organizations who serve them. This symposium and a youth peace rally at Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph St., on May 5 at 1:30 p.m. are the cornerstone events of Blue for Peace.

The campaign is DePaul’s contribution to the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, a national project sponsored by President Barack Obama and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships through the U.S. Department of Education. The project invites universities to develop one-year programs in which their students partner with local religious groups and other organizations to tackle specific community challenges, according to Mark Laboe, associate vice president for Student Affairs, who is coordinating Blue for Peace.

“The project underscores DePaul’s civic engagement strategy to convene community leaders around important issues,” Laboe says. “The President’s Challenge is an intentionally interfaith initiative that encourages participants to reach out across religious lines to work toward a solution. With Blue for Peace, we are addressing the issue of youth violence in our city.”

The goal of the invitation-only symposium is to foster discussion and provide information resources for families affected by violence against youths. Blue For Peace is presenting the event in partnership with Chicago Citizens for Change, a nonprofit organization led by Joy McCormick, mother of slain DePaul honor student Frankie Valencia, who was shot and killed on Halloween 2009. DePaul’s Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning, Egan Urban Center and its master’s in social work program are co-sponsoring the event.

The anti-youth-violence rally at Union Park on May 5 is co-sponsored by DePaul, the Chicago Public Schools Service Learning Office and other community groups. The rally will be the concluding event of Vincentian Service Day, an annual gathering of DePaul students, faculty, staff and alumni to provide a day of community service for a wide range of Chicago community partners. About 1,500 volunteers are expected this year. Another 1,500 students from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are expected to attend the rally, as are hundreds of youth from other partner organizations. Ameena Matthews, a CeaseFire activist profiled in the critically acclaimed 2011 documentary “The Interrupters,” will lead the call to action during the peace rally. 

Other elements of the Blue for Peace campaign include:

·         The “DePaul Peacemakers” program, which features 14 DePaul student leaders who facilitate peace/nonviolence education sessions with students at 23 local public schools. DePaul is partnering with CPS’s Service Learning Office and Project NIA (Nia means “with purpose” in Swahili), a youth advocacy organization.

·         DePaul College of Computing and Digital Media Professor Theresa Steinbach directed a service-learning project in one of her winter-quarter classes to develop and launch a website for Chicago Citizens for Change. This site is designed to become a valuable resource for access to Chicago services available to families affected by violence.

·         A partnership with DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences to create a spring “theme quarter” called “Journeys to Justice: Mobilizing for Change.” The initiative includes a series of curricular and co-curricular events focusing on transformative and restorative justice as a response to situations of violence.

·         Quarterly interfaith celebrations involving more than 200 student leaders will center on celebrating the shared value and work of nonviolence and peace building across faith traditions.

Editor’s note: Media interested in covering any of the above events should contact Ximena Beltran at xbeltran@depaul.edu, or 312-362-8823; Maria Toscano at mtoscan2@depaul.edu, or 312-362-7740; or Mark Laboe at mlaboe@depaul.edu, or 312-325-4004.