Written by Tanya Terry
Featured photo: The Peacekeepers at Holmes Stem Academy, photo provided by Jalil X., Peacekeepers Global Initiative Flint Chapter
On March 3, the City of Flint Mayor’s Office announced the launch of a youth leadership and safety initiative for students in grades 7–12. The program, developed in partnership with PeaceKeepers Global Initiative – Flint, is called the Community Violence Intervention & Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) Peer Mediation Program. It aims to train selected students to serve as peer mediators and junior peacekeepers within their schools
“In the recent years, we’ve noticed by the information given to us, collected by the data that crime and violence has been portrayed more and more between youth between the ages of 12-17,” stated Jalil X., director of Peacekeepers Global Initiative Flint Chapter.
“The number one cause of death by youth ages 12-17 is gun violence,” he added. “So, we wanted to establish for youth something they could put in their tool bags, and the opportunity to utilize it in place of going straight to committing acts of violence…”
Jalil X. summarized the program as being “conflict peer mediation training.”
Participants will be attending two sessions per week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“There was a little violence, but when I was growing up 12, 13, 14 and 15 year olds were not shooting each other and killing one another. When I was growing up, it probably started at 17, 18 and 19. And there wasn’t as much as there is today.”
The youth will focus on conflict mediation, non-violence intervention, communication skills, emotional regulation, leadership development and a peer mediation overview.
Although this is the program’s second year at the local public schools, Jalil X. said this is the first time the PeaceKeepers Global Initiative have offered the program at the Flint Community Schools.
“We’ve been partnering with the City of Flint, doing conflict mediation and training, and we also, for the Flint Police Department, trained 100 officers in the last year and a half, almost two years. We’ve been doing peer mediation since 2024. We’ve been with the City doing what is called Community Violence Interruption for about the fifth year.
“The City of Flint stepped in to ask us if we would do the peer mediation in the schools this year because they were doing it last year, but they no longer have the staffing and the ability to be at the schools and to be involved like they’d need to be. So, they came to us and asked us if we’d take over the program and continue it since we were the originators of the Peer Mediation Conflict Mediation Training.”
Southwestern Academy, Accelerated Learning Academy and Holmes STEM Academy are offering the training.
A $500 leadership stipend will be given to all students who successfully complete the program.
According to Jalil X., some youth have told the Peacekeepers the program is needed. But, he shared that mostly principals and faculty have said it is needed because they are “overwhelmed” and glad someone is trying to give the youth more tools for their toolbags.
“We think it’s very much needed because if you can catch the people young and try to help give them tools to make better decisions when they’re in certain situations, it will reduce the amount of interaction between law enforcement and getting in trouble and juvenile situations.”
Jalil X. stated that the class would be 80% interaction and 20% information from books and other sources.
“The youth learn better that way. We let them tell us about them, rather than trying to determine who they are, and profile them. We let them talk, and what we do is just guide them and lead them to the best resolution to deal with whatever issue that may come up.
“Our facilitators are also functioning as mentors and mediators. So, the facilitator trains and teacher. But, if they have a problem, or issue, they are able to come to one of the facilitators to help get mentoring, or to help mediate an issue they they brought to us, and they thought might turn to something else that they would like help in resolving.”
“This program represents proactive leadership,” said Mayor Sheldon Neeley. “When we equip our young people with the tools to resolve conflict, regulate emotions, and lead with accountability, we are investing in safer schools and a stronger Flint.”
