Youth Nonviolence Leadership Program

The Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center Nonviolence Leadership Program provides in-school workshops and out-of-school programming assisting low-income, traditionally disenfranchised youth of the Greater Oakland area. The programs engages youth in meaningful problem solving through the study and practice of nonviolence principles. In-school workshops are presented to 1,200 middle and high school students in six school districts. Sixty youth then participate in advanced leadership programming including academic coaching, school visitations, on-going home visits, leadership cultural exchanges and public speaking. Students demonstrate transformation in their character and changes in their conduct reflective of nonviolence principles. Students also demonstrate increased academic capacity, increase in respect for self and others, increase in the ability to give and receive coaching, and a decrease in use of force in problem solving. Outcomes are demonstrated through analysis of hard school data, pre- and post-program surveys and qualitative reviews. NCA/NCF