By Angela G, Halton Youth Initiative Volunteer
November 30, 2020
YMCA Peace Week is a time to acknowledge and celebrate peace in our neighbourhood, and reflect on the community work that builds tranquility year round. Every year, the YMCA hosts a Peace Award Breakfast around mid-November to recognize individual youth, adults, and youth group promoters of peace. These groups or individuals are given Peace Medals as a reward for their positive impacts and acts of harmony in the community.
This year, the Halton Youth Initiative (HYI) was selected as a recipient for the 2020 Peace Medal! Many youth from the HYI attended the Peace Award Breakfast to represent the council and thank the YMCA for the opportunity. PEACE stands for Participation, Empathy, Advocacy, Community and Empowerment. Victoria Zeppieri, a youth volunteer presented an acceptance speech on behalf of the HYI speaking about how we incorporate these 5 attributes of PEACE into our work. At the Halton Youth Initiative we are avid participants, who empathize and advocate for the empowerment of ourselves as youth and to others in the community. We are inspired by the voices we are bringing to youth around Halton and the happiness we can bring into people’s lives.
After the awards were presented, Leena Sharma Seth, Founder & Principal of Mending the Chasm spoke about this year's Peace Week theme of Resilience of the Human Spirit. She expressed the importance of having resilience in order to overcome challenges that stand in our way. Our human spirits have the ability to learn, adapt and grow from the obstacles that are thrown at us. I think the Resilience of the Human Spirit is especially important these days with the global pandemic surging around us, but as a community and with resilience we can overcome anything together.