The Changemaker Youth Grant recipients all came to Pace e Bene with creative visions for nonviolent solutions to violent problems facing our world. From the beginning, we’ve been inspired by the passion, drive, and originality that defined each of these projects and characterized the young changemakers who came up with them.

Keyla Park is one of the grant recipients this year, aiming to use art to empower young kids—“our future independent adults,” as she calls them—with knowledge about climate change and ways to reduce its effects. Keyla plans to use a large canvas with artistic representations of both climate problems and solutions to invite other youth to feel connected to the issues and begin to get inspired with their own creative ideas for change. These artistic representations of change will then be posted in libraries, schools, and other public places to show people that children care—that they want peace, not violence on the earth and in their community.

Making this goal a reality happens one step at a time, and this week she shared her progress with us:

“I had a meeting with the director of Little Friends for Peace—MJ Park, my grandmother. We made a time chart of all the tasks I have to do for my project. I have been getting ideas from people on how to help with environmental justice and global warming. We will be having a zoom brainstorming session on April 21st at 7pm with young people to get ideas for the mural.”

We love to see this leadership and spirit of collaboration from the next generation of activists. Check out the Changemakers page to see what the other grant recipients are planning, and if you feel inspired to support this project you can donate to next year’s fund here (be sure to select the Changemaker Youth Grant fund option).