EDITORS: Volunteers will be at the park on Saturday, July 17, from 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. to build play structures, install art works and plant trees and flowers. Lafayette Gardens is at 11700 So. Boulder Road. The best way to enter the Peace Park area is by going east on South Boulder Road and take a right (south) on Avalon (which is 2 blocks east of Public Road). The very first right (which has no name) is the entrance into Lafayette Gardens. The Peace Park is immediately on the left.
Student volunteers from the University of Colorado at Boulder are supporting a project that is helping to make a difference for some of the state聮s disadvantaged and at-risk young people.
Project YES (Youth Envisioning Social change) was started by Carole MacNeil and Beth Krensky in 1990 while they both were studying for their master's degrees at Harvard University.
Four years later, when the pair decided to continue their doctoral studies in the School of Education at CU-Boulder, they brought Project YES with them.
Today the registered non-profit organization is having the same sort of widespread beneficial impact on the lives of young people in Colorado that it once had in and around Boston.
A video on AIDS and teen pregnancy, a poster campaign about recycling and a Peace Park opening this month at Lafayette are just three examples of Project YES making itself felt in the community.
Project YES runs workshops and training programs targeting young people from ages 11 to 19 and labeled "at risk" with the aim of developing their artistic abilities, self-confidence, leadership skills and a range of other life skills.
While MacNeil and Krensky continue to be closely involved as directors, the organization also enjoys the backing of about 35 volunteers, many of whom are CU-Boulder graduate and undergraduate students.
In addition, Assistant Professor Shuaib Meacham from the School of Education is a member of the 10-person Project YES board of directors.
About a year ago the board decided to switch from a project-based to a community-based organization and have found a permanent home in Lafayette which will become the site for a drop-in center. The center is planned to open by January.
The center will offer daily after school programs covering topics as different as the arts, community service, leadership workshops and conflict resolution. While Project YES targets at-risk youngsters, the center will be free and open to all.
One of the group聮s first major contributions to its new hometown will be in the mobile home community of Lafayette Gardens where the Peace Park is due to be officially opened at 6:30 p.m. on July 23.
"These projects are all driven by the kids," said MacNeil. "They decide what the focus will be, they manage the project and they do all the work."
Peace Park is being seen as a testament to the power of diverse people working toward a common goal, a place for children to play together and a symbol of one community聮s hope for peace. About 100 young people will have worked on the project.
MacNeil said staff provide a support structure, empower the young people and help them develop their skills, "hopefully skills that they聮ll continue to apply throughout their lives."
Project YES also is preparing for a 10-week workshop later in the year intended to bring together a group of 13- to 16-year-olds from East Boulder County who will explore issues of peace and violence prevention.
As part of the workshop, group members will create works of art reflecting their ideas about the issues and the potential for social change. These works will be reproduced as posters, some of which will appear on Boulder聮s RTD buses.
MacNeil is drawing on her experiences with Project YES for her doctoral thesis in youth leadership development, which she hopes to complete by next spring.