PeaceJam Youth Conference Visioning Circle

PeaceJam Youth Conference Visioning Circle

Location: Denver
Number of Visioners: 50

About This Group:

The mission of the PeaceJam Foundation is to create a new generation of young leaders committed to positive change in themselves, their communities and the world through the inspiration of Nobel Peace Laureates.  See www.peacejam.org or call 303-455-2099 for more information.

This visioning circle took place at the 2009 PeaceJam Youth Conference, which featured Nobel Laureate Jody Williams.  This was the first youth visioning circle held for Let Us Rise.  Youth and adults who chose to participate in the visioning circle broke into 4 groups to go through the visioning process.  The results have been compiled below.

Participants: Lynn Pence
Nancy McLaughlin
Jeremy Koselak
Sonia Urban
Julie Barron
Julie Trabulsi
Wendy Morrison
Traci Bushnell
Jeff Bushnell
Gregg Painter
Trice Hufnagel
Melvina Moore
Josh Timberlake
Devin Hardin
Mary Buckwalter
Tamara Cordova
Jolene Vigil
Willy Douglas
Natalie Gonzalez
Laura Newman
Yamili Quezada
Jackie Quezada
Abel Estrada
Hailey Bohannon
Erica Reinhard
Tessa Alford
Matthew Donovan
Maria Buckmiller
Shannon Collins
Megan Anderson
Olivia Christian
Matt Simon
Toni Watson
Lane Binder
Vivian Andersen
Jordan Ann Seebohm
Sarah Kaplan Gould
Kevin Patterson
Emily Jacobs
Ella Paul
Fekade Bezayet
Martha Bethane
Rachel Spence
Lara Ruggles
Molly Mulligan
Hilary O'Kelly
Bridget O'Connor
Thom Schaefer
First Question: What are your core values?/What values do you seek to live by? Answers:

 

  • Appreciation
  • Awareness
  • Balance
  • Care-giver
  • Caring
  • Change
  • Communication
  • Community
  • Compassion
  • Connection
  • Culture
  • Education
  • Empathy
  • Enthusiasm
  • Feeding
  • Feeling
  • Feeling of connection and belonging
  • Generosity
  • Gratitude
  • Green
  • Harmony
  • Honesty
  • Honesty
  • Hope
  • Individuality
  • Insightful
  • Interdependence
  • Joy
  • Justice
  • Laughter
  • Leadership and Equality
  • Love
  • Mobilization
  • Open communication
  • Open-mindedness
  • Passion
  • Peace
  • People desire participation
  • Perseverance
  • Persistence
  • Reaching out
  • Reconciliation
  • Resiliance
  • Respect
  • Responsibility
  • Safety
  • Self control
  • Selflessness
  • Shared Knowledge
  • Simplicity
  • Support
  • Tolerance/Acceptance
  • Trust
  • Truth
  • Unique

 
Second Question: What would our communities look like if they were in line with these values? Answers:

 

  • "Mayberry"
  • "Peaceful violence" - disagreements, but talk and no guns
  • "People helping people" - Support system
  • "You can" signs and "Yes" signs
  • 911 available to supplement shared concern and accountability
  • A pony for everyone who wants one
  • Acceptance/tolerance
  • Affordable healthcare, preventive healthcare, universal healthcare
  • After school tutoring/mentoring
  • Agencies for employment
  • All age input and justice
  • All help
  • All kids participate in school - motivated
  • All types/cultures of people and animals - diversity
  • All voices heard
  • All yards were taken care of
  • Ample habitat for nature and population control
  • Animals being killed humanely
  • Art, sculptures, fountains
  • Artistic and creative
  • Awareness of others' needs and situation (not nosiness)
  • Awareness of restorative justice
  • Backyards for all
  • Balance
  • Bartering - no currency
  • Beach
  • Bike riding
  • Birds
  • Birds chirping/wildlife
  • Brueggers Bagels & Ben and Jerry's
  • Bunnies
  • Caring for each other
  • Classes outside
  • Clean community - downtown, streets and sidewalks, water, air, surroundings
  • Colors/vibrant
  • Comfortable humble house
  • Community center/coffee house/recreation center/gathering hall/garden/nature/hang-out/bulletin board/swimming pool/Jacuzzi/water park
  • Compassion
  • Conversation/communications
  • Cooperation
  • Creativity nights - Talent show, open mic, poetry
  • Dance / Dance clubs
  • Daytime
  • Déj- vu
  • Democracy
  • Desire to be outdoors
  • Desire to support others' needs and well-being
  • Different languages, but still communicating
  • Comfortable with Diversity - people, food, markets, vegetation, cultural, socio-economic, ability, sexuality, belief systems, talents
  • Doctors
  • Don't see gas stations
  • Don't see police
  • Easy/slow
  • Eco-friendly
  • Emphasize involvement and shared responsibility of youth
  • Employment
  • Enough money/shared resources
  • Environmentally friendly houses / transportation
  • Equality - No social differences (class), equal representation for all, equal human rights, respect
  • Equality in education - Everyone has the right to be educated, affordable education, education buffet
  • Everybody employed locally
  • Everyone knows each others' names
  • Everyone recycling
  • Everyone well-kept (not dirty)
  • Family and friends close by
  • Family owned business - ice cream parlors, barber shops, beauty shops, etc.
  • Family reunion/block party
  • Fast food
  • Felt like people of the world - not isolated
  • Flowers, apple and lavender smells, fresh mountain air and fresh rain smells, good smelling stuff
  • Flyers for political issues around world
  • Food co-op
  • Fountain in park - hearing splashing, 70s, 80s, 90s soundtrack
  • Freedom
  • Freedom of Self
  • Freedom to be ourselves - "Pursuit of happiness"
  • Fresh and clean
  • Friendly
  • Front porches where families talk
  • Fun - a happy place
  • Gardens/fountains
  • Giving what you don't need
  • Good cuisine
  • Good/shared/healthy/community food
  • Healthy relationships
  • Home/basic necessities for all
  • Hope
  • Houses all different colors
  • Inclusive
  • Independent coffee shop - fewer chains, local stuff
  • Individuals have freedom to live where, how, and with whom they please
  • Indoor plumbing
  • Involvement
  • Joy and love
  • Justice
  • Justice Council
  • Know community - know my neighbors and talk to them
  • Knowledge
  • Laughter
  • Learning community
  • Leaving door open when leaving house
  • Less cars - bike riding
  • Little kids playing with each other, playing in yards
  • Local farms/markets
  • Lots of windows
  • Love felt and spread
  • Mediation house/community space
  • Medicine to cure anything
  • Meditation Garden
  • Mega mall with huge food court and sale
  • Moral agreement good for overall human and animals and earth
  • Multi-age community council
  • Multi-age interaction
  • Multilingual
  • Music and Art
  • Mutual respect!
  • Mutual support and accountability
  • Natural, natural materials
  • Natural light in house - skylight
  • Nature - green yards, huge old trees, green space
  • Necessary education and education by choice and skill
  • Neighborhood watch
  • Nice people of all ages
  • No "gum spots" on sidewalks
  • No bare room walls - bookshelves
  • No boundaries
  • No broken cars, discarded toys, etc. in yards
  • No cells
  • No dents on cars - "intact"
  • No deserted buildings
  • No dress codes - wear what you want!
  • No drugs
  • No homeless people
  • No one alone or left out
  • No one is expendable - support for all circumstances and conditions, including people with different expressions
  • No over-built areas
  • No preconceived notions
  • No restrictions to good health
  • No stoplights
  • No stray animals
  • No victimless crime penalties
  • No violence/no need for violence/no weapons/no guns
  • Non-polluting cars
  • Nothing over 3 stories
  • Oceans, rivers, lakes
  • Open communication and shared decision
  • Open-minded community
  • Oral hygiene
  • Outdoor activities/education
  • Outdoors anytime
  • Outside pavilion where friends hang out
  • Paths/sidewalks
  • Peacefulness
  • People outside, people on porches
  • People talking/discussing
  • People visiting ancestors
  • Personal education topics that apply and that you want to study
  • Playful
  • Playground - Lots of swings!
  • Playing oboe
  • Positive relationships
  • Power
  • Public transportation
  • Quiet atmosphere
  • Relaxed energy (not stressed)
  • Renewable sources
  • Resources used wisely
  • Respect for teens
  • Restorative justice
  • Reverence/spirituality
  • Rocking chairs
  • Role models and mentors o'fun
  • Run partially by women
  • Safety
  • School classrooms taught by students
  • Security
  • Self-secure
  • Self-sustainability
  • Sense of security
  • Sense of tradition and cohesiveness
  • Serenity
  • Skate park
  • Small
  • Small $2 movie theater
  • Small community potluck town meetings/block party
  • Smells like pies
  • Smiling and welcoming faces
  • Solar panels
  • Sounds like a playground
  • Space between houses - room to breathe
  • Sports, Frisbee
  • Squirrels
  • Strong sense of community
  • Sunflowers
  • Support for those of differing abilities
  • Sustainable
  • System to value kids' talents/opinions/creativity
  • Talk to people
  • Teachers
  • Teen after school program
  • The Hobbit
  • Understanding
  • Vegetable and flower gardens in front yards
  • Vibrant, clean community
  • Walk around barefoot
  • Walking dogs
  • Walking/riding
  • Warm and sunny - bright
  • Water and rain
  • Welcoming
  • Well kept streets - no potholes
  • Whole Foods
  • Wholesome food - Breakfast (French toast, coffee, eggs)
  • Wind farms
  • Youth center
  • Open spirituality
  • Opportunity for quiet and solitude
  • World music from all cultures
  • Alternate energy
  • Sidewalk cafes everywhere
  • Education
  • Specialty courses for credit!
  • Internship
  • Silversmithing
  • Pre-career prep classes
  • Bring back home economics
  • Emotional wellness class
  • Culinary classes
  • Alternative means of acknowledging intelligence
  • Siesta!
  • More AP classes
  • More challenging
  • Greater variety in subject choice
  • Love - we need it
  • Parent involvement
  • African American history
  • Inclusion of mental disabilities
  • More funding
  • Free, affordable, and diverse
  • Not one size fits all education
  • Social clubs
  • Community Bulletin
  • Playground - heavy on the swings
  • Ziplines!
  • Multilingual
  • FUN!
  • After school programs
  • Awareness via education
  • Service and learning

  • Sustainability

  • Solar driven society

  • Wind farms

  • Barter/trade
  • Sharing with others
  • Renewable energy
  • Food Not Lawns
  • Electric cars
  • Community recycling
  • Bicycles and paths
  • Organic farms
  • Industrializing hemp
  • Diversity
  • Gardens
  • Youth has a voice!
  • Skate parks
  • Water parks in every neighborhood
  • Accessibility for all people with disabilities
  • Food - local employment
  • Compassion/Multiage council
  • Open spirituality
  • Respectful and inclusive
  • Grocery stores
  • Music