Local activism and the people who fight for meaningful change in the community were center stage at the recent Peacemaker Awards ceremony, hosted by the Community Boards Leadership at the City Club.
“We wanted to create a space that acknowledges peacemaking,” said Darlene Weide, executive director of Community Boards Leadership, which is the largest and longest running community-based conflict resolution center in the country.
According to Weide, the Peacemaker Awards began in 2010 with the goal of creating “an opportunity that shifted a focus away from corporate tech.”
This year’s winners included Deena Abdelwahhab, Phoebe Vanderhorst, and Roadmap to Peace.
The Gail Sadalla Rising Peacemaker Award, meant to recognize to a youth peacemaker, went to Abdelwahhab, a 17-year-old Muslim woman and recent graduate from Balboa High School. She was recognized for her work at her school as a “peer leader” and restorative conflict mediator. Abdelwahhab, who is also a member of Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), mediated 15 conflict cases, led workshops on Islamophobia and helped create the Arabic language pathway in the San Francisco Union School District.
“You typically don’t see Muslim women speaking up,” said Abdelwahhab, who explained that Muslims are often stereotyped in the media, which is what inspired her to join AROC. “I wanted to be a voice for the voiceless.”
Abdelwahhab will attend San Francisco State University in August with the aspirations of joining the nursing program while continuing her activism. “You have fight for what you believe in,” she said. “There’s always going to be obstacles, but if you’re passionate, go for it.”
The Raymond Shonholtz Visionary Peacemaker was awarded to Vanderhorst, founder and funder for Way-Pass: Women’s Aftercare Program and Supportive Services. Way-Pass is a program at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) that assists women (and now men as well) who have been recently released from prison.
Vanderhorst explained how these women are frequently released back into society with horrible health conditions, with no support to return to school, and often without a home.
“I walked the walk. I feel obligated in many ways to use this experience to help people,” said Vanderhorst, a former heroin addict of 30 years who had been in and out of incarceration since 1972. “We’re all about solidarity and love.”
Last semester, Way-Pass was able to help 53 CCSF students.
The Community Boards Leadership Peacemaker Award went to Roadmap to Peace, a nonprofit project of Instituto Familiar de la Raza that began in 2012 after a series of deaths occurred in the Mission within a short period of time.
“Roberto Hernandez mobilized a call of action for people to come together,” said Gloria Romero, the director of Roadmap to Peace.
A collaboration between service providers, families, and the community, Roadmap for Peace partners with: Mission Peace Collaborative, CARECEN of San Francisco, Mission Neighborhood Health Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers, César Chávez Institute, Bay Area Community Resources (CHALK), Five Keys Charter School, Horizons, Inc., and UCSF’s Clinical Translational Science Institute to provide services such as health, education support, vocational training, family support, youth support and community events.
The project teaches people 13-24 years of age to be self-sufficient by connecting them to higher education, job training and to job opportunities so they can earn a living wage.
Peacemaker Awards winners were chosen from a nomination process beginning in January that typically includes about 20-25 nominees. Forms were given out from those in the mayor’s office to smaller organizations.
“We look for people who have made an impact in their neighborhoods in their own way,” said Weide.