Youth Day is a traditional part of the Association for Conflict Resolution Annual Conference. This year that day will be Friday, Oct. 10th! ACR collaborates with area schools and youth service agencies to develop a program that addresses issues of interest and concern to local youth of middle school and high school age.

ACR Youth Day is unique in its approach to training students and educators in conflict resolution. Most conflict resolution programs are coordinated in the school by school-personnel with support from outside the immediate school to train students and, in some cases, to evaluate conflict programming, but without connecting the student conflict resolvers to their peers in other schools. This isolation narrows participants’ picture of the field. By bringing young people together with their peers and with adult role models, students’ visions will be expanded and networks formed. They will have greater confidence in doing their conflict work and the likelihood of their continued work in resolution in the future is increased.

Activities used for learning experiences will come from conflict resolution training developed from ACR Standard Based Peer Mediation Model with supplemental materials used from CRETE (Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education – Trisha Jones, Temple University) focusing on active listening, bias reduction, and understanding the power of non-verbal communication. In addition to the half day training, students will engage in a discussion around diversity, bullying awareness, and global peace. Prior to the conference, students will have the opportunity to express their beliefs and opinions in artwork which will be displayed during the conference.