Founded in 2020, Alive Community Outreach continues to expand its flagship enterprise, Peacemaker Academy, a nonviolence leadership development program for Fort Wayne Community Schools' high schools.
The intensive program consists of a three-week summer academy, focused on developing leaders who are committed to making peace in their school and community.
Its curriculum, rooted in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy of nonviolent conflict reconciliation, prepares graduates for leading the way in building a beloved community, cultivating peace and inspiring their schools to become places of compassion, understanding and hope for the future.
Here the organization’s Director, Angelo Mante and academy graduates Ania Garcia and Raydin Garrett discuss the movement’s progress and far-reaching impact with WBOI’s Julia Meek, and what “being the peace” is all about.
You can learn more about the Peacemakers' Beloved Community Celebration on Sept. 7 at the Alive Community Outreach website.
This is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Angelo Mante, Ania Garcia, Raydin Garrett, welcome.
Raydin Garrett: Hello.
Ania Garcia: Hi.
Julia Meek: So, you and yours have been building that Peace Academy since 2021, Angelo. Would you remind us of your mission there?
Angelo Mante: Absolutely. So, the broad mission of Alive Community Outreach is to cultivate a community of nonviolence through relationships and education.
Peacemaker Academy is one of our flagship programs, a nonviolent Leadership Development Program, and that is all about empowering and equipping high school students to lead the peace movement in their school and in their community.
Julia Meek: And the Academy's mission is based on the Kingian philosophy of nonviolence. Now was, or is that hard for you students to wrap your heads around?
Raydin Garrett: Not exactly. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. And when we really went through learning like the six principles, they've all been things that I thought about in life before, so it kind of narrowed it down and made it make sense.
Julia Meek: Did it kind of make you feel better that someone major and way before you knew what the problems would be and how to handle them?
Raydin Garrett: Yeah, I mean, something I've heard, there's nothing new under the sun. Although it was a while ago when he was walking around and preaching it, I think it's still relevant to nowadays.
Julia Meek: Good for you. What about you, Ania?
Ania Garcia: I don't think it was difficult for me either. I mean, growing up, you'd hear about Martin Luther King, Jr. a lot, so being able to get that understanding and just learn more, almost like one on one, his teachings and what he presented too.
Julia Meek: A good role model?
Ania Garcia: Yeah.
Julia Meek: So, Angelo, you put this package together. How do you get the point across in a given timeframe, and how many students can you recruit and manage in a cohort, I believe you call it?
Angelo Mante: Yeah. So, we have a cohort of 12 students per school, per year. We're in all five FWCS high schools right now. So, we have 60 total students that go through the Academy.
Now, the Academy itself is a three-week intensive, all-day experience. We throw a lot at them. We also work with them throughout the course of the year, but they learn the six principles of nonviolence, the six steps of nonviolence.
We do a lot around de-escalation and organizing and mobilizing for change in their school. We look at what are the issues in your school that you want to address as a group of students.
And then from there, at the end of that three weeks, now, we're walking with them and really following their lead, really trying to empower them to lead the movement. We're there to support them throughout the year.
Julia Meek: Three weeks. That's a mighty intensive goal you have set for yourself, then.
Angelo Mante: Yeah, it's intense. But you know, every single year we get to the end of that three weeks, and you would think high school students are like, all right, I'm ready to go, you know, live out the rest of my, my summer, (both chuckle) go to the pool or something.
But every year, we find that students are like, Man, I wish, I wish this was four weeks. I wish this was longer, because the bonds are so tight that they form and we have fun.
Not just like, you know, we're lecturing for three weeks. It's really interactive. We go on field trips. We have fun days. And so, it's a really intense experience, but it's a fun and deeply rich experience.
Julia Meek: Satisfying? You guys, do vouch for everything Angelo just said?
Raydin Garrett: 100%!
Ania Garcia: Definitely, yes!
Julia Meek: Very, very cool. Now, "Be the Peace," that is quite a campaign motto that you have. Just what does it mean to you two, especially having graduated this course?
Raydin Garrett: I think it's definitely something to live by when you think that you got to kind of walk your talk pretty much.
So, I mean, if you want the community to be peaceful, if you want people to come together, you kind of got to be the one to lead that.
If that's what you expect. That's definitely what we try to move by.
Ania Garcia: Yeah, be the peace. We want to bring our community together. So, you want to be that hopeful light that they're looking for.
Julia Meek: And do you fill that role?
Ania Garcia: Definitely, yeah!
Julia Meek: That's fantastic. And okay, as you alluded to, Raydin, Martin Luther King Jr and his contemporaries are from a different time and era.
How do you relate to his message? Is it difficult to bring it into 21st Century relevance for your peers, for your school, for your whole community?
Raydin Garrett: Just like Ania was saying earlier, it kind of helps us understand just what we've been learning about Martin Luther King, like all through school, we're obviously taught who he is and kind of what he did.
But I definitely think the Academy gives you a better understanding of his mission, of his goals, and actually, like the Martin Luther King bridge, a monument downtown Fort Wayne that everybody passes by, probably every day.
Through the Academy, we were able to take a field trip and walk through that so we read all the meaningful quotes and understood the relevance of it. It definitely helps us understand.
Julia Meek: Now we are looking at five-year milestones on several critical issues right here, right now as well. Covid and the Floyd protests are two of the big ones.
That's when Angelo's peace movement blossomed. What has this journey been like, Angelo? And where would you say we stand these five years later?
Angelo Mante: That's a great question. So yeah, we launched as an organization on January 1, 2020, not knowing that we would experience a pandemic, and all that that entailed, which we're still very much seeing the effects of that, by the way.
The impact that it had on mental health in students and just how they interact socially. We're still seeing that today.
Then the George Floyd protests, we had a lot of things that we envisioned and planned for that year that got derailed because of covid.
The protests kind of give us another kind of aspect to focus on with training nonviolent in the community. So, five years later, I mean, so much has changed in the last five years. We find ourselves right now in this moment of chaos on so many fronts.
And I think with the Floyd situation, especially here in Fort Wayne, I think it created a more socially conscious community, even among our young people who became, I mean, these guys here, they were, you know, 13-14, years old at the time.
And so, experiencing something that traumatic as a community--I didn't experience anything like that when I was their age. And so, I think it did that.
But we're in this moment right now of crisis, and I think a lot of people are either finding ways to get engaged in different aspects of the community, or are wanting, searching for ways to get involved and to respond to so much of the chaos that we're experiencing right now.
Julia Meek: But now, certainly with this Peace Academy, you are giving a lot of people and their families a chance to have a solution, a chance for hope?
Angelo Mante: Yeah, there's so many different things going on, and I think at some point, and I think a lot of, a lot of people who are socially conscious and want to do something, it's very easy to get overwhelmed and get involved in too many different things.
And I think for us, we said, all right, we're going to focus on this work in the schools and really dig in and invest in these young leaders who are the future, but they're also the present, and that's what we're seeing them making that difference and change in their schools right now.
But we also have, it's called the Peace Family, which is an intergenerational group that meets every couple weeks, and it's a lot of groups that are concerned citizens on multiple fronts.
And we come together for encouragement, and we learn together, and several of them volunteer with us in the schools. And so that's been an outlet for some people as well.
But right now, people are just kind of looking to for something that they can dig into and feel like they are a part of something that's moving the needle in a positive direction.
Julia Meek: So, talking about a good leader, building them being one, what are the most important skill sets you need to have and hone for this position would you two say?
Raydin Garrett: I would definitely say being able to just be understanding of what goes on in other people's lives, understanding the complexity of situations.
Being able to grasp without making irrational decisions, you know, acting without thinking. It just takes a lot of being able to take in and understanding what's going on.
Julia Meek: Everything that Raydin said certainly makes sense, Ania. What do you see? What particular skills and strengths make a difference in learning how to make a difference?
Ania Garcia: I mean, this isn't a one-person job. So, there's so many personalities behind the Peacemaker Academy, and you need that community, that beloved community, to come together to get more people involved.
Not everyone's personality will match someone else's. So having more peers with different personalities be able to bring other backgrounds, whether that's like culturally or where they live, different districts, being able to have different people.
Julia Meek: All kinds of people, all kinds of circumstances, you seem to actually thrive on it, and you do speak about family a lot. What have you brought from your own upbringing directly to the table at the peace talks?
Ania Garcia: Well, I'm a girl, right? I'm Mexican. I grew up in the '06 side of Fort Wayne. My parents came from different sides of Mexico, and then they came here to bring a better life for their future generations.
So, like me and my brother, being the oldest, I've had to step up a lot. I think that's helped me become a more understanding person with different situations in people's life.
I'm able to put myself in those people's shoes and just understand what they've gone through, or what they're going through.
Julia Meek: What great insight you do have. These two seem made for doing the work that you're doing. What do you think we need to see?
Angelo Mante: Well, I'll go to the very first principle of non-violence, which is non-violence as a way of life for courageous people. And there's two parts to that.
So, there's the courage. I mean, there it takes courage to lead. It really does, especially this type of leadership, when you are really trying to make a change among your peers, right?
There's also a lot of courage involved in the process that we take students through, that self-reflection piece. And to deal with your own trauma. We talk about internal violence of the spirit and really dealing with that trauma that we've experienced.
That's an important part of cultivating that inner peace in us as we go out and make peace. But then the second part of that principle is that it's a way of life, and so we don't teach nonviolence as a tactic, as something that we use only situationally.
We don't use it really at all. It's not a utilitarian thing. It's this is who we are, right? We are cultivating something deep within and it's lived out.
Out in our families, at home, in at school, out in the neighborhood, at the grocery store, wherever it is that we find ourselves. So that piece of really being committed as a way of life is important.
And one other thing I'll throw in is wisdom. I think just having leaders that are wise enough to know what they know but have the self-awareness to understand what they don't know and to surround themselves with others who know what they don't know, or who have different gifts.
Because leadership is not a solo thing, you know, sometimes it has to be, sometimes there has to be a leader that emerges and steps up. But we're really trying to cultivate groups of students who are able to lead collectively.
And we're able to accomplish so much more by doing that, not just in the schools, but broadly in society. That's what a movement is, right?
Julia Meek: And you got some good young leaders sitting right here with you.
Angelo Mante: Absolutely.
Julia Meek: So so much of this is about empowerment, obviously, having a voice, speaking for those who don't. What changes have you seen in this direction, you two graduates? And what still needs work.
Ania Garcia: I like to think I'm the voice of people that don't get heard. Again, like sometimes I am that voice that doesn't get heard.
I know adults see me, and they see that leadership in me. So once adults see that I can be that leader, like younger peers that look up to those adults, they start to respect me too.
So that's when they start listening.
Julia Meek: Are you seeing people at your school listen more because they have you grads in that school, working with them to become more enlightened?
Ania Garcia: I think they understand that we're all just there to help each other. Southside is definitely one of the more beloved communities in FWCS district.
I like to think Southside has, like, a lot of diverse communities culturally, definitely, like we have a lot of different cultures, so being able to just come together, I mean, Alive Community, they came to Southside my freshman year.
I remember the first day of school, we had a fight during lunch, like our lunch got pushed back 30 minutes, which is really surprising, because this year, like I was a senior, we only had one fight, and it wasn't started by us.
It was an underclassman trying to start the argument with one of our seniors. So we went, I think, 109 days without a fight. I think my freshman year, we had 40-ish fights. So in four years, cutting that down to just one is impressive.
Julia Meek: That's amazing, amazing.
Angelo Mante: And that one fight they had was Ania, she got in the fight, did she tell you that? (all laugh)
Julia Meek: And Angelo this year has been very, very hard on almost everyone, especially nonprofit groups. What's it doing to your own causes and lives?
Angelo Mante: Yes, I think a lot of nonprofits right now are struggling and navigating a lot. There's all the stuff related to DEI, but then there are things that are not related to DEI specifically in the state budget cuts.
We're feeling some of that, and there's (chuckles) maybe a very odd consolation in knowing that we're not alone in feeling that, but it's really just a sad situation. And then with what public schools are up against with funding right now, and there's just a lot of uncertainty.
And so, yeah, it's frustrating with DEI specifically, I think one of the frustrating things for me is just the misunderstanding in so many ways of what that even is.
And then it's just a mischaracterization that it is somehow something that's giving privileges or special advantages to those who are minorities or, you know, part of underrepresented groups, not because they deserve it.
That's just a complete misrepresentation. And so, I think that's unfortunate. I think that the tax on a lot of that related to DEI is a step backwards as a society.
So, I would hope that our leaders now and, in the future, would reevaluate and really understand the need and the benefit of these types of initiatives.
Julia Meek: Meanwhile, you're going full push forward.
Angelo Mante: Yeah, our lane right now, we are building peace in the schools. And so, if you got a problem with that, then shut us down today, because that's what we're doing, and we're trying to build leaders, empower leaders.
We've seen even this summer, this rise in youth violence right here in our community, and we are doing something about it, and we're seeing an impact with the work that we're doing at the school level, and we're going to be doing some more at the community level here in the next couple of years.
But right now, like working in the schools has been our focus and supporting homicide survivors, that's another part of our work that we do as well, and so it's really hard to have a problem with that type of work that we're doing, especially with the impact that we're seeing that it's having on the schools.
Julia Meek: You're not going to be slowed down on that.
Angelo Mante: No, I mean, some of the state budget cuts and things we've been affected by that. So the funding part of this, that is definitely a dynamic that we're trying to figure out, a lot of organizations are trying to figure out.
But we're having other schools from other districts, even reach out. I mean, there's, there is a hunger for this, because there's such a need for it.
And schools, principals, administrations, seeing the effects, the impact of the work that we're doing in Fort Wayne Community Schools, and saying, how can we do that here in our school?
And so there's a path forward for more growth, but we're also not interested in being the McDonald's of non-violence either. you know. (all chuckle)
We are really trying to continue to do what we're doing well, and if there's opportunities for growth, we just have to assess internally whether that makes sense for us with where we're at.
Julia Meek: Now, okay, this is a question for Ania and Raydin. Your own fearless leader has just received national recognition for his non-violent leadership from the University of Rhode Island's Center for Non-violence, and that's one of the highest accolades in the country.
So first of all, who was the most surprised by this--that he received it, I mean.
Raydin Garrett: To start off, congratulations, Angelo, 100% and I think we're all, I mean, not even just surprised. It's a huge accomplishment. I think he definitely was meant to receive an award like this.
Ania Garcia: Yeah, I was surprised. My year in the Peace Academy in 2023 we were learning from Rhode Island teachings and stuff.
I vividly remember seeing their logo at the bottom of the screen and just seeing how far we've come!
It's scary, sometimes, talking to Angelo--like we're not allowed to look at him in the eyes or anything. (rolling her eyes) I'm surprised he got this award! (all laugh)
Raydin Garrett: It's great to hear that he's receiving these kinds of accolades and stuff and just seeing that he's taking the initiative to go through the trainings and actually learn about what he's teaching, because he's very drawn to this whole kind of movement from personal reasons.
But seeing that he actually takes official professional trainings it's just shared to us. It means a lot, and it adds to the relevancy of the program.
Julia Meek: Well, I guess we better hear from you. Angelo. (chuckles) How surprised were you here when you heard that you got the award?
Angelo Mante: A little surprised, I guess. Awards are just weird to me (chuckles) but this particular one, it's a Level Three.
So, Level One and Level Two of Kingian non-violence are actual trainings that you do.
And Level Three is more like a recognition of those who've established a center and are working to internationalize and institutionalize nonviolence.
So, for me, this particular recognition is like for all of us, because there's so many people that have been involved in building this movement. Obviously, with Marie, and...
Julia Meek: Marie being your wife and partner and big presence in this whole movement as well.
Angelo Mante: Yeah, she's the one that makes it happen. You know, or nothing would get done. It's just our board, and we have a staff of nine people now, ten people now, full time Peace Advocates in every school.
Me, it'd just be me, just, you know, talking about my ideas in a corner somewhere, but, uh, yeah, our whole team and then these guys.
I mean, I think back in 2021 when we first started this Academy at Southside, we were not prepared for just how motivated these students would be.
They've just taken this thing and run with it. So, yeah, I think this Level Three Certification recognition, I mean, this is something that it's for them as much as it is for me.
Julia Meek: Then congratulations all the way around, to be sure. And going forward, then Angelo, what's next for the Academy, the program, the movement? What do you got?
Angelo Mante: Yeah, it's been five years, and to see how much we've been able to be a part of these past five years have been really amazing. So there's some kind of big picture things that we have.
So we're going to continue to do what we're doing in the schools. We have some additional schools that we're going to be working with, kind of like on a consulting basis, a couple of schools.
But the big thing we're going to have is a Community Education where we're going to be doing more trainings in the community, to bring some of these Kingian trainings and other trainings, restorative justice, restorative practices, to other parts of the community.
That's a big piece of what we're doing. And then we have some events that are coming up. We have a five-year celebration that's coming up in September, and so folks can keep an eye on our social channels for that.
But the thing I think I'm most excited about, there's a group of peacemakers that came to us after this year's Academy, and Ania and Raydin among this group, and they said, hey, we want to take this peace movement and this beloved community movement to the whole city of Fort Wayne.
They came to us with this idea. And this is a time when our whole staff is on vacation and we're like, well, we can't be that. That's what I'm really excited about.
So, I'll let them share more about that, but empowering students, equipping them and empowering them to lead the movement, that's always been the vision.
But I think that this particular group, they're really turning the corner and doing that in ways that we haven't even seen over the past few years.
Julia Meek: That is high praise, indeed, well deserved. And okay, you two, now that you have graduated from the program, what are your biggest takeaways from all of this?
Angelo says you have things in mind; where and how might you apply those credentials you've built up.
Raydin Garrett: I think going through the academy, we learned that I'd say the center of peace is based around Beloved Community. That's essentially a community where everyone is welcome, everyone is accepted and just peaceful.
So Ania actually wanted to bring a group of students together, one student from each school, who would be willing to lead some kind of movement, something to bring the community together.
So on a random day, we met at IHOP. Me personally, I didn't even know why we were going to IHOP. There was an invitation to IHOP, so I showed up.
We ended up being there for three hours, a great time. Many of the kids who showed up said that they've never had an opportunity like this.
All in all, this opportunity is great for us to get new experiences, new education, and kind of lead something ourselves.
We initially wanted to bring something, maybe like a protest, to spread nonviolence, but we thought a protest, as we've seen in the past, can have those kinds of negative impressions surrounding it.
So, we thought, how about let's make a movement instead--a peace movement. So, what was gonna just be one peaceful event, until we had a conversation with Angelo, we turned it into a five-phase movement where we would be hosting five community events.
Ania Garcia: Yeah, and this definitely did also route from the gun violence we've seen recently, especially the incident on July 4th. The mayor talked about how there was a lot of violence happening between the youth.
So being able to be part of the solution and bringing those students to come to us and give a lighter activity, I guess, something that they can do without having to get in trouble for it.
Phase one was supposed to be like our kickoff, where the community would come and meet the peacemakers, learn a little bit of what we learned, and just build that connection with the community.
Peacemakers will have different activities. We want this for the whole community. So we'll have, like, coloring activities for younger kids. We'll have a henna station for kids our age, and like, connection cards for older people. We'll have yard games for anybody.
We just want the community to come together. So, we have our five-phase movement, and we're having them every two Sundays, our last event being Phase Five, which is Beloved Community.
We're still trying to figure out all the smaller details, but we do know it'll be September 7 at Promenade Park, and yeah, more information to come.
You can look us up at Alive Community Outreach, either on Facebook or underscore the, underscore, underscore peacemakers on Instagram.
Julia Meek: Angelo Mante is Executive Director of Alive Community Outreach, recently acknowledged for his nonviolent leadership by the University of Rhode Island Center for Nonviolence and Ania Garcia and Raydin Garrett, Peace Academy graduates, peace representatives for our community.
Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being the peace in our community. Carry it on. Many blessings.
Ania Garcia: Thank you very much.
Angelo Mante: Thank you.
Raydin Garrett: Thank you so much.
