Written by Anna Zaros
At the corner of Lowry Ave and Penn Ave N… the Hub for Nonviolence and Safety, run by Nonviolent Peaceforce, works with community to bring safety and peace.
Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) opened the Hub for Nonviolence and Safety after about a year of working on the Northside. NP had partnered with Minneapolis Public Schools, Emerge and Ascension School. From this early work, NP’s Community Peacebuilding program was founded with the leadership of local community leader, Will Wallace.
The goal of the Community Peacebuilding is systemic change – to permanently interrupt cycles of violence present in communities. NP works with the community to develop and strengthen the capacity of people to prevent, de-escalate, and respond to tensions and violence.
The Community Peacebuilding program is rooted in a method called “unarmed civilian protection,” a set of community-based tools and ancestral technologies. This method can include activities like upstander intervention, protective presence, de-escalation, dialogue, advocacy, and protest and poll safety, among others.
Today, the Hub for Nonviolence and Safety serves as home base for NP’s Community Peacebuilding program, and is a space for collaborative partnerships and activities with other safety and peace groups. Some of NP’s partners include Jordan Area Community Council, Brothers Empowered, Innovative Soulutions, Twin Cities Recovery Project, Urban Youth Conservation, Restoration Inc, and multiple local churches.
While NP’s Community Peacebuilding program is newer in North Minneapolis, the organization has been doing this work for over 20 years. Around the globe, in places like South Sudan, Iraq, Ukraine and the Philippines, NP works to ensure a world where violence is not the answer, but instead, nonviolence serves as the foundation of lasting change. The Community Peacebuilding program is strengthened because the work is deeply rooted in North Minneapolis, and can draw on wisdom and knowledge from communities around the world.
Every Monday morning you can find the Community Peacebuilding team on the corner of Lowry Ave and Penn Ave from 9-11 a.m., providing coffee, juice and morning treats to the community. During this street outreach NP builds relationships with community members, talks to them about their safety concerns, and discusses how NP and the community can build peace together.
With community members, NP cleans up trash on the block. NP can intervene in tensions and escalating violence on the street. NP hands out clothes to people who may need them and hosts community BBQs. One community member told NP that “because ya’ll are here, we have stopped beating our women out here. We are keeping the bus stops safe.” There is still much work to be done, but just a year since the opening of the Hub for Nonviolence and Safety the power of nonviolent presence and building relationships has led to concrete changes.
Another cornerstone of NP’s Community Peacebuilding program is youth engagement. By facilitating regular youth healing circles NP builds relationships with young people in the community. In the circles NP seeks to understand the challenges youth face and mentors them to take different paths than resorting to violence. During Spring Break, for example, the Community Peacebuilding team co-led a Nonviolence Camp, where kids were taught violence prevention tactics each day.
In 2025 NP will have a youth room available in the Hub for Nonviolence and Safety and will offer arts programming to provide youth another way to find healing from violence they’ve experienced and options for other paths in their life.
Finally, women in the community also face safety needs specific to them. Nonviolent Peaceforce is currently getting to know women in the community, and asking about their safety needs and ideas for addressing those needs. If you, or a woman’s group you are a part of, would like to join the conversation, please reach out to NP (contact info below).
NP seeks to work with anyone who is interested in stopping violence and learning to use nonviolence to resolve conflicts instead. Want to learn more, share with us your safety ideas, or get involved? Contact Will Wallace at wwallace@nonviolentpeaceforce.org or 612-871-0005. Also check out nonviolentpeaceforce.org for other Northside activities and the global work of the Nonviolence Peaceforce.