PeaceJam Planning: NJAA Online Survey Open For NHS, NMS Students

Published: July 24, 2013

The Newtown Junior Action Alliance (NJAA) group has created an online survey for Newtown High School and Newtown Middle School students to fill out.

The survey asks three questions, and will help NJAA members set up a fall event that Sarah Clements, who is head of NJAA, said will focus on “transforming tragedy into positive change.”

NJAA is affiliated with Newtown Action Alliance, a grassroots organization created in the weeks after 12/14 to reverse gun violence through legislation and broader cultural change.

In early April a number of Newtown High School students attended PeaceJam New England, a conference held at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, that featured Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and workshops on topics such as peace building and activism as service.

This week, Sarah said PeaceJam New England was such a life changing event that members of NJAA wanted to bring something like it to Newtown.

“We just thought that other Newtown students should have the option to experience that,” Sarah said.

Sarah said NJAA is looking to hold their event in the fall, but an exact time and date has not been set. She also said it will most likely be held at Newtown High School.

“We have been speaking with PeaceJam organizers about developing a special event solely for Newtown High School and Newtown Middle School students. The theme of the event will be ‘transforming tragedy into positive change,’” said Sarah.

In order to help complete the details of the event, Sarah said, an online survey has been created to ask NHS and NMS students specifics about what they would expect from such an event.

Sarah said the event will offer ways to cope and transform pain into doing something good. It will help participants, she added, to move forward in a positive light.