Merrimack Valley Teens Paint for Peace

Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps launches peace effort

WHAT: Youth from across the Merrimack Valley will take a stand for peace by painting doves on their streets and their neighborhood through Opportunity to Serve: Paint for Peace.

The Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps Paint for Peace Project will be launched during a press conference hosted by the mayor of Lowell. Teens from the RFK Children’s Action Corps’ Elliot Community Re-Entry Center in Lowell are also designing promotional artwork and making a public service video and awareness campaign through the Center’s mentoring program.

WHO: Mayor Bud Caufield of Lowell; Mark Speller, of RFK Children’s Actions Corps; Lowell City Manager Bernard Lynch, and artist Sidewalk Sam.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 25, 3p.m.

WHERE: Lowell City Hall, 375 Merrimack St., Lowell

WHY: The press conference kicks off a city-backed effort called Opportunity to Serve: Paint for Peace, which will empower youth across Massachusetts to take a stand for peace in their community. Starting in Lowell on April 25 with and continuing all summer long, teens from across the state will paint peace doves on sidewalks, in playgrounds, on street corners, and on business building walls to proclaim their community as a supporter of non-violence and advocate for peace. Paint for Peace is the brainchild of Robert Guillemin, better known as Sidewalk Sam. The art legend has been painting sidewalk murals and other fine works of art in Boston for four decades.

RFK Children’s Action Corps spearheaded the project in Lowell in 2008 when more than 30 doves were painted throughout the city. This year, the project is spreading to dozens of communities and hundreds of teens will be involved.

Providing 40 years of service to children, the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps is a leader in child welfare, juvenile justice, and advocacy in Massachusetts. The agency’s statewide services include educational, residential treatment, and community outreach programs, which support and educate children, helping them to grow into healthy and productive adult members of their communities.

The RFK Children’s Action Corps’ Community Re-entry Centers in Lowell and Lawrence are community-based programs that provide outreach, home visits, mentoring, therapeutic education groups, recreation activities and counseling to youth ages 12 to 21 who are living at home or transitioning back into the community after spending time in residential care.