What do we mean when we speak about a Department of Peace and what is the Peace Alliance and the Student Peace Alliance? The Peace Alliance and Student Peace Alliance are a nonpartisan, non-profit organization whose mission is to empower civic activism for a culture of peace. We currently are fulfilling our mission by supporting the legislation (HR 808) for a cabinet-level Department of Peace. We are very excited to be having our National Conference in Washington D.C. March 20-23, 2009 during this new session of Congress. If you were one of the people who voted for the Department of Peace, your voice is needed now! Come to Washington D.C. for our National Conference. We want 1000 people on Capitol Hill on Monday March 23 to walk the halls of Congress and have our voices heard.
A little more about the bill---HR 808, legislation for a cabinet-level Department of Peace will augment our current problem-solving options, providing practical, nonviolent solutions to the problems of domestic and international conflict. From the growing rate of domestic incarceration, school bullying, gang violence, domestic violence and interpersonal violence to increasing problems of international conflicts---the epidemic of violence is one of the more serious problems in the United States. Consider just a few sobering statistics:

A World Heath Organization report estimated the cost of interpersonal violence in the U.S. at $300 billion per year—excluding war-related costs. The cost to victims was estimated at more than $500 billion per year.1
U.S. youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that of other leading industrial nations.2
Direct expenditures for corrections (e.g., prison) by local, state and federal governments between 1982 and 2004 increased 585 percent to $62 billion per year.3
In 2006, worldwide terrorist incidents increased 25 percent to 14,000, and resulting deaths increased 40 percent to 20,000 persons.4
While significant efforts are being made at all levels of society to address these issues, nowhere in the highest echelons of our government is there a platform from which to launch a focused, strategic approach to reducing and preventing violence. We place little institutional heft behind efforts to address the root causes of violence, and instead react to its symptoms, placing more demands on our already over-burdened police and military.
Countless peacebuilders and peacebuilding programs exist throughout the United States and the world. Those skilled in reducing and preventing violence—from conflict resolution experts to nonviolent communicators—have proven their effectiveness at treating and preventing the root causes of violence. Yet they remain under-funded and under-utilized.

From child abuse to genocide, from the murder of one to the slaughter of thousands, it is increasingly senseless for our country to merely wait until violence has erupted before addressing the deeper well from which it springs. The time has come for a fresh approach—a national peacebuilding strategy coordinated, promoted and directed through a Department of Peace.
Domestically, the Department of Peace will develop policies and allocate resources to effectively reduce the levels of domestic, school and gang violence, child abuse, and various other forms of societal discord. Internationally, the Department will advise the President and Congress on the most sophisticated ideas and techniques regarding peace-creation and conflict resolution among nations.

The problem of violence is a many layered one, and its solution will be, as well. While no one action–governmental or otherwise–will provide a single solution to such an entrenched and deeply rooted problem, we must treat the problem itself as an all-systems breakdown requiring an all-systems response.

The legislation will pass from bill to law under one condition: that a wave of citizen interest rise up from the American people and make itself heard in the halls of Congress. The Peace Alliance and Student Peace Alliance work together to educate and inspire thousands throughout the country with the knowledge, skill and enthusiasm to become powerful citizen activists in support of this effort. The Department of Peace campaign has citizen organizers working in over 240 Congressional Districts and supporters in all 50 states.