Peace4Kids Podcast

Check out this Black History Month conversation on  colorism  with a bonus interview with  Black-ish  showrunner  Kenya Barris  on storytelling, representation, and healing. You’ll hear a brief clip from  Black-ish  in this episode. The clip is from the ‘Diane Confronts Her Family’ segment available on ⁠YouTube⁠ , and we encourage you to check out the full series streaming on Hulu. Episode music p...

In this powerful episode of The Peace4Kids, ROCMove Podcast , we dive deep into the complex racial experiences of Black and Brown communities, exploring history, systemic barriers, and the narratives that have both united and divided these groups. Host, Leila Garcia, shares personal reflections on growing up Mexican-American and navigating cultural identity. Zaid Gayle brings his historical insigh...

In this episode we meet the host of Season 3! We explore their hopes and concerns for this season, and how vulnerability and speaking your truth can have some unintended consequences. As always, we invite you to offer your suggestions for topics that you'd like us to explore. You can message us directly on Instagram @ Peace4Kids or ROCMove , or email us at podcast@peace4kids.org. Episode music gra...

As Black History Month comes to a close and Women's History Month begins, Mir celebrates this moment with a conversation with two dynamic leaders in the Peace4Kids community. Jhamasa Lewis-Adams and Jasmine Lamitte discuss how, as Black women, they have developed holistic practices to ensure their sense of safety and wellbeing, They also highlight how they are sharing these practices through t...

This episode (recorded live on the beautiful campus of Cal State LA) features longtime community advocate, educator, and Pomona's own: Meet Miranda Sheffield. Our conversation is sweeping. Learn about the tenacity of our guest, what foster care was like in the late 20th century, the importance of the Foster Care Ombudsperson Office to youth in foster care, and the nuanced implications of the c...

Where were we? In case you missed it: we heard from the Legendary Pato Banton in Part One of this series . For Part Two, we pick up where we left off, with Pato confronting himself at a creative crossroads. This episode features live performance footage from Pato's Peace4Kids concert at our 25 Year Family Reunion :) Don't miss a heartfelt reflection on innovation, determination and transfo...

The stars align for this episode of the podcast where Zaid introduces the newest addition to the Peace4Kids community: Jasmine Lamitte (Director of Mental Health and Wellness). Stick around for an in-depth conversation between two leaders and subject-matter experts (and of course the very loud opinions of our local neighborhood rooster) in the spirit of National Foster Care and Mental Health Aware...

The Legacy Episode In celebration of Black History Month, we are consciously leaning into the future. Join Miriam, Noah, Zaid, and the Peace4Kids community (youth, caregivers, volunteers, staff, and program alumni) in a collage of ideas that honor our collective history and personal legacies in progress. As always, reach out if there is a topic you want to see discussed that relates to foster care...

The “At Risk” Episode Miriam and Noah are back in time for National Mentoring Month to demystify mentoring x foster care: what is mentoring? How do young people manage the road to independence? What might it mean to mentor a young person in foster care? This episode digs into formal and informal definitions of mentoring; hear from the community directly to gain multiple insights into how culture,...

Welcome to Season Two of the Peace4Kids X ROCMove Podcast 🚀 Meet Miriam and Noah who introduce themselves, share how Peace4Kids and Revolution of Care Movement (ROCMove) are connected, and what to anticipate in Season Two.  This is an interactive, community-centric podcast : We genuinely want to hear from you! This platform is all about community and learning. We don’t know it all, and that’...

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." - Alice Walker Every crisis provides a distinct privilege to those who chose to embrace it. This does not mean there is no suffering, but rather a space to integrate it into our awareness. The pandemic has provided a unique chance for us to experience life the way youth in foster care do. A sudden and shocking rem...

"We are triggered from our places of marginalization but we react from our places of privilege" - unknown  In this episode, the Peace4Kids community along with Dr. Niki Elliott, Clinical Professor and Director of the Center of Neurodiversity, Learning and Wellness at the University of La Verne, explore the health benefits of mindfulness practices and the launch of our Heart Centered Connectio...

As someone who has spent my adult life being in service, it is easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed by the circumstances. I know that many of you are feeling the same way. In these times it is easy to isolate and bury ourselves in our emotions. There is a certain solace to knowing that you can retreat to an inner sanctum and tune out the noise of the world. Indeed, it is a path that I often take....

"Our differences are what color the world" - Angelica Nwandu In this episode, author Angelica Nwandu and illustrator Miriam Alejandra Cortez Cáceres discuss how they authentically represented the foster care journey in their new children's book The Pointless Forest. From shame and feeling small, to building community, owning their differences and ultimately impacting the world around them.  T...

"I sustain myself with the love of family." - Maya Angelou At Peace4Kids we believe that you are born to relatives but you choose your family. It is this choice, the commitment to love as you are, that lays the foundation for our experience in the world. If we are diligent about our choices we can nurture love and watch it grow and challenge our assumptions. If we are careless, we litter our emoti...

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass How do we practice the art of being free? At Peace4Kids we have a practice of discovering answers to important questions through living through shared experiences. In honor of Juneteenth, we brought our community together for an in-person exploration on the concept of freedom. Juneteenth commemorates the last o...

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou How do you share your authentic self with the world? This is a question many youth in foster care wrestle with as they build the confidence to live out loud regardless of their circumstances.  On this episode Zaid & Jacob introduce Charmaine Griffin as she shares her personal story of leaning into a confid...

Our beliefs shape how we see the world. In honor of National Foster Care month, Zaid and Miriam explore the public’s biases toward youth in foster care and the impact it has on our community. As one of the founders of the Revolution of Care Movement (ROCMove), Dr. Noah Nash, shares his strategy towards change in foster care from the bottom up. His research centers on the intersection of technology...

"The only thing that is constant is change." Heraclitus In this episode, we dive into the idea of change with Laura Cortez as she reflects on loss and disruption caused by the pandemic and how adapting to life away from her friends, sisters, and school reminded her of her experience in foster care. A recent graduate from Barnard College of Columbia University, Laura shares the...

Why do we call it "Mothering Day"? Our community has a very different relationship with the idea of motherhood. For young people in foster care there is a need to reconcile the disruption of their biological family to create chosen family. In this first episode of the Peace4Kids podcast we explore the lived experience of women from foster care who have redefined mothering to create safe and nurtur...