Peace and Justice Institute

As a community, our shared efforts to ensure that every person who lives in Orlando feels equally protected, equally valued and has equal access to opportunity must continue and always remain at the forefront of everything that we do as a city. Through its efforts to promote peace and justice for all, the Peace and Justice Institute at Valencia College is helping to create a more inclusive, compassionate and equitable Orlando. Its work has always been important, but it is especially critical at this pivotal moment for our country and our community. I am grateful for the many contributions PJI has made to the well-being of our city and our region.

If education is to rediscover its potential in this age, then programs like PJI, grounded in the profound, creative principle of nonviolence will show us the way. If there are any programs like PJI! Through ten years of patient, dedicated work by director Rachel Allen and the many who have been inspired by the same vision, PJI has become a searchlight showing how education can be what it was supposed to be: a pathway for students to discover the "practical idealist" within them. Peace and nonviolence are the way to restore human meaning and dignity, and thus the essential components of meaningful education today, as PJI knows.