Jamira Burley

My name is Jamira Burley, my brother Andre was murdered; now I use my voice to prevent harm from coming to others.
I am the Face of Peace.

My name is Jamira Burley and I have made it my mission to employ my personal experiences as the driving force to improve the lives of others.

“Since the creation of the Peace Core’s model at my former high school, I have worked with both city and state officials to develop evidence-based programming for youth violence, i.e. peer mediation and restorative practices. In addition I have used my voice to speak to others about the affects of youth violence and what we as a community can do to eliminate it.”

In 2005, at the age of 20, my bother Andre was gunned down in his sleep. Instead of crawling back into the hole that was once my life, I became inspired to not take what happened to my brother lying down but rather get up and do something about it. At a young age I had to overcome many adversities, including homelessness and living in a drug and violent affected community. Many times people labeled me as a victim, but after the death of my brother, I refused to allow anyone to think of me outside of the work that I’ve accomplished. With the murder of Andre I discovered my purpose and it allowed me to live for something bigger than myself. As a result, I created the Overbrook High School Panther Peace Core, an Anti-Violence program operated by students for students.

The Peace Core’s model allows young people to be at the forefront of issues that affect them the most, like youth violence. It also creates a space for students to create and implement evidence-based solutions.

Since the creation of the Peace Core’s model at my former high school, I have worked with both city and state officials to develop evidence-based programming for youth violence, i.e. peer mediation and restorative practices. In addition I have used my voice to speak to others about the affects of youth violence and what we as a community can do to eliminate it. Most recently, I have had the pleasure of helping to create a youth-based coalition on youth violence, which is best known as the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools. The Campaign for Nonviolent Schools (CNS) is a youth-led effort dedicated to addressing the root causes of school violence and its everyday manifestations. The Campaign is built on a strong foundation of student-led organizing to improve school climate, create pro-student discipline policies, enhance trust and communication between students and school staff, and bring equity in human and material resources to all schools.

Read article from Philadelphia Tribune featuring Jamira.

To find out more information on my work or the work of the coalition please follow the links below.
www.JamiraBurley.com or http://www.campaignfornonviolentschools.org/