WTAE: Pittsburgh launches 10-week initiative to uplift events promoting peaceful conflict resolution

Kalea Gunderson, WTAE

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey announced a new initiative in his "Plan for Peace."

For the next 10 weeks, the city will be uplifting events in the city that promote peace in an initiative called “Months of Peace and Nonviolence.”

The city of Pittsburgh is compiling a list of events and activities throughout the city that promote peace and alternatives to ending conflicts and gun violence.

The first event listed under this initiative will be happening on Aug. 12 at Highmark Stadium in Station Square.

Ebtehal Badawi is hosting a celebration of her initiative “Building Bridges.”

“Bring us together as humans, for us to see each other despite our differences,” Badawi said.

“It will start with a kick-off, ‘let’s work together to build bridges,’ and then we’ll have different performances, Chinese performance, Indian performance,” Badawi said. “It brings peace for people to learn about each other.”

The city of Pittsburgh’s promotion of “Building Bridges” and other events with a similar mission is a continuation of Gainey’s "plan for peace" which launched in June 2022.

“You have actual activities to help you learn and showcase how peace is taking place in this city,” Olga George said.

George is the press secretary for Gainey’s office, which is inviting upcoming events and activities to be shared on the city’s “engage” page.

“Coming together to find peaceful opportunities to resolve conflict is key to our vision of zero-gun deaths in our city,” Gainey said. “It takes all of us working together to create the kind of lasting peace our city deserves.”

George said the main criteria is that each event promotes peace and a culture of conflict resolution.

“For some reason, society as a whole, we have moved away from conflict resolution, from just talking to one another, the first thing that we are reaching for, for a disagreement is a weapon, and that’s not the way it should be,” George said.

She’s hoping this initiative will continue a positive trajectory. She said homicides in the city are down 24% so far in 2023, and non-fatal shootings are down 13%.

“With this ‘Months of Peace and Nonviolence,’ we’re hoping that we’ll reduce it even more,” George said.

‘Building Bridges’ will be held on Aug. 12.

George said the initiative will run through early October.

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