Last year, the Street Peace Project unveiled its Beacon for Peace on a street corner in Lansingburgh. When Devya Arthur, Founder of Street Peace Project, first created the beacon, she had no idea just how much the beacon would mean to the community. Within a short period of time, the project was able to collect over a thousand messages from community members.

Arthur says this beacon was also able to offer a voice for the voiceless. That is the number one reason she wants to create a beacon in more neighborhoods, especially since she says it’s easy for the public to focus more on the violence instead of the people who call a neighborhood home.

“But I, being a resident there, know all the goodness in it. And all the really amazing things that happen there,” Arthur said. “So this was sort of a way to pull that out and give people a way to express that.”

And if a community is ready to create a beacon, Arthur says she is ready to help create a beacon of peace for any community in need of inspiration, especially for youth who have been exposed to senseless violence.

“For those teenagers, it helped them to heal and to see something heartwarming and give them hope,” she said. “So that does it for me. How wonderful is that?”