Project Harmony is pleased to expand the 2001 Youth Leadership program to include two new schools, in addition to welcoming back last year's partners. The 2001 program partners are:

Champlain Valley Union High School is located in a farming community about 15 miles south of Burlington, VT. The 1200 students at CVU are drawn from five towns. There is a dynamic school environment at CVU: youth activism is celebrated, and all students are expected to contribute to their community. CVU's mission is "to help students develop skills, behavior and knowledge that are paramount to being a contributing member of a democratic society." Numerous co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are offered at the school, including "Students Against Sweatshops," peer mentoring, peer tutoring and Habitat for Humanity. CVU's emphasis on youth activism and civic involvement is demonstrated by the Senior Class Gift. The Class of 2000 has established a foundation for community service, funded with $10,000 from their own fundraising efforts.

Fenway High School is a pilot school in the Boston Public School system. President Clinton designated Fenway as one of ten "new schools" in the nation that embraces innovative teaching and models a community approach to learning. Fenway's student body is comprised predominantly of minority and immigrant students from every neighborhood in Boston. The school's mission, "to create a socially committed and morally responsible community of learners and leaders," supports the learning objectives of this program. While at Fenway, BiH students will learn strategies and techniques for peer mediation training. Fenway High School has used these techniques to encourage students to resolve their conflicts peacefully.

Harwood Union High School is a central Vermont school of 700 students from six rural towns. The entire Harwood community actively participated in last year's program and is excited to take part again this year. The history department at HUHS will play a key role in helping BiH participants develop sophisticated understanding of democratic principles and challenges to democratic institutions. The school has dynamic programs that emphasize the ability of students to learn about community problems and contribute to solving them. The Social Sciences department offers a course called "Sustainable Communities" which speak to these topics, as do extra-curricular organizations such as the Student Action Committee and the Gay-Straight Alliance.

New Mission High School is one of 11 new "pilot" schools created by the city of Boston to help improve educational opportunities. The school strives "to empower young people by helping them become creative thinkers, reflective learners, resourceful problem solvers, skillful communicators and passionate people who care deeply about the world around them." The school has been in existence for four years, and is comprised of 200 students and 16 staff; the racial and ethnic distribution in the school is representative of the population in the Boston Public School system. Leadership and civic participation are part of the core curriculum at New Mission; all students in the school take part in community service projects in their neighborhoods as part of their academic program.

ReCycle North, a not-for-profit organization in Burlington, Vermont, helps to alleviate three community problems: under-employment, landfill waste and poverty. ReCycle North's job training programs provide technical training and general employment skills to individuals seeking to enter the workforce. Trainees learn workplace and technical skills through a combination of classroom learning and hands-on experience. ReCycle North trains under-employed people to repair or refurbish donated goods that otherwise would be thrown away. Furniture, large and small appliances and other household items are then resold at a minimal cost to low-income families at a retail store staffed by trainees. ReCycle North will organize problem-solving workshops for their trainees and the BiH participants.

Sabre Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that aims to build free institutions and to examine the ideals that sustain them. Their program activities include administration of international book donations and training workshops focusing on information technology and accessing information resources. Through their Information Technologies Workshops, Sabre provides custom designed, hands-on training together with meaningful site visits and professional meetings. Workshops train participants in the use of Internet-based tools to increase their ability to access and disseminate information. The Sabre Foundation has agreed to donate 2,000 new textbooks to the schools of the 2001 program participants. Sabre's partner organization, the World University Service, will handle shipping and distributing the textbooks. Sabre and Project Harmony staff will assist the BiH participants in selecting the titles to be donated to their schools.