Work for Peace and Justice

Throughout the history of the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers have worked to foster harmony in our world.  The Friends Center campus has long been a center for organizing for peace and justice and for gathering people together to wrestle with the issues of the day.

Peace and Justice Organizations at Friends Center include:

The American Friends Service Committee is devoted to service, development, and peace programs throughout the world.  AFSC is the largest group in Friends Center and brings peacemakers from around the world to our campus.  AFSC programs include: strengthening relationships that prevent conflict, fostering peace in communities,  eliminating nuclear weapons,  humanely reforming immigration policy, providing peaceful alternatives for youth, transforming criminal justice systems, responding to humanitarian crises, among others. (To learn more, click here.)

Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is a German volunteer and peace organization which began to work in the United States in 1968. Today ARSP volunteers are active in ten cities in the U.S., specializing in one of four different fields:  working with the Jewish community, civic education and human rights, social service with marginalized groups, and community organizing. (To learn more, click here.)

Community Ventures is a non-profit developer of affordable housing in Philadelphia. It works with its neighborhood-based partners over a period of several years, planning and building a critical mass of housing to stabilize and improve the local community. (To learn more, click here.)

Prisoner Visitation and Support (PVS) is a volunteer visitation program to Federal and Military prisoners throughout the United States.  PVS offers friendship and a listening ear to prisoners who do not ordinarily receive visits from family and friends, want or need supportive human contact, are in solitary confinement or on death row, or are serving long sentences. (To learn more, click here.)

To learn about other Quaker work, click here.