Statement of Vision
The WNY Peace Center believes that peace is both necessary and possible. We work toward a future without violence in all it manifestations and toward a future without bigotry, oppression, intolerance, and exploitation. 

To this end we will work to eradicate violence in our local and global communities by:

• Providing a safe space for the practice of peace
• Using education to build a nonviolent present and future
• Encouraging people to envision, create and use nonviolent solutions to conflict
• Standing with and advocating for the powerless
• Providing a meaningful and active response to intolerance, bigotry and violence
• Networking and organizing with other institutions and individuals
• Maintaining an active presence in Western New York so the hope of peace will exist for future generations

Who We Are
The Peace Center is one of very few peace and justice organizations from the Vietnam War era that has been able to sustain itself and continue to thrive and grow. Our abbreviated mission is four-fold:
To provide a safe space for the practice of peace; to resist violence in all its manifestations; to stand with and advocate for the powerless; and to provide a meaningful, active response to intolerance, bigotry and violence.
For four decades, the Peace Center has proudly established itself as a force for progressive social change in Western New York and beyond. The organization came into existence in 1967, formed in opposition to the Viet Nam War as a chapter of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Clergy and Laity Concerned. It was launched by a local United Church of Christ congregation, Riverside Salem on Grand Island, which remains actively involved in all aspects of the Peace Center, holding a permanent position on the organization’s 13-person Coordinating Board.
Over the years, the center’s small staff and more than 1,000 dedicated members have maintained the most established organization of its kind in Western New York. While our overarching activism and education efforts focus on organizing a local response to global violence and human rights concerns (especially in response to the impacts of U.S. policy on international “hot zones” in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa), the Peace Center is similarly dedicated to enriching the quality of life of our local community through awareness-raising and direct action to achieve our vision of a truly humanistic,
inclusive and equitable society.