Our History & Vision

Roadmap to Peace was born out of an urgent community call to action and change after six Latinx youth were killed over a five-week period in 2012 in the Mission District. In response to the shootings, the Mission Peace Collaborative, a longstanding community coalition, organized a community town hall. Attended by over 300 community members, the town hall concluded that existing systems, strategies, and policies were ineffective in addressing the needs of San Francisco’s most disconnected Latinx youth. They determined that a new, comprehensive, community-driven strategy was needed. Latinx organizations embarked on a two-year community planning process that included multiple town halls, working groups, and community report backs, resulting in a collective vision. In November 2013, that vision was identified as Roadmap to Peace (RTP).

RTP's vision articulates a plan for community-informed solutions that was restorative, focused on trauma and healing, and offered timely culturally responsive and coordinated holistic services for those most impacted by violence.

The vision of the Roadmap to Peace (RTP) is for all families to live in peaceful, safe and flourishing neighborhoods where youth can thrive and actively connect and contribute to their community. Its purpose is to develop a holistic and community-based approach to address the unmet needs of Latinx youth and their families in San Francisco.

Our Goal

Roadmap to Peace (RTP) aspires to break the cycle of violence by engaging youth and their families in healthy and healing relationships that advance their economic, health, and safety life outcomes. RTP serves Latinx youth from 13-24 years of age with ties to San Francisco who are violence involved and underinsured.

RTP is a five-year initiative comprised of several community organizations: BACR/CHALK, CARECEN SF, Five Keys Charter School, Horizons Unlimited, Mission Neighborhood Centers, Mission Neighborhood Health Center, and IFR. To achieve our outcomes, RTP implements a Community Driven Collective Impact (CDCI) framework with a shared community-driven agenda and language, collaborative leadership, equitable distribution of resources, collective reflection and learning, and a focus on addressing root causes.

Our Work

As a community initiated and driven effort, RTP incorporates three strategies: connecting youth to wraparound services, establishing effective community-building, and promoting relevant policy advocacy. These three overlapping strategies embrace community wisdom to pave a road to wholeness and self-determination.

Service Network: RTP offers a comprehensive holistic support network for CLI youth comprised of a diverse Service Network supporting youth in the four areas of RTP’s Healing Wheel - healthy living, self-sufficiency, community connections and life-long learning. Service Network partners provide care management and/or support services, and each provides a specific expertise within the Healing Wheel."

Policy Reform: RTP engages in progressive policy reform aimed at addressing the inequities experienced by Latinx youth through system reform. We work to change institutional policies and practices to achieve equity and ensure Latinx youth are honored and respected by the institutions that impact them. RTP brings together diverse stakeholders to innovate community solutions that address unjust policies and practices to support CLI youth towards a life of purpose and healthy choices.

Community-Building: RTP believes identity, community and purpose are vital to the development of Latinx children and youth. The cornerstone of achieving success with youth is our intentionality to build spaces where RTP participants can be themselves, feel a sense of belonging as they deepen their sense of cultural identity, learn about the interdependency of our lives, and discover their purpose and passions. As such, we prepare and create spaces that include opportunities for intergenerational and peer connections, allows them to recognize their strengths, their cultural roots and connections to all, and supports them to make healthy choices. 

For more information, please contact RTP at:

Roadmap to Peace
2929 19th Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 872-7461
https://www.facebook.com/roadmaptopeacesf