Compassionate Gift Giving Ideas: Support Peace on the Street

One way to give compassionately and intelligently this holiday season is to widen the net of those who receive the benefit of your generosity by donating to charities and nonprofit organizations. You can forego traditional presents and instead make a donation in your loved one’s name, or you can pledge to donate the amount of money you spend on holiday gifts this year to a worthy cause. Every Tuesday here on Tricycle’s Buddhist Holiday Survival Guide, we’ll be posting about Buddhist organizations who could use your help this holiday season.

Peace on the Street is a zendo in East Harlem whose mission is to bring dharma practice to the inner city. Their unconventional techniques were covered in a profile by Joan Duncan Oliver in the Winter 2008 issue of Tricycle.

Tricycle has been a friend of the organization for years. Last year, we collaborated on a video shot by CloudLine Films that will give you a sense of what Peace on the Street does and the tremendous value they add to East Harlem, New York City, and alternative youth education as a whole. Like Tricycle, they are also a not-for-profit—read more about them and support their work here.

Thank you to Richard Garcia Sensei and the Peace on the Street kids for agreeing to participate in this video!

—Philip Ryan