NC Choices for Youth Mission Statement
Full Legal Version, September 2007

NC Choices for Youth is a not-for-profit educational organization devoted to helping young people find and choose paths of peace and service rather than violence and force.

Our focus is threefold:

• For teens and young adults most vulnerable to military recruitment, we provide information about civilian opportunities for service, adventure, training, and jobs that may lead to creative and life-enhancing ways of spending their life energy. We help them access accurate information, ask the right questions, and think critically about their own needs and hopes. In addition, we work to dispel myths and misinformation about the military, as it may be conveyed through our media, recruiters, JROTC programs, DEP contracts, and other forms of military promotion.

• We challenge young people to reach clarity about whether participation in war is consistent with their deepest beliefs or whether they are Conscientious Objectors. We give them a framework for articulating their thinking and a mechanism for documenting their convictions and receiving continued support in their position.

• Should a draft be reinstated, we are prepared to counsel young men and women who will need to make decisions regarding possible conscription.

• Although our present focus is on opportunities in North Carolina, our mission extends to the southeast region and beyond. In all we do, we recognize that each person is a unique, developing human being. We seek to stand as a companion and guide in this development so that each young person may find his or her special calling. Our broader goal in this effort is to build a world of peace, justice, and community.