Peace Community Center

Our Mission

Peace Community Center creates transformational educational experiences for Hilltop youth and families of promise empowering future success in college, career, and community leadership.

Our Vision

We envision a vibrant community where youth and families are life-long learners who use their diverse gifts to cultivate love, justice, and peace for generations to come.

Our Community

Peace Community Center is located in the Hilltop, a racially-diverse neighborhood in the heart of Tacoma. The Hilltop’s rich history goes all the way back to when Tacoma (or Commencement City, as it was first called) was founded in the early 1870s in conjunction with the Northern Pacific Railroad making its northwest terminus in the city. As Tacoma’s population grew over the coming decades, residents settled in newly-formed neighborhoods, including one on the hill next to Commencement Bay that became known as the Hilltop neighborhood. Many Hilltop residents were immigrants who had moved to Tacoma to start new lives. To this day, diversity continues to be a defining characteristic of the Hilltop community.

Sadly, the history of Hilltop includes injustice and other challenges over the years. In the 1940s, redlining in the city of Tacoma forced black families into the Hilltop. The racial injustice continued, which caused the Hilltop community to be especially vulnerable to economic hardship and crime, such as the surge of gang violence the community experienced in the late ‘80s. The Hilltop has seen healing and reconciliation since that time. But there is still work to be done. Gentrification has been a recent struggle in the community, forcing many long-term residents out of their homes and businesses due to rising costs. 

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Darkness can not drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” In the Hilltop’s darkest moments, members of the community have consistently stepped into action to spread love and build a better future. It was out of this desire that Peace Lutheran Church founded Peace Community Center in 2001 to ensure the students in the Hilltop finished school and had access to quality academic support. What started as just a high school program has grown to include elementary school, middle school, and community programs. 

Peace Community Center plans to eventually spread beyond the Hilltop, but we will always call this community our home and remember its history.