For more information on Peace Week and the schedule of events, visit http://nypeaceweek.com/ or use the Twitter hashtags #PeaceIsALIFEStyle or #NYPeaceWeek2012.

ust about every day since early autumn, Erica Ford has been dressing in orange. Usually it’s sportswear – bright sweatshirts or jackets and reflective Nikes. But in formal settings, the 46-year-old also manages to slip it into her outfit, even if it’s just the orange, beaded bracelet that she wears religiously on her right wrist.

It’s not that orange is her favorite color; in fact, come this time next year, her wardrobe might be a new hue entirely. Orange is 2012’s official color for Peace Week, a 3-year-old New York City event that makes an audacious call for the end of violence. And as the Peace Week’s founder, dressing head-to-toe in orange is just one of the many ways she dedicates her life to the cause. Another sign of her seriousness is that several years ago, she quit her job to focus full-time on it.

“This is my life. This is what I breathe, this is what I eat, this is what I sleep, this is what I think, this is what I live,” explains Ford. “I don’t define myself by my income. I don’t worry about material things, because I know I’m going to survive.”

Erica Ford created Peace Week three years ago in response to two double-homicides in South Jamaica, Queens and East New York, Brooklyn. The citywide event, which kicks off every year on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, is packed with violence prevention activities, including stress management workshops, concerts and yoga classes. Also, on weekdays, volunteers flood New York City schools to discuss gun and gang violence with students.

Aside from the events geared specifically towards promoting peace, this year’s Peace Week will feature activities aimed at empowering youth and encouraging independence. Several CEOs from large corporations, such as Patagonia, will participate in workshops aimed at teaching teens how to build and sustain successful businesses. 

“The goal is directly no violence during that week. We started with no gun violence, and we were successful – successful in having no violence, no shootings in those target areas.” Ford explains. “Now, we’re stepping to a more courageous thing, and saying no violence, which means bullying, which means gang violence, which means domestic violence.”

In addition to her 50-plus volunteers, celebrity supporters of Peace Week include Russell Simmons, author Deepak Chopra and retired Super Bowl Champion Michael Strahan. She also has strong support from the hip-hop world. Mindless Behavior recorded a public service announcement promoting the week, and a concert featuring a local hip-hop artist will be one of this year’s main events.

While she expects over 5,000 students to participate in the event through school activities, Ford believes that her aggressive Facebook and Twitter campaign will help spread the message to thousands more nationwide.

Although Ford launched Peace Week in 2010, she’s been a peace activist for over two decades. Growing up in South Jamaica, she lost more than 75 friends to gang and gun violence, and she can recall the day when she decided enough was enough.

“I went to this rally on December 12, 1987, and everybody who was somebody in the civil rights and human rights movement was there,” Ford says. “It was like, when people go to church, they get saved. I was listening to what they were saying, and it was like – you know – there’s another world outside here.”

From that day forward she began volunteering, and launched her own organization, the Code Foundation, in 1994 with rapper Tupac Shakur. Aimed at establishing a code of conduct for black and Latino youths, the organization also marked the beginning of Ford’s use of hip-hop to spread her message.