November 5, 2026 7:30 am

Protect the Dream - Kit Cummings

 

Kit Cummings

Founder & CEO, The Power of Peace Project (POPP)

Human Behavior Strategist | Community Systems Architect | Conflict Culture Specialist

Kit is an award-winning author, international keynote speaker, human behavior strategist, and

the Founder & CEO of The Power of Peace Project (POPP), a nonprofit organization dedicated

to reducing violence, strengthening communities, and developing transformational leaders.

For more than 30 years, Kit has studied human behavior in some of the most challenging

environments imaginable, including schools, prisons, juvenile justice systems, churches, athletic

programs, corporations, and communities struggling with violence and division. His work has

taken him into more than 100 prisons and correctional facilities, over 100 schools and youth-

serving organizations, and communities across the United States and around the world.

Kit is best known for launching the Power of Peace movement from a Georgia maximum-

security prison in 2010, where he brought together rival gang leaders in a groundbreaking 40-day

experiment based on the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence philosophy. The

initiative produced historic results and became the foundation for a leadership system that has

since impacted thousands of lives.

Today, POPP operates at the intersection of education, justice, law enforcement, faith, business,

and community leadership. Through programs such as Protect the Dream, Forty Days to

Freedom, Forty Days of Prayer, and the Power of Peace Leadership System, Kit helps

communities create sustainable ecosystems that address the root causes of violence while

building hope, opportunity, and accountability.

His work has been implemented in schools, juvenile courts, detention centers, churches, police

departments, athletic programs, and correctional institutions throughout the United States and

internationally. In one Michigan maximum-security prison, a two-year Power of Peace initiative

graduated more than 1,000 incarcerated men and contributed to a reduction in violence of more

than 50 percent.

Kit is the author of seven books, including Peace Behind the Wire, The New Convict Code,

Protect the Dream, and The Power of Peace. He has spoken to audiences ranging from Fortune

500 companies and sports organizations to educators, law enforcement leaders, elected officials,

faith communities, and incarcerated populations.

His current focus is helping communities become "POPP Communities.” These are unified

ecosystems where educators, law enforcement, justice agencies, churches, businesses, nonprofits,

and citizens work together around a shared vision to create safer communities and better

outcomes for young people. POPP is building “Beloved Communities” which was Dr. King’s

dream.

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