Love, peace and hope will be the message in the music this week when the Stop the Bleeding Foundation launches the LIATI Project, an initiative with V.I. musicians visiting schools and talking with students about nonviolence.

LIATI (pronounced “lee-ah-tee”) is an acronym for “Love Is All There Is,” according to Cheryl Francis, founder of Stop the Bleeding. Francis, who is also the wife of Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis, founded the organization in 2007 to help reduce violence in V.I. communities.

“LIATI will be a unique musical collaboration of home-grown musicians to promote peace, and send a musical message to our youth of love and hope as alternatives to violence,” according to a statement from Stop the Bleeding.

Francis will introduce the LIATI Project Thursday at St. Thomas’ Boschulte Junior High School and Charlotte Amalie High School, and Friday at John H. Woodson and Arthur Richards Junior High Schools on St. Croix.

Well-known V.I.-bred artists—including Pressure Buss Pipe, Verse Simmonds, Elijah Vegas, Rena Faith, Mada Nile, and Junior P—will join Francis for frank discussions about the terrible outcomes of violent behavior.

The public is invited to meet and greet the artists for autographs and photos and to find out more about the LIATI Project at canned food drives.

Thursday evening a food drive will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the St. Thomas Salvation Army headquarters near Market Square; and on Friday on St. Croix at Villa Morales from 5 to 7 p.m.

All the donations will go to benefit My Brother’s Table, a charity to feed the homeless. Francis urges everyone to bring at least one can of food.

For more information, contact [email protected] or call 340-773-4357.