Play for Peace creates and connects caring communities globally by training youth to lead cooperative play and gathering virtually to share, learn and inspire.

Problem

When children are educated in fear, exclusion, cut-throat competition and intolerance, the resulting violence is evidenced by bullying, school attrition, shootings and suicide. “Education combined with warm-heartedness, a sense of concern for the well-being of others, has much more positive results. If you have a great deal of knowledge, but you're governed by negative emotions, then you tend to use your knowledge in negative ways.” (Dalai Lama, 2012) Globally, intellectual knowledge gained in school is geared primarily to individual or national advancement, not in the learning of life skills including empathy and cooperative problem-solving needed to face today’s problems. Play for Peace addresses school and community violence world-wide by promoting global citizenship.

Solution

Play for Peace believes the use of cooperative, inclusive and caring play, led by youth leaders and enriched by volunteer action, is key to teaching empathy and building peaceful communities. In play we open up to learning, imagination and connecting as laughter overcomes barriers and children “win” Play for Peace cooperative games by learning to trust, work together, problem-solve, celebrate diversity and be compassionate in a safe environment. “At-risk” youth play leaders identify themselves as international peace builders, gain powerful group facilitation skills and use their passion and skills to identify and lead positive volunteer action events in their community. They run Play Days during recess or afterschool for children ages 7-12 as well as work colaboratively with youth from different backgrounds. The youth and their adult mentors volunteer via after-school programs called Play for Peace Clubs and connect, share, inspire and learn from each other virtually.

Example

With Play for Peace, children have stopped bullying from happening in their schools, youth have become global citizens for change and communities have opted for nonviolent action in the face of conflict. Recently, a group of trainers in India, who credit their school completion on participation in Play for Peace as youth, became Social Entrepreneurs. Like many of our other global youth graduates from South Africa, Chicago and Guatemala, they are leveraging their Play for Peace Trainer Certification and contacts to launch a nonprofit organization working with the Indian public school system to use cooperative play to promote cultural understanding, empathy and prevent school attrition, corporal punishment and bullying. As Certified Trainers they contact public schools in their region to present the Play for Peace program. After an introductory play session the students and teachers are offered Play for Peace training to form a Play for Peace Club in their school so they themselves can facilitate games in their community. 5 youth founders and 1 adult mentor passionate about peace-building and training are all that is needed to form a Club. Most activities are no-prop and resources are found locally. After leading several play sessions with children in their community the new youth leaders also begin implementing volunteer activities based on the needs they identify. The students, mentors and trainers all access the Play for Peace global learning community for educational material, sharing, inspiration and lifelong learning.

Marketplace

There are many organizations that use cooperative play and experiential learning effectively to create caring classrooms in specific regions or through one-time camps or events between specific populations. There are also great organizations that promote youth volunteerism and online global exchanges. However, Play for Peace is unique in forming an on-going global network of locally-run programs that share a common goal of creating peaceful communities through the use of cooperative play linked by a learning community of practitioners. In fact, during this competition I anticipate identifying new partners that may be interested in the Play for Peace training and connecting with our global community. What a wonderful meeting of minds and hearts focused on Teaching Empathy!