Tag Archives: Arbinger Institute

by | August 23, 2012 · 5:42 pm

Aloha, Arbinger!

PPI-ME Program Manager Nissreen gets up close to a sea turtle on Lanikai Beach.

PPI–ME decided to up its game when it comes to conflict transformation with a trip to Hawaii. You may be asking yourselves, ‘what does peace in the Middle East have to do with tropical beaches and luaus?!’ Well, I’ll get to that in a moment.

Conflict transformation has always been a huge part of the work we do at PeacePlayers. We even developed a unique curriculum in tandem with the Arbinger Institute and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation in order to make sure that participants are able to understand and internalize the dynamics of conflict (and learn ways to prevent it), all the while having a ball on the basketball court. The Peace Education Curriculum, based on the Arbinger Institute’s model The Anatomy of Peace, has become a regular feature of many of our activities, and our youth leaders can lead a seminar on the Anatomy of Peace practically by heart. We wanted to go deeper, though. We wanted to make sure that every child on every team experiences the curriculum in a powerful way, on a regular basis.

Professor Chad Ford led the 50-hour two-week course.

For this reason, PPI–ME recently appointed two on-staff facilitators- one Jewish, one Arab- who will rotate between teams to reinforce the curriculum across the program, as well as offer support to coaches in leading the curriculum on their own. PPI–ME Program Manager Nissreen Najjar has stepped up to the plate, and is joined by newcomer Renana Gal (welcome, Renana!). Nissreen and Renana just returned from Hawaii, where they (together with Cyprus’s Athanasios Souflias) completed a two-week facilitators’ course under the tutelage of conflict transformation expert and PPI friend Professor Chad Ford. For five days a week, five hours a day, Renana, Nissren, and Athanasios learned how to teach conflict transformation in a simple way to people of all ages and backgrounds. In class, the three got pointers on how to make peace education interactive and fun- an important aspect of the curriculum, especially when working with children.

Nissreen (front), Renana, and Athanasios bond in the car on the way to class.

Nissreen and Renana earned some quality down time with all their hard work. Before heading to the classroom each afternoon, Nissreen and Renana spent the mornings hiking or on the beach, and got a chance to eat lots of delicious local pineapple!

2 Comments

Filed under Global, The Middle East

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | May 2, 2012 · 2:12 pm

PPI-NI’s Senior Girls Advanced Leadership Program at Greenhill

The Senior CCL girls complete Arbinger curriculum activities.

This past weekend, PeacePlayers International-Northern Ireland  (PPI-NI) brought together 11 girls aged 15-16 for an Advanced Leadership Program (ALP) residential at Greenhill YMCA, Co. Down. The majority of the girls came from our Senior Girls Cross-Community League (CCL) and a few from our partnership with the Young Enterprise Northern Ireland (YENI) program, for which we delivered our Level 1 accredited course in Understanding Diversity in Sport.

The weekend included activities such as a campfire!

Each of the participants were selected based on their outstanding participation and enthusiasm for PPI-NI programs. During the weekend, the girls participated in our Level II accredited course in Promoting Diversity through Sport, which is designed in an interactive format to show how we can transfer lessons on the court, off the court. Local Project Coordinator Joanne Fitzpatrick and Fellow Rory O’Neil had the honor of delivering the course. Also incorporated into the Level II is a section looking at the Arbinger Institute’s conflict resolution philosophies, which are used throughout PeacePlayers International’s global programs.

As well as participating in the course, the girls also had time to enjoy some team-building in a competitive game of Lazer Tag, and further developed relationships in their free time at the campfire, making smores and choreographing a dance routine!

Local Project Coordinator, Darryl Petticrew commented on the weekend:

“For me, the most important thing about our program is developing new relationships among the young people we work with. Having been part of PPI-NI for almost five years, hearing a group of young people say that they don’t want to go home, gives me the impression that the girls had a blast and that we are doing a good job!”

The video below will give you an insight into the weekend, and the amazing time we had together!

3 Comments

Filed under Global, Northern Ireland

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | December 20, 2011 · 2:45 pm

PPI Travels to Kyrgyzstan to Deliver IREX’s “KICK” Training of Trainers

Taylor, after defeat, posing for a photo with Kyrgyzstan's "King of the Ring" International Champion.

This week, PPI Fellow Taylor Brown, who is serving in South Africa, recounts his experience in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, co-facilitating a training of trainers for IREX, a Washington, DC based non-profit, with programs in Kyrgyzstan.

On Friday, December 9th, I was excited to begin the lengthy journey to Bishkek from Durban, South Africa, to train 30 Kyrgyz coaches/physical education teachers on the many aspects of using sport as a tool for social and youth development. I had the privilege of co-facilitating the training with David Cady, a native of St. Louis, who has had 30+ years experience coaching at the high school level and running team-building workshops around the world. The initiative is part of a larger IREX program called “KICK” (Kyrgyzstan Innovations in Coaching Kids), whose objective is to use sport as a medium for teaching conflict management and to build mutual understanding among Kyrgyz coaches and youth from different regions and ethnic and religious backgrounds. The program is funded by a grant from SportsUnited, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Team "KICK", following a horseback ride through the snow-capped mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

The specific segments of the training that I delivered on behalf of PPI were “Coaching is More than Winning,” Sports and Life Skills, the Anatomy of Peace and describing PPI’s Twinning Programs across our four sites. My personal highlight was facilitating “The Anatomy of Peace” portion of the training, using PPI’s basketball drills to reinforce the Arbinger Institute’s valuable lessons and methodologies on conflict resolution. I was nervous leading up to the session, primarily because of the language barriers (Russian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek are the primary languages spoken in Kyrgyzstan). Luckily, I received endless amounts of support from the global PPI family. PPI Technical Assistance Program Director Brian Cognato (who also was of great help in developing the training curriculum) and Cyprus’ PPI Fellow Gunnar Hagstrom offered encouragement and advice, as they had facilitated the Anatomy of Peace in non-English speaking environments before.

Following the training of trainers, the next steps of the KICK program include:

1. The 30 training participants will write proposals for $1,000 grants to use to develop sporting programs and events to use either in their own communities, or between communities.
2. 5 coaches from the program will be selected for an April 2012 exchange visit to David’s school, Webster Groves High School, in St. Louis.
3. The 5 coaches will collaborate to develop a Youth Sports Camp in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2012.

Taylor (far right), with David (second from the left) and IREX staff members Dara and Eldiyar, meeting with Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Sport.

On a personal note, the trip to Kyrgyzstan is something I will never forget. In addition to the training, we had the opportunity to meet with government officials, participate in/observe sports programming and meet many wonderful people that were very eager to share their culture and past experiences. At the end of the training, David and I received numerous traditional gifts from the training’s participants, as they expressed their gratitude to us for taking the time to build capacity and inspire social development in their communities – many doing so in poem form! Thank you to everyone that made the week-long visit such an unforgettable experience.

2 Comments

Filed under Global, South Africa

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | August 4, 2011 · 2:53 pm

We Are PeacePlayers

The Board trip group, which included NBA GM's RC Buford and Sam Presti, pose together after the conclusion of an event.

This week’s post from the Middle East is written by Mason Isom, a student of Professor Chad Ford who visited the program last week during the Board Trip. Mason shares his experience interacting with the program, identifying PPI – ME’s “responsive way of being” as key to its success on the ground.

A responsive way of being has turned into success on the court.

I first heard about PPI – Middle East six years ago when my family encountered Chad Fordas a new professor at Brigham Young University – Hawaii. Since, the study of conflict transformation has become a family pursuit with five of us entering undergraduate and graduate peace studies programs. Throughout our studies Dr. Ford has used PeacePlayers International as the example of a program that works. Needless to say, my expectations were high when I boarded a plane for a week-long field trip with PPI – ME in Israel and Palestine.

In spite of the years of transformative PPI stories, I was still skeptical. How much of an impact could playing basketball with the opposing side really have on the lives of these children? The theory behind the whole concept is sound, using goals unrelated to the conflict to help humanize the other side. But the crux for me was whether or not people’s lives were changing on the ground. My time with PPI – ME was brief, a few practices and games, some trainings, a long bus ride, and conversations with some of the girls in the program; but after a week I can say that PPI – ME is an unusually successful program. The secret, however, is not what I expected it to be.

An Israeli father who has a teenage daughter in the program described his experience to me in the following way:

“It wasn’t until I met the staff that I felt at ease having my daughter in the program. They are responsible people who love the kids and you can see that the kids love them.”

The theory, although sound, isn’t the secret. The model, although proven, isn’t the secret. It is the remarkable staff, participants, families and culture of love an accountability they have created that has turned a basketball program into an ever-expanding, cross-cultural family that heals deep wounds and transforms countless lives.

Even PPI - ME's most competitive players see their opponents as people, not as objects.

The Arbinger Institute, a consulting group and partner of PeacePlayers International, calls this type of culture the responsive way. Responsive meaning that when we respond to one another, we respond to one another as people who have just as many cares, worries, hopes and dreams as we do. Arbinger teaches that true responsiveness exists not in our behaviors toward one another, but on a deeper level they refer to as our way of being. At any given time in our relationships, our way of being can be one of two ways, responsive (open to others’ humanity) or resistant (closed to others’ humanity). When others respond to us, they respond more to our way of being than to our behaviors. When the concerned father’s heart was put at ease, it wasn’t the basketball drills or on-court discipline of the coaches that made the impact; it was the staff’s responsive way of being that he was responding to.

One last example of the impact of PPI – ME’s responsive way: My last day of basketball with the kids was spent in the town Zichron Ya’akov for a “twinning” (joint game) with the girls from Jerusalem (mostly Palestinian) and Zichron (Israeli). The girls were split into two teams with both Palestinians and Israelis on either side. One rarely sees this close of a game. The teams went back and forth all game, finally ending in a tie in double overtime. Any athlete will tell you that after a game that close, your first desire isn’t celebrating with the other team. However, after the teams shook hands everyone in the gym gathered for the PPI cheer. “We are PeacePlayers!” My experience with PPI-ME has led me to believe that this cheer is more indicative of responsive way being than a simple basketball program.

3 Comments

Filed under Global, The Middle East

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | July 7, 2011 · 1:12 pm

Finding the Way to Walk Together

PPI - ME Manager of Basketball Operations Vito Gilic leads the first of many twinning sessions with children from East and West Jerusalem.

Time and time again we’ve mentioned our Peace Education Curriculum and how it helps us bridge divides between Arab and Jewish kids. But what is it? and how does it work? This week we’re going to take a closer look at the curriculum, which holds powerful universal lessons for how we see ourselves and others in the world.

PeacePlayers during a competitive drill of 3 on 3.

The curriculum, which is based on the Arbinger Institute’s Anatomy of Peace model, streamlines elements of basketball to create a roster of innovative basketball drills and dialogue sessions that serve to dispel stereotypes and build cooperation and trust between players. The main goal is to help Palestinian and Israeli PeacePlayers see one another as human beings, instead of objects. The first step to achieving this is helping them recognize, while in their personal lives, those they see as people and those they see as objects. That’s why the curriculum uses personal storytelling: participants recall how it felt to relate to someone else as an object and how it felt when others related to them similarly. The curriculum builds a “safe space” outside their existing narratives, where the participants can look at the conflict in a new light and re-imagine the “other” in a more humanizing way.

LDP participants lead sessions themselves, speaking with their teammates about Anatomy of Peace.

But let’s be honest. How long can a kid sit still and engage in a formal conflict resolution seminar? PPI – ME and the Arbinger Institute realized that the best way to teach children how to bring home the idea was by letting them play out these concepts on the basketball court. PPI – ME Manager of Basketball Operations Vito Gilic worked together with Arbinger to develop drills that let kids experience the consequences of seeing people as objects and of being seen as one. The curriculum helps participants understand that viewing another person as an object causes that person to view you as an object in return. This creates a vicious cycle of ill will, which inhibits our ability to actually get what we want. Through these drills, children can understand that cooperation and respect are the only way to succeed.

Here is one example of such a drill, which we use with middle-schoolers. A pair runs down the court. The player on the left passes the ball to a third player, who stands on the sidelines. After receiving the ball back, the first player passes the ball to his or her partner on the right for a lay up. This third participant is excluded from the play; all he or she can do is stand in place and pass. In this way, the drill helps kids feel what it’s like to be the “outsider” on the team; a player who is not treated as a team player, but is instead used by his or her teammates as a vehicle for their own ends.

Chad Ford delievering an Anatomy of Peace seminar.

PeacePlayers go home with an understanding that everyone, regardless of ethnicity or religion, is an individual, with his or her own dreams, challenges and fears. Seeing people as people isn’t about staying out of each other’s way. It is about finding a way to make the ‘other’s’ way entwine with your own.

PPI’s Peace Education Curriculum was developed in cooperation with the Arbinger Institute and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. With particular input from our friend and colleague Professor Chad Ford, Director of the David O. McKay Center for Intercultural Understanding and Associate Professor of International Cultural Studies at BYU – Hawaii.

1 Comment

Filed under Global, The Middle East

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | May 13, 2011 · 12:45 pm

Fun in the Sun: PPI – Middle East’s Annual Peace Education Retreat

Palestinian and Israeli children build peace while building sandcastles.

What do you get when you cross Palestinian-Israeli cooperation and conflict resolution education with intense b-ball action on the court and a little R&R on the beach? You get PeacePlayers International – Middle East’s annual Peace Education Retreat. From May 5-7, 50 children and teens from Jerusalem, Mateh Yehudah and Holon converged on Kibbutz Sdot Yam on the Mediterranean coast for three action-packed days, with Palestinian and Israeli kids playing, dining and lodging together. Participants were divided into two age groups, with teen participants serving as counselors and mentors for younger kids. Youth leaders served as positive role models, offering a positive example of coexistence, tolerance and cooperation.

Youth leaders of the Leadership Development Program teach “The PPI Way."

As part of the retreat, young participants received an in-depth immersion in PPI’s Peace Education Curriculum, which is based on the Arbinger Institute’s Anatomy of Peace model. The PPI curriculum, which relies on personal storytelling and which takes place wholly on the basketball court, aims to teach Palestinian and Israeli kids to see each other as people, instead of as objects. The youth of the Leadership Development Program even led an educational session themselves, showing that their years learning the curriculum had paid off.

One of the highlights of the retreat was a special tournament with a guest basketball team from Zichron Yaakov, just a wee 10-minute ride from the kibbutz. Kids were divided up into 3 integrated teams, with each team being led by two teen coaches, one Israeli and one Palestinian. Youth coaches worked with kids to strategize plays and build teamwork. At the end of the tournament, all teams received medals for their efforts and then convened on the grass outside for corn on the cob and other snacks.

PPI – ME Basketball Operations Manager Vito Gilic’ teaches conflict resolution skills on the court.

The kids learned hard and played hard, so we made sure that in between they got a chance to relax their minds and muscles, and enjoy the sun and sand. Yes, there were sandcastles, Frisbee throws and water fights a plenty.

You and I would call this peace building. We would say that these children are actively helping bridge the deep divides that pervade every aspect of their day-to-day lives. They, on the other hand, would just call it fun. “Why do you grownups have to make everything so big and complicated? It’s the easiest thing in the world,” they said as they ran by us on the sand amidst giggles and a game of tag.

6 Comments

Filed under Global, The Middle East

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 22, 2011 · 1:34 pm

PPI Travels to Morocco to Deliver Training to the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center

The children of the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center in Casablanca.

This week PPI Fellow Gunnar Hagstrom recounts his trip to Morocco to deliver Anatomy of Peace training to children at the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center (IDMAJ). The journey to the center began last August in Agros, Cyprus and concluded this March with an impromptu wedding in Casablanca.

The group enjoys Moroccan cuisine.

On March 11th I was thrilled to be on a plane heading to Casablanca, Morocco where I met up with PPI-ME Managing Director Karen Doubilet and PPI-ME Director of Basketball Operations Vito Gilic.  We were going to Casablanca to work with the children and coaches of the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center (IDMAJ) on how we at PeacePlayers use sport for peace.  Sidi Moumen is the largest neighborhood of Casablanca and also arguably the poorest.  The center creates an opportunity for the kids of this neighborhood to have access to different extracurricular activities, English lessons, math tutoring, sports etc., becoming a second home to many of the children.  During last August’s Arbinger Institute “Anatomy of Peace” training in Agros, Cyprus, four members of IDMAJ flew to Cyprus to take part in the week-long seminar, so this was a great opportunity for us to reunite with old friends and see what kind of impact the training really had.

We were greeted at the airport by members of IDMAJ who were actually on their way back to Casablanca from a conference in Chicago.  I found out right off the bat that some of the Arbinger language had clearly stuck with this group, as Rabab Rmaini (coach at IDMAJ) greeted me with a hug, and then expressed that she was “really in the box” right now because their flight in Frankfurt got delayed 12 hours.  So, at least we were off to a good start!

The end of the training led to an unexpected celebration.

In between traditional Moroccan meals of Tajine and couscous, venturing through the old Bazaars, visiting the Hassan II Mosque (the third largest mosque in the world),  sitting down in Rick’s Café (from the movie, Casablanca), and touring through the city, we  were still left with enough time to actually work with the program.

On Saturday the training began, as Karen and I led a three hour Anatomy of Peace Seminar for the 31 children and 8 coaches of the sports program of IDMAJ.  We focused our talks on the most central aspect of the Anatomy of Peace, which is seeing others as people, not as objects.  The kids got a real kick out of this, as they had a chance to come up with stories from their lives (and usually quite embellished stories) where they had been involved in conflict in the past.  Later on, Vito took the group outside and ran team building drills until the rain and darkness came.

On Sunday, Vito and I ran an on-court basketball training.  Using the concepts and the language from the classroom session of the Anatomy of Peace, Vito has developed many different basketball drills that demonstrate how we get in and out of conflict.  By the end of the session we still couldn’t drag the kids off the court.  They were running up and down outside for 3 hours, and I am convinced they could have kept going for 5 more hours.

Our Moroccan friends surprised us by organizing the traditional wedding of Karen and Gunnar. (Vito served as father of the bride!)

After the basketball training, Karen, Vito and I prepared to say our goodbyes.  After an exchange of gifts, hugs and thank yous, we were brought to the upstairs of the Centre, and they dressed us in traditional Moroccan wedding attire.  What we didn’t know was that they had planned a going away ceremony for us, which was to put us through a traditional Moroccan wedding.  I was to marry Karen, and Vito was Karen’s father, giving her away.  Not only were there 40 members of the Centre there, but many of them brought their parents and siblings.  There was even a professional photographer!  After the traditional exchange of dates and milk between the bride and groom, and the drawing of Henna tattoos, there was eating and dancing and traditional music. This was a truly amazing and eye-opening experience.  To the kids, coaches, volunteers and members of Sidi Moumen, PeacePlayers says thank you for making this moment such a memorable one.

1 Comment

Filed under Cyprus, Global, The Middle East

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | March 11, 2011 · 3:57 pm

PPI – Cyprus Attends “Anatomy of Peace” Training in Hawaii

This past week PPI traveled to Hawaii to attend an international training on the “Anatomy of Peace.” The Anatomy of Peace is a model for conflict resolution developed by the Arbinger Institue that PPI has adopted to use in all its programs, supported by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. Below Gunnar Hagstrom, a PeacePlayers International Fellow based in Cyprus, gives his thoughts on this most recent training.

Tarik, a PPI - CY Board Member, receives a lei at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Marina, PPI - CY's Managing Director is behind him to the left, behind Sbo, the Managing Director of PPI - South Africa.

Last week, myself and four other members of PPI – CY flew to Hawaii to join other PeacePlayers members from South Africa, Northern Ireland and Washington D.C. to take part in a training on the Anatomy of Peace. The week-long training was run by Professor Chad Ford (best known for his work as an ESPN.com “Insider“) and was funded primarily by Brigham Young University-Hawaii, with additional support for PPI’s Cypriot participants from AMIDEAST. The purpose of the training was to have local members of each PPI site became certified facilitators in the Anatomy of Peace, so that they will have the tools to teach PPI’s curriculum in their respective countries.

The Anatomy of Peace teaches that there is something deeper than behavior, which it calls "Way of Being."

The main focus of the Anatomy of Peace is to help people look within themselves for solutions to conflict, rather than towards others. The materials introduce people to the idea of self-deception: both not knowing – and resisting the possibility – that one has a problem. The Anatomy of Peace model suggests that most conflicts are perpetuated by self-deception, which in turn lead to failures in communication and most breakdowns in trust and accountability.

Once the PPI – CY staff is comfortable teaching the Anatomy of Peace model, we will help our young participants see the conflicts in their lives with a new perspective and hopefully begin to bridge the divides that separate them from their peers.

Orhun and Tarik worked together to translate the Anatomy of Peace's key contacts into their native Turkish.

The training was educational and very intensive, but we still had a chance to get out of the classroom and experience parts of Hawaii. We went swimming in the giant waves of Waimea Beach, walked around Honolulu, snorkled in a nature preservation site and spent an afternoon at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

The highlight of the week for me was spending time with PPI – CY Board Members Akis and Tarik at Waimea Beach. With waves of gigantic proportions crashing down, Akis would go for a ride on a boogie board borrowed from Professor Ford, while Tarik would sprint head first into them. Another favorite memory would have to be watching PPI – CY Program Coordinator Orhun attempt to make fire using the traditional Samoan technique, rubbing two sticks together. While he was unsuccessful, others (including Akis) were able to make fire, claiming that the trick was not speed, but pressure.

Orhun and Akis: Bi-Communal Samoan Fire-Building?

PPI – CY is very grateful for getting the chance to spend the week learning the curriculum, seeing Oahu, eating local Polynesian cuisine and reuniting again with the other members of PPI. It truly was an incredible experience and one that we will never forget!

We want to thank both AMIDEAST and BYU-Hawaii for helping make this training possible, and also a special thanks to Chad Ford for hosting and teaching the group during the training.

8 Comments

Filed under Cyprus, Global

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | January 12, 2011 · 1:54 pm

Cross-Community League Participants Learn “the Arbinger Way”

The end of 2010 coincided with the completion of PeacePlayers International – Northern Ireland’s Cross-Community League (CCL). This past semester of CCL was a six-week course designed for participants aged 14-17. For the first time in PPI-NI history, we offered our Level One Open College Network (OCN)-accredited course, Promoting Diversity through Sports, to all program participants, giving them the chance to earn an OCN qualification.

During the final session of CCL, Managing Director Gareth Harper and friend of PPI-NI Keita Takashima delivered an introductory tutorial on the Arbinger Institute. PeacePlayers International has worked with Arbinger to incorporate their conflict transformation philosophies into our programs.

At CCL, we explored Arbinger’s ethos of seeing “people as people” and not “objects.” Below is a mini-video of from Will Maloney’s as-yet-untitled documentary of PeacePlayers International – Northern Ireland. In the footage, you’ll see our CCL participants learning about “the Arbinger Way” from Gareth!

1 Comment

Filed under Global, Northern Ireland

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | December 27, 2010 · 3:12 pm

Monkey in the…Box?

If you’ve been following PPI for long enough, by now you’ve read something about our basketball-based peacebuilding curriculum, developed in partnership with the Arbinger Institute and Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.The curriculum uses a mix of guided discussion and interactive, on-court activities to teach children proven ways to cope with and transcend conflict, both personal and social, in their daily lives.

Chad Ford of ESPN.com, Brigham Young University Hawaii, and the Arbinger Institute, one of the curriculum's major architects, at a training event in the Middle East.

Today, we wanted to give you a peak into that curriculum so that you can see how it actually works in practice, focusing on one drill that we’ve called “Monkey in the Middle.” As you’ll see, it’s a little bit different than the traditional “Monkey in the Middle” you probably grew up with.

To start, position one player inside the key and one player outside the key. These two players will be the “offense” (blue circles below). Then, line the key with at least three other players. These players are on “defense” (orange X’s).  Ask the offensive player outside the key to try to pass to the offensive player inside the key.

Obviously, no matter how hard the inside player works, the outside player will struggle to get the ball through the defenders.

What you’ve just done is create an on-court simulation of “the box,” the term that the Arbinger Institute uses to describe the feelings of victimhood and isolation that lie at the heart of most conflict.

Importantly, a drill like this is never enough on its own. Immediately afterward, a trained coach will ask the children about their feelings as they participated. How did it feel to be “in the box”? To be trying to break through “the box” to reach their teammate? These feelings are then related to children’s real-life experiences growing up in a divided society.

Do you have any examples of sports activities – whether that sport is basketball or not – that can teach lessons about peace and conflict?

1 Comment

Filed under Global

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,