Tag Archives: beyond the ball

by | December 17, 2012 · 6:29 pm

PPI and BTB Lead Weekend Retreat for Chicago Youth

PPI Operations Specialist, Gunnar Hagstrom, leading a workshop

PPI Organizational Learning Specialist, Gunnar Hagstrom, leading a workshop

This weekend twenty young people between the ages of 11 and 14 traveled with Beyond the Ball (BTB) and PeacePlayers International  to Menno Haven, a campsite about 2.5 hours outside of Chicago. The ongoing partnership between PPI and BTB is supported by adidas. The camp participants were selected by Beyond the Ball from their middle- and elementary-school program, nicknamed “28.5.” Through 28.5, youth are given after school opportunities to refine not only their basketball skills, but also their communication skills, through drills and games. They also complete art projects that explore the intersection of sport and art—specifically movement—and give youth an appreciation for beauty and creativity. The activities generally involve the repurposing of materials, modeling the importance of caring for our environment, and get youth creatively thinking about ways to engage their community. For almost all the youth who participated in this weekend’s retreat, it was their first time spending a night away from home.

Camp participants enjoying the view

Camp participants enjoying the view during a high ropes course

At the camp, participants took part in a mix of basketball, experiential learning and training from PPI’s peace education curriculum, co-faciliated by BTB and PPI staff. BTB’s own coaches, who had been trained earlier in PPI’s methodology, led students in reflection periods each day about what they had learned. Camp participants even had the opportunity to work together to climb a high ropes corse. On the high ropes, participants pushed themselves outside their comfort zone, preparing themselves for the challenges ahead, and in PPI’s training, they gained a new language to discuss conflict, equipping themselves to confront and overcome it as both leaders and individuals.

Make sure to check in next week to see more pictures, stories and videos from the event!

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by | September 10, 2012 · 1:58 pm

PPI Lends a Hand at the “Hoops in the Hood” Cross-City Tournament

PPI founder Sean Tuohey watches over a game of basketball, with just a couple of tweaks to enhance its teamwork potential: games are only one minute long and there’s no dribbling allowed.

On Saturday, August 18th, with the support of adidas, PeacePlayers International (PPI) assisted with the “Hoops in the Hood” Cross-City Tournament in Chicago. “Hoops in the Hood” is a network of organizations in 12 neighborhoods throughout the city’s South and West Side that use basketball as a way to support the positive development of young people and reclaim public space from fear and violence, coordinated by LISC/Chicago.

Throughout the summer, the twelve “Hoops in the Hood” neighborhoods have hosted local basketball leagues, each of which entered an “All Star Team” in the Cross-City Tournament, this year held in the name of “Peace, Unity and Respect.” PPI, led by the organization’s founder, Sean Tuohey, was on hand to help bridge divides among the teams from different neighborhoods using a variety of teambuilding activities, like collaborative basketball dribbling races and an “egg drop.” With approximately 200 young people in attendance, the Cross-City Tournament is one of Chicago’s largest neighborhood-based basketball tournaments, and PPI was proud to play a small part in this effort to stem the tide of violence in Chicago with a sport deeply embedded in the city’s culture.

This visit was the latest in an ongoing partnership between PPI and LISC/Chicago member organizations, led by Beyond Sport Award-Winner Beyond the Ball, in which PPI is its organizational knowledge of how to use basketball to effectively bring young people together and learning from its partners own work engaging youth in some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods.

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by | July 16, 2012 · 12:26 pm

PPI and adidas Visit Project Play

On Tuesday, June 26th, a group of volunteers from adidas’ office of Global Basketball in Portland visited Chicago, Illinois, to share their passion for sport with PeacePlayers International and Beyond the Ball, one of PPI’s major partners in Chicago.

Leah Harrison of adidas helps out at the crafts table at Beyond the Ball. (Photo: Brent Michel and Beyond the Ball.)

The volunteers took part in “Project Play,” a weekly summertime event in Beyond the Ball’s Chicago neighborhood of Little Village, which brings together children and families to take ownership of their community through the power of play. Led by Lawrence Norman, VP of Global Basketball and a PPI Board Member, the volunteers dived right into their duties, which included everything from face-painting to fielding a side on the soccer field. They played “Switch,” a school-yard game that mixes running with “Rock-Paper-Scissors,” and even helped out at a “Make Your Own Sneaker” arts and crafts station. Not surprisingly, they also found time to hit the court and shoot some hoops.

Lawrence Norman helps design some new sneaks with Beyond the Ball’s participants. (Photo: Brent Michel of Beyond the Ball)

Project Play earned Beyond the Ball the “Most Courageous Use of Sport Award” at the 2010 Beyond Sport Awards. As Amy Castaneda, part of the husband-wife team behind Beyond the Ball, explains in the video below from 2009, back then Project Play had 200 weekly participants. They now have 600. And Michel, the young soccer player who appears in the video? He now supervises a team of young leaders who make Project Play happen each week.

adidas is currently supporting a partnership between PPI  and Beyond the Ball, in which the two organizations are working together to share best practices and adapt some of PeacePlayers’ methods for promoting peace to the Chicago context, where homicides have increased 37 percent so far this year in comparison with the same period last year, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Adds Brendan Tuohey, PPI’s co-founder and Executive Director, “We have tremendous respect for the work of Beyond and the Ball, and are grateful to adidas for giving us this opportunity to build a global network of organizations using sport to transform their communities. The belief of adidas’ team in the transformative power of sport became apparent as soon as the event began, and we hope this will be the first of many such events.”

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by | November 9, 2011 · 3:05 pm

Joanne Fitzpatrick: My Week Sharing PPI’s Curriculum

Last week, Joanne Fitzpatrick left Belfast to share her knowledge with community sports organizations in London and Chicago.

This week, PeacePlayers International-Northern Ireland (PPI-NI) Local Coordinator Joanne Fitzpatrick talks about her experiences at the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation World Summit and workshops with Chicago partners Beyond the Ball.

Last week I did more travelling than I’ve ever done in my life – all in the name of PPI’s Peace Education Curriculum, developed in partnership with Arbinger. My first stop was London. Upon landing in Heathrow airport, I couldn’t wait to meet the other Laureus partners and learn about their organisations. After settling into our hotel, PPI-NI fellow Rory O’Neil and I set off on a spot of sightseeing, taking in as much of London’s hotspots as our train tickets would allow.

Joanne delivered a showcase of PPI's training during the Laureus World Sport Summit in London.

On Tuesday evening, we joined PeacePlayers International-South Africa’s Managing Director, Sbo Vilakazi, and PeacePlayers International’s (PPI) Technical Assistance Programme Director, Brian Cognato, and dined at the Hard Rock Café – the perfect environment to mingle with the other representatives from the summit. I fully embraced this opportunity,  learning from and engaging with organisations based in South Africa, Spain, Australia and Argentina.

Wednesday was the big day for Rory, Brian, Sbo and I, showcasing PPI’s on-the-court Arbinger drills. We had some very interesting conversations with the other representatives, who gave it their all on the court. Getting to show the world what PeacePlayers has to offer was a brilliant experience for me, and one that I won’t soon forget. As soon as we finished at the Laureus Sport for Good World Summit, we said our goodbyes and Brian and I jetted off to Chicago.

Joanne does her thing on the court.

Thursday allowed for some free time and some more sightseeing. Chicago is a beautiful city and full of friendly folk. On Thursday evening, Brian and I met up with Chad Ford, professor of conflict research at Brigham Young University-Hawaii and writer for ESPN.com, and two of his students, Monique Mullenaux and Rachelle Christy to discuss our plan for Friday’s Arbinger seminar. We then made the trip out to Little Village where we met up with Rob and Mike from Beyond the Ball for some traditional Mexican food and to share stories from our organisations.

On Friday, Chad, Brian, Monique, Rachelle and I travelled out to Little Village again, this time with bagels and coffee in hand, something that is not traditionally done in Northern Ireland – that’s for sure!  Chad led the Choice seminar with Monique, Rachelle and I assisting with certain sections. I personally told and diagrammed my story of ‘self-betrayal.’ Having the opportunity to work alongside Chad Ford is one I am truly grateful for. To celebrate a great seminar, Chad, Rachelle, Monique, Brian and I went for dinner at a Cajun restaurant where I tried catfish, fried corn bread, French fries and cheesy grits. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it out alive due to the copious amount of fried food on my plate. After struggling my way through my giant plate of food, we walked back to our hotels and I got a good rest ahead of my big day.

Joanne led a session with Chicago partners Beyond the Ball.

Saturday was a big day for me personally, having been given the responsibility of the session plan and facilitation. Representatives from Beyond the Ball, the South Chicago Neighborhood House and World Sport Chicago were in attendance, and we had a great group of participants ready to get into some of our Arbinger drills. I was pretty nervous, but thankfully I was wearing my Lucky Charms shorts and everything went well.

I am eternally grateful for getting this opportunity and wish to thank everyone involved with both projects – Brian for being a great tour guide in Chicago, Monique and Rachelle for backseat giggles, and Chad for introducing me to several new types of potato.

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by | November 7, 2011 · 2:31 pm

PPI in London and Chicago

Today’s post comes from PPI’s Technical Assistance Program Director, Brian Cognato.

For the past few months, PeacePlayers International (PPI) has been developing a new technical assistance and training program, designed to share what the organization has learned over a decade of bridging divides, developing leaders and changing perceptions with other organizations all over the world interested in using sport to improve their communities.

Joanne Fitzpatrick explains The Anatomy of Peace to Laureus Ambassadors and delegates alike in London.

We’ve been working on this mostly behind the scenes so far, conscious that a useful training program requires more than a good resume and a seminar here and there. Training and technical assistance is a different animal than running your own programs, and we’ve taken that challenge seriously, learning all we can about the field and best practices before launching.

With two events in the past week, however, we’re proud to move our technical assistance services from behind the curtain and into the public eye. Not that we’re finished learning – quite to the contrary, we’re learning more every day – but now we’re eager to share what we can do with the rest of the world.

The Peace Day Tournament in Cyprus is only one event made possible by Laureus' support at PPI.

This past week’s first event was the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation Global Summit, held from Oct. 30th to Nov. 2nd in London. The Laureus Sports for Good Foundation has been one of PPI’s longest standing partners, providing our very first institutional grant in 2002. The Foundation supports organizations all over the world using  sport to improve communities, and – for the first time ever this year – it brought them all together to share knowledge and experiences. We were lucky enough to be able to facilitate two sessions at the Summit, one working alongside Cindy Coltman of Women Win on “Breaking Barriers through Sport” and one with a PPI all-star team including Joanne Fitzpatrick and Rory O’Neil from PPI – Northern Ireland and Sbo Vilakazi from PPI – South Africa.

This last session spotlighted PPI’s unique approach to peace education, combining a curriculum developed in partnership with an American consulting firm called The Arbinger Institute with participatory basketball activities. PPI believes this curriculum is crucial to its approach to peacebuilding – allowing it to illustrate to young people the dynamics that cause conflict in the first place, so that our programs go beyond simple “contact” – and the Laureus attendees who sampled the curriculum seemed to agree, including Academy Members like Mick Doohan and Dawn Frazier, who participated in some of the activities.

Chad Ford presents The Anatomy of Peace to seminar attendees.

The week’s second event focused even more on this approach to peacebuilding, as Joanne Fitzpatrick made the trek from London to join PPI’s long-time friend and go-to peacebuilding guru Chad Ford in Chicago. Ford is both a writer for ESPN.com and a professor of conflict resolution at Brigham Young University Hawaii. (For the record, that’s a combined 8,204 miles of travel between them.) PPI partnered with Beyond the Ball, which uses basketball to engage young people in Little Village, to offer an introductory clinic in its approach to peacebuilding through sport to organizations through the city using basketball for youth development, including the South Chicago Neighborhood House, Enlace Chicago, The Crece Foundation, the Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, Positive Coaching Alliance – Chicago, Claretian Associates, CLOCC and World Sport Chicago.

In an on-court session, Rob Castaneda of Beyond the Ball explains what he thinks about PPI's approach.

Over the next few months, PPI is going to help Beyond the Ball add a new element to their already robust curriculum, aimed at giving young people a specific way to understand conflict and their role as influencers in their community. The lessons learned in that project will then be shared with other organizations as they too try to give young people in Chicago a new tool to overcome conflict.

Watch PPI’s website and this space for more about these events – both of which are only the first stages in multistage collaborations – and PPI’s technical assistance program in general. If you’re interested in PPI’s technical assistance and training services, contact Brian Cognato at bcognato@peaceplayersintl.org.

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