Davis Projects for Peace is an initiative for students at the Davis United World College Scholars Program partner schools and International Houses Worldwide to design their own grassroots projects for the summer of 2013 - anywhere in the world - which promote peace and address the root causes of conflict among parties. We encourage applicants to use their creativity to design projects and employ innovative techniques for engaging project participants in ways that focus on conflict resolution, reconciliation, building understanding and breaking down barriers which cause conflict, and finding solutions for resolving conflict and maintaining peace. Through a competition on over 90 campuses and member institutions in good standing of International Houses Worldwide, projects will be selected for funding at $10,000 each.
All proposals must be submitted electronically toihouseintern@ucsd.edu by January 25th, 2012.
Davis Projects for Peace is funded by Kathryn W. Davis, a lifelong internationalist and philanthropist (who earned a B.A. from Wellesley, an M.A. from Columbia, and a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva) who is now over 105 years old. She is the mother of Shelby M.C. Davis who funds the Davis UWC Scholars Program currently involving over 90 American colleges and universities. Mrs. Davis and her late husband, Ambassador Shelby Cullom Davis, both lived at International House New York while attending Columbia University in 1931-32. Mrs. Davis feels some urgency to spark initiatives for building prospects for peace in the world and so is committing $1 million to fund these numerous $10,000 projects for peace. She believes that today’s youth – tomorrow’s leaders – ought to be challenged to formulate and test their own ideas.
We hope to encourage initiative, innovation and entrepreneurship focusing on conflict prevention, resolution or reconciliation. Some of the most compelling projects to date have reflected one or more of the following characteristics: contributing to conflict prevention; ameliorating conditions leading to violence/conflict; looking for and building on shared attributes among differing peoples, races, ethnicities, tribes, clans, etc.; fostering diplomacy or otherwise contributing to advancing peace processes underway; promoting economic opportunity and entrepreneurship among those in post-conflict areas; finding creative ways to bring people on opposite sides of issues together, such as through art, sports, music or other techniques to promote a common humanity; developing leadership and mediation skills training for those in conflict or post-conflict societies; starting or leveraging initiatives, organizations (e.g. education, health) or infrastructure projects to build/rebuild community. In general, projects should be building blocks for a sustainable peace. The overall program is intended to be worldwide in scope and impact, but specific projects may be undertaken anywhere, including in the U.S.
IHWW resident members in good standing for the 2012 – 2013 academic year are generally eligible, so long as the head of their institution has signed and returned the grant agreement form. Each participating International House may establish further eligibility criteria for their own communities.
In past years, Mrs. Davis has committed to fund up to twenty Projects for Peace for resident members of International Houses Worldwide and, while not yet certain, it is hoped that a similar number will be funded in 2013. These projects will be distributed among the participating I-Houses. While Davis funding per project is limited to $10,000, projects with larger budgets are welcome as is co-funding from other sources (such as other philanthropists, a college or university, foundation, NGO/PVO or students’ own fundraising).
To be considered, a resident member (or a group of resident members) must prepare a written statement which describes the project (who, what, where, how) including expected outcomes and prospects for future impact (not to exceed two pages), as well as a budget (one separate page). All written project proposals require a heading to include the following: name of the participating I-House, name of all student participants, title of project, country where the project will be performed. Proposals should also include pre-approval of all parties and organizations involved in the project. The two-page proposal and one-page budget must be submitted electronically to International House, UC San Diego office at ihouseintern@ucsd.edu by the deadline of Wednesday, January 25, 2013. Resident members with queries should direct them to their designated I-House coordinator as communication between resident members writing proposals and the Davis UWC Scholars office is prohibited.
The Davis UWC Scholars Program will release the grant funds to I-House New York for distribution to the participating I-Houses with winning project(s). Grants are made upon assurance that the project proposed will, in fact, be undertaken during the summer of 2013.