The Davis Foundation’s Projects for Peace Program was the initiative of the late Kathryn W. Davis—a woman known for her philanthropy, activism, and scholarship. Projects for Peace’s aim is to encourage students, affiliated with Davis United World College (UWC) Scholars Program partner schools, to devise grassroots projects that will be physically constructed during the summers between each academic school year. These projects specifically seek to encourage peace in communities where there is conflict, by directly addressing community issues in the building of the project. Projects for Peace encourages students to propose unique projects that focus on resolving community conflict through the creation of physical spaces that help to forge understanding and deconstruct barriers of divergence. Student proposals are first selected by their respective schools, and then are submitted by each school to the Davis UWC Scholars Program. Student proposals that are selected by the Davis UWC Scholars Program will be awarded $10,000 to fund the implementation of their project.
The final Davis Projects for Peace presentations were on December 14th, from 3-5 p.m. in the Spencer Boardroom. At this session, students applying for the $10000 grant “pitched” their final proposals for the Davis Projects for Peace to selection committee members. Ultimately, Colorado College’s nominees for Projects for Peace this year are seniors Evyn Papworth and Mitra Ghaffari, whose joint proposal addresses issues of marginalization and socioeconomic disadvantage in Los Pocitos, a community located on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba. More specifically Mitra and Evyn have proposed a project, in collaboration with local leaders of the Akokán initiative for social change, to construct an outdoor community center located in the center of Loc Pocitos.
Evyn and Mitra told the Collaborative for Community Engagement in response to their being chosen by Colorado College: “We are so grateful to have been nominated for the Davis Projects for Peace. The entire process has been extremely rewarding. The support that CC has provided has taught us so much about effective project planning and grant-writing. We want to sincerely thank everyone that has helped us with our proposal along the way.
Receiving this grant would be a valuable way to build off of past experiences and existing relationships in Havana. Our vision for the project arose from close communication with the community of Los Pocitos in Havana, and we are excited for the opportunity to realize the peaceful product of everyone’s collaboration.”
If their proposal is ultimately selected by the Davis Foundation, this three-part outdoor community center project will be constructed in the summer of 2018. The possible positive outcomes of this project are immense from construction stages, which would seek to hire local community members and involve the youth via creative workshops, to its lasting premise as a space seeking to bring educational opportunity, cultural heritage, and peace to the community.
To learn more about the Davis Projects for Peace, click the link below:
http://www.davisprojectsforpeace.org/qa
Post by: Logan Coleman
