A Potential Third Side Project Initiative

Inspirational Third Side Story Competition and Fair
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

NOTE: This memo outlines one idea that we've been thinking about for promoting the Third Side.  We'd be interested in any thoughts that you might have regarding the feasibility of the project, potential collaborators, and opportunities for financial support.

Our idea is to organize an Inspirational Third Side Story Competition and Fair modeled loosely after the very successful International Science Fair.  Such a fair, which could be organized for high school students, college students, journalists, community leaders, or other groups, would be built around a contest in which participants would be asked to submit, using whatever communication media may they prefer (case study, short story, multimedia presentation, etc.), a genuinely inspirational story showing how individuals are successfully pursuing the spirit of the Third Side.  Submissions could be realistic fiction, outlines of specific plans for more constructively addressing real world conflicts, or case studies of successful (or at least instructive) Third Side efforts. 

Like the science fair, the Third Side Fair would give out lots of awards with the goal of finding ways of recognizing the accomplishments of anyone who took the project seriously.  Also following the science fair model we could recruit businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, service clubs, religious organizations, and organizations active in the conflict resolution field to help recruit participants and evaluate contest submissions and provide modest, but meaningful, public recognition and awards.  Our goal would be to secure sponsors from both sides of the political spectrum.

One of the big prizes would be an invitation to a Third Side conference (or fair) which would bring together the best participants for a couple of days of meetings and inspirational presentations from recognized leaders of the Third Side movement. It would also be great to be able to provide those who do exemplary projects with scholarships, internships, and even employment opportunities.

A second big prize offered to submitters of the high quality materials, would be an invitation to have their work published on the Third Side web site and, perhaps, in a book or journal of inspirational stories.  This publication component would have the advantage of quickly and easily generating a large and widely accessible collection of stories showing how the third side works and how others can take part.  The awards would also be handled as something of a news event which would further promote the visibility for the Third Side movement and the inspirational stories that the project would make available.

The invitation to participate in the competition would be accompanied by a web site offering lots of material about the Third Side and how to make it really work.  (Such material could be drawn from the existing Third Side web site as well as from our site, Beyond Intractability (www.beyondintractability.org).

While it would obviously take time to build the kind of support and participation that science fairs enjoy, it should be possible to produce and evaluate a pilot fair competition with modest levels of funding.  In addition to significantly promoting interest in the Third Side, such pilot project would also produce the basic materials needed to organize future competitions, thereby reducing costs.

What do you think of the idea?  Do you have suggestions for improving the idea?  About people who might be interested in collaborating or offering statements of support for this idea? Are you aware of similar of initiatives that we should consider working with?

Please share your thoughts and if you have any additional information please e-mail Guy and Heidi at burgess@colorado.edu.

Comments

[Katia]

As I read through your proposal I had a few thoughts.

I think it would be interesting to not only report the story; also include a reflective piece maybe how it relates to their own ability to manage conflict.

Consider starting first with a youth audience. Here are a few ideas for initial pilot groups: a school district; a youth educational magazine; partnering with a state-wide CR and/or anti-bullying initiative; partner with a community youth literacy program; a program through state libraries.

Partner with journalists and businesses to evaluate the entries. These journalists/businesses could become advocates/co-creators to move this initiative into the journalism filed.

In the initial phases it seems essential that the rollout includes a thirdside training either online or in person of the potential participants and reviewers.

For the pilot maybe the prize is publication and 1/2 day thirdside event designed to engage the students beyond their school and into the community - including a piece on how the 3S can support all of us.

[Tom]

The project that most closely comes to mind is a search for common ground project
http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/burundi/burundi_hero.html
that was built off a program in Burundi. Clearly what you are attempting is different but the essence of building from something small and eventually creating a more substantive competition seems like a good one.

[Josh]

I think for this to be successful it would need to be coupled with some Third Side educational campaign. Great to get some organizations or socially responsible companies to support the effort as well.

[Heidi Burgess]

These are all good ideas that make sense. I'm actually sitting in the Search (for common ground) offices as I write this--visiting them and others about joint projects. We'll try to mention the idea here and see if there's interest. We also had a meeting yesterday with Pamela Aall who is the education director at USIP. They have a high-school peace essay contest that is somewhat similar and very successful, typically getting about 1000 entries (although Pamela says that 4000 essays are generally written, but not all are submitted. They change topics every year. This year is nuclear non-proliferation. Not my first take on a "third side topic" but there might be interesting things to learn there nevertheless.

[Kurt O'Brien]

Now this seems like a cool idea! I'm getting charged up just reading the entry and the other responses. I don't have any experience at all with such endeavors, but here are a few thoughts that come to mind, trying to build on other comments posted here: recruiting a school or school district could be a great place to start, and I know Carolyn has contacts with the Seattle School District - your thoughts on this Carolyn? In terms of sponsorship, I wonder about approaching the Gates Foundation - are they too big? Other thoughts on that? Also, we may be able to learn something from the educational programs Marshall Rosenberg has put together for teaching Nonviolent Communication to kids.

[Katia]

I found a essay contest in Kashmir - http://www.kashar.net/kashmir/complete.asp?id=2725 . It would be interesting to maybe add this idea to existing essays creating an added incentive to look at how the thirdside can/did contribute to the existing conflict