Current Programs

MIDDLE EAST: The Palestinian-Israeli Young Social Entrepreneurs Program will bring twelve young social entrepreneurs from Israel and the West Bank on a shared experiential learning and leadership development program spanning one year. The program will be delived in partnership with Search for Common Ground. Outward Bound will provide a catalyst expedition experience for the combined group, building trust, constructive relationships and leadership skills. Search for Common Ground will selectively recruit the participants, facilitate ongoing contact and communication with participants and, with the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding, reconvene the group twice during the following year for refresher programs that include training and coaching. The Palestinian-Israeli Young Social Entrepreneurs Program aims to empower the young social entrepreneurs in launching initiatives that improve their local communities and in establishing ventures that reach across the Israeli-Palestinian divide.
More information on the Middle East program.

SRI LANKA: The Sri Lanka Journalist Leadership Program partners Outward Bound Sri Lanka with the Sri Lanka Press Institute's College of Journalism. The program will bring 70 young journalists and SLPI staff from Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim backgrounds on an intensive outdoor-based experiential program. Over the course of one year, the program will develop participants’ leadership skills, build personal and professional capacity, and promote relationships of trust and compassion. It aims to strengthen individual leadership skills as well as engender in participants a sense of service and civic responsibility that crosses ethnic and religious identities and recognizes the value of diversity, building the foundation for strong cross-community relationships that will persist over time and manifest in more fair, unbiased and peace-oriented media coverage of the conflict and prospects for its peaceful resolution.

The core expedition of the program was successfully delivered in early October, 2008. A baseline evaluation was conducted in August, and the first post-program evaluation is currently being administered, with an initial report on achievements and results expected by the end of the year.
More information on the program in Sri Lanka.

RWANDA: The Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding is joined by Outward Bound International, Outward Bound Australia, Outward Bound South Africa and other Outward Bound schools and individual supporters in providing services and resources to strengthen Outward Bound Rwanda as it establishes and builds capacity in 2008, its first year of exploratory status as granted by Outward Bound International. The Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding is providing quarterly seed funding grants to Outward Bound Rwanda based on specific developmental milestones and supported by ongoing consultation.
More information on the project in Rwanda.

ISLAM-WEST: Programs for 2009 and the future addressing the need for better communication, understanding and dialogue between Western and Islamic societies are in development.

OUTWARD BOUND INSTRUCTOR TRAININGS: As part of its service to the Outward Bound network of schools, and in support of Outward Bound Peacebuilding programs, the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding offers specialized trainings to experienced Outward Bound instructors to develop and strengthen their diversity awareness, dialogue facilitation, conflict resolution and management skills. The trainings provide instructors with journey-based, on-site experiences that mirror the peacebuilding programs the instructors themselves will be delivering to Outward Bound Peacebuilding program participants.

In October 2008, fourteen instructors from Outward Bound Sri Lanka along with several members of the management and leadership of the organization participated in a training and exchange of best practices at Outward Bound Sri Lanka’s base camp in Dumbulla, Sri Lanka. The training was led by Ian Randall and Paul Louis, seasoned instructors who have worked with Outward Bound and other wilderness and leadership training programs over the years, and who have expertise in facilitating conflict-related issues.

The Middle East program planned for delivery in early 2009 will similarly be preceded by an intensive peacebuilding training of twelve Outward Bound instructors. These same instructors will, along with those from Sri Lanka, form an initial cadre equipped to deliver peacebuilding programs and offer trainings to other Outward Bound instructors throughout the world. 

The curriculum used for the Outward Bound trainings is based on the experience of Outward Bound North Carolina’s Unity Program, Outward Bound International’s Global Leadership Program, and input from partners and experts in the field. These resources continue to inform the activities and methodology intrinsic to Outward Bound Peacebuilding's philosophy and approach to building character and cohesive groups. It is grounded in the current social psychology theory of how contact based programs work most effectively, and within a framework that supports sustainable results.

For more detailed information about these programs, please contact us.

Copyright 2008.