Friends of The Arava Institute Awarded $92435.00 Grant from United States Institute of Peace

June 28, 2013 - PRLog -- Friends of the Arava Institute Awarded $92,435.00 Grant from United States Institute of Peace

June 17, 2013 – A $92,435.00 grant from the United States Institute of Peace will enable the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies to enhance and broaden its program to train largely segregated Arab and Jewish youth on intergroup cooperation as a means to solving shared environmental issues, the organization announced today.

David Lehrer, Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, said, "This generous support from USIP will ensure the Youth Environmental Education Peace Initiative (YEEPI) will continue to mitigate conflict and transform relationships between Jewish and Arab youth by helping them reconcile their differences and increase mutual understanding."

The United States Institute of Peace is our country’s global conflict management center. Created by Congress to be independent and nonpartisan, USIP works to prevent, mitigate and resolve international conflict through nonviolent means.

As part of its congressional mandate, USIP devotes a significant portion of its budget to grant-making in the fields of peacebuilding and conflict management. Over 20 years, the Institute’s Grant Program has awarded more than 2200 grants in 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and 87 foreign countries. The Grant Program increases the breadth and depth of the Institute’s work by supporting peacebuilding projects managed by non-profit organizations including education institutions, research institutions, and civil society organization.
“At the time of great difficulty in efforts to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace and widening gaps between Jews and Arabs in Israel, this timely effort promises to deepen mutual understanding and cooperation between peoples on a range of environmental issues – issues of immediate concern to both peoples,” said Steve Riskin, Special Assistant to the President for Grants at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “Findings and a best practices handbook drawn from this initiative will also shed light on how shared environmental concerns can better serve as a vehicle for enhancing cooperation among communities in deeply divided societies around the world.”