The Evens Prize for Peace Education sought to detect, recognize and share inspirational practices in the field of conflict transformation, the focus of our former peace education program.
The specific focus of each call for applications helped to raise public awareness about questions that deserved our attention.
Since its inception in 2011, the kind of topics brought to the fore have included teacher training in conflict transformation, schools that have established truly integrated approaches, social skills in early childhood and how to address sensitive topics in the classroom and beyond. You can read more about the winning practices below.
The European scope of the prize allowed core questions to be considered from different angles and to understand how an issue both manifests itself and is dealt with in different European contexts. In that sense, the prize was our main research instrument. It also supported nominated candidates to reflect consciously on their approach, to develop the European dimension of their work and to position themselves as part of a European community of practice.
The procedure comprised an open call launched in all the countries of the European Union and a first selection based on formal criteria, target group and general content of the submitted applications. All selected organizations were then visited by a staff member of the foundation and detailed visit reports were prepared for the jury deliberations. The winner was selected by an independent international jury of experts.
Each of the the laureates received a monetary prize of €25,000, part of which was dedicated to the dissemination of the award winning practice in Europe.
The award ceremony usually took place in the country of the laureate, and on that occasion all shortlisted candidates were invited to a seminar to exchange practices. By bringing the participants together, the Prize offered an opportunity to create European peace education networks, thus contributing to a European movement for change.