5) Description of initiative: Just Vision widens the influence of Israeli and Palestinian grassroots peace builders by creating a platform for them to reach audiences they might not otherwise have access to through video, curricula and the Internet. We research, document, aggregate and disseminate information about Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent peace builders in order to eliminate linguistic, geographic and other obstacles to reporting on, or learning about, their efforts. We are a team of Palestinian, Israeli, North American and Brazilian young women, based in Jerusalem and the US.

Just Vision creates online resources in English, Arabic and Hebrew highlighting 180 civilians who stem hatred, promote understanding and nonviolence in Israeli and Palestinian societies. No other resource includes this broad a spectrum of contemporary change makers in the region. We developed the most comprehensive database of nonviolence and peace building civic leadership among Israelis and Palestinians, which we share with fellow organizations, journalists, policymakers and others. Just Vision has become a trusted name for non-partisan information about peace building initiatives. As such, we have been featured on Oprah, Al Arabiya, Israeli Channel 2, the New York Times and others.

Just Vision recently teamed up with educators from Abraham's Vision and scholar-practitioners Dr. Mohammed Abu Nimer and Ned Lazarus to develop a curriculum based on our Online Network for Peace on the themes of positive peace building, approaches to conflict resolution, non-violence, civic leadership and history.

In 2006 we released a feature documentary, Encounter Point, co-directed by Julia Bacha (of the film 'Control Room'). Encounter Point premiered at the Tribeca Film Fest and won the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Film Fest. It screened at the UN, the World Bank, at festivals in Jerusalem and Dubai and has shown to audiences in Jenin, Haifa, Gaza and Tel Aviv as well as in 31 other cities worldwide.

6) Description of innovation: There is disproportionate coverage of violence and militancy in the Middle East. We seek to shift the global conversation to constructive approaches to peace building. We facilitate media coverage on this issue and generate our own content. Our film and Internet materials demonstrate that human agency exists to resolve this conflict and that there are "partners" at the grassroots level.

Just Vision is the only initiative that focuses exclusively on Israeli and Palestinian civic leaders who promote peace and nonviolence in their societies every day. We are not a peace organization. Rather, we act as a hub, linking nonviolent grassroots peace workers to one another, to the media and to broader networks of support using digital media and strategic outreach. This approach of creating a platform for journalists and educators to find fact checked, footnoted, translated, aggregated, documented content to ease its dissemination innovates the way the conflict is and can be reported on and taught. Additionally, we are unique in our ability to build effective relationships with Arab, Israeli and North American media and film festivals as well as Jewish, Muslim and Christian grassroots networks.

Just Vision has the most comprehensive database of nonviolent peace-builders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which we share with those who can widen the network for peace. We have pioneered a method to approach the conflict's history through the lens of peacemakers, so novices can learn about the multiple narratives of this complex conflict in dynamic, unbigoted ways. We publish interviews with 180 Palestinian and Israeli peace-builders and present an interactive timeline of the history of the conflict from their perspectives -- a method that uses the latest technology. We hope it becomes a model for teaching other complex histories. The interviews form an oral history archive on non-violence. We also happen to be the only young-women-led project in this field.

7) Delivery model: Just Vision recently produced an award-winning documentary film, Encounter Point, about Israelis and Palestinians who refuse to sit back as the conflict escalates. Instead, the film's subjects overcome personal tragedies to work for nonviolent solutions and press their communities to do the same. The film drives media attention and diverse audiences to become aware of the broader issue of nonviolent civic approaches to peace building. It has screened in 31+ cities worldwide, with dozens more to come in the next year as we bring the film to Jewish and Arab film festivals as well as to classrooms. At every event, audiences sign up for our e-list. In April, the film will begin screening on TV to millions of viewers and will be released on DVD. The film directs viewers to the organization so they can learn more and get involved. We have staff in place to handle outreach and build on audience interest.

With every screening we reach out to local and national journalists to inform them about the film, and the broader issue of civic leadership in peace building. This has resulted in coverage by NPR, Al Arabiya, the Oprah Winfrey Show and many others and brings the topic to a wider public.

For the last few years, we have been compiling data about high schools and universities across North America, Israel and Palestine in order to reach out to them and inform them of the availability of our website, curriculum and film. Our reach will soon increase significantly as we contact libraries and Middle Eastern studies departments across the country. The iEarn network of 15,000 schools worldwide (1,000,000 students connected via the Internet) has asked to use our educational materials.

We also attend hubs of activity on this issue: Middle Eastern studies conferences, press conferences, gatherings of non-profits in this field, etc. to let our natural base know about our work. After 5 years of doing this (2 years of research, 3 years of implementation), we are a known quantity.

8) Key operational partnerships: Grassroots partnerships with peace building organizations are key to our success. We have strong relationships with each of the NGOs represented by the 180 interviewees on our Online Network for Peace. At every possible instance, we endeavor to bring them to the attention of media makers and educators. The Way in Palestine and the Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum in Israel and Palestine are two examples of such organizations. We have established ongoing relationships with community groups in a variety of cities to bring our content to their networks. A sample in one city alone includes: the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, the Islamic Center of Southern California, the Leo Baeck Temple and more. With regard to journalists, we have a relationship with producers from Al Jazeera International, Haaretz, Al Arabiya and NPR. They often turn to us for information and story leads. Abraham's Vision is working with us to produce a curriculum for dissemination in the US. We have had ad hoc partnerships with national organizations, film festivals, community groups and universities who sponsor Encounter Point screenings.

9) Financial model: Word-of-mouth, viral campaigns through our e-list which numbers in the thousands, media broadcasts to millions of viewers, screenings to tens of thousands of filmgoers enable us to spread the word about our work and to let people know of the availability of our services. Several journalists have now returned to us for new interviewee and story leads (NPR is one instance where we placed several of our interviewees into their programming). We have been featured extensively in the press, and through educational and grassroots channels. We have been building a database of educators and journalists and have been systematically reaching out to those who would be interested in conflict resolution among Israelis and Palestinians, film, peace initiatives and the Middle East generally.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 5

          • Financing: Use of our Online Network for Peace in Hebrew, Arabic and English is free. The trailer to the film is online for free. Access to our database is free upon request. The film generates screening fees ($500/screening + $500/filmmaker) as well as revenues from ticket sales. These will soon be accompanied by DVD sales. The screening guide and curriculum will be downloadable in English for free. The rest of the nonprofit is funded by foundation grants and individual donor contributions. We have hundreds of individual donors and family foundations funding Just Vision. The largest grant we have received to date is $45,000. Our operating budget in 2006 was approximately $360,000. In 2005 it was $263,000. In 2004 it was $150,000. As you can see we are growing exponentially each year.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: Just Vision measures success by the number of individuals who turn to our resources for information on Israeli/Palestinian grassroots peace efforts, especially journalists, educators and policymakers, which we track via our web site; by the quality of the responses received; by the increase in news-coverage of peace-builders as a result of our outreach; and by the relationships forged between peace builders and across Muslim, Jewish, Arab and Christian communities that we bring together as we feature our film and speakers in cities across America. 15,000+ people have been actively engaged by our work through screenings to communities in 31 cities worldwide, online visitors to our websites, classroom presentations and viral outreach. Millions have been exposed to it through TV coverage.

          • Number of clients in past year: Since Encounter Point only launched in April 2006, the majority of the film screenings (31+ cities) and outreach took place in the last 9 months. Therefore, approximately 15,000 people have been exposed to Just Vision and Encounter Point if we do not take into account short TV segments on our work that broadcast to millions.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: Just Vision launched in October 2003 with a staff of 1. For the first two years, it concentrated on researching and documenting grassroots peace building efforts, as well as building a network of interested audiences, creating our Online Network for Peace and producing our documentary film, Encounter Point.

In the last year, we launched a variety of these resources to ease the work of journalists and educators who are interested in reporting on or teaching about those who challenge cultures of violence and promote peace.

Given the success of Encounter Point, we require more staff to meet the steadily increasing demand for our film, facilitation and educational resources. We hope to hire an Outreach Coordinator for Arabic-speaking audiences throughout the Middle East, as well as a US-based one. We hope to hire a development person as well as an admin. assistant in Jerusalem.

12) Origin of the initiative: In 2003, Founder Ronit Avni left her position at WITNESS to launch Just Vision. Just Vision is dedicated to documenting, exposing, and supporting that which is not seen in mainstream media coverage of the conflict: local Palestinian and Israeli civilians working to build a grassroots consensus for peace. Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian civilians work daily to build a peaceful, equitable, and rights-respecting future. They come from every field, location, socioeconomic, ethnic and religious sector of their societies. Yet the media constantly privileges the actions of militants over those civic leaders, creating the sense that the conflict is intractable, the populations militant and irreconcilable, the situation beyond help, or moral concern. Just Vision emerged to give Palestinian and Israeli peace builders a global platform through film, the Internet and educational resources.

Contact Information:
Ronit  Avni
Founder & Director
Just Vision
(NGO)
United States
Website: www.justvision.org, www.encounterpoint.com