Please check back in the Fall of 2012 for staff and participant applications for the summer 2013 BBfP Summer Intensive Program. For more information email programs@s-c-g.org or call us at (001)303.691.2393.

Building Bridges for Peace (BBfP)

SCG’s flagship program, BBfP is a multi-year, multi-level leadership development and peacebuilding program that brings together groups of 30-45 American, Israeli, and Palestinian teens, ages 15-18 for a two-year program to strengthen relationships and improve understanding across communities and cultures. Founded in 1994, BBfP combines two summer intensive programs in Colorado with yearlong follow-up programming conducted in participants’ home communities. Each two-year cohort cycle culminates with a final symposium where participants present their social change projects. Though originally a female-only program, BBfP expanded to include male teens in 2007. The majority of BBfP programs are led by past participants and alumni of various SCG initiatives. BBfP participants are drawn from diverse religious, cultural, ethnic, political and socioeconomic backgrounds, and are of all sexual and gender orientations.

Model and Methodology

The year 1 and year 2 follow-up programming takes place in participants’ home communities and includes continuous support and skills-building, virtual dialogue, community-building, Home Group meetings, in-person social gatherings, seed funds for individual and group social change projects and a new online toolkit of resources and opportunities. The BBfP methodology is an intergroup intervention that utilizes communication, dialogue and relationship-building techniques, trust building, outdoor education activities, and art to strengthen foundational relationships and improve understanding between groups.   

Goals of the Program

The BBfP curriculum is designed to lead participants through both interpersonal and personal processes, to increase their capacity to feel compassion and empathy, and to humanize the ‘other.’ During their time together, participants learn new communication techniques, develop leadership skills, and engage in activities that promote the status and empowerment of women and men as equal partners in creating change.

“My So-Called Enemy”

SCG is thrilled to announce that Lisa Gossel’s feature-length documentary “My So-Called Enemy” is now screening at film festivals nationwide.   “My So-called Enemy” highlight’s 6 young women’s journey over 7 years, beginning with their 2002 experience in SCG’s flagship Building Bridges for Peace (BBfP) program.

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