Transforming Violence Awards

The Transforming Violence Awards were founded to stimulate thinking and discussion about promising practices that help individuals and communities take action to prevent, halt and heal violence.

Communities around the world desperately need ideas and strategies that will reduce widespread violence in homes, streets, schools, and in international relations. Transforming Violence exists because innovative strategies are already being developed throughout the world – but these successful approaches are not reaching most of the people who could use them. The Transforming Violence Awards are designed to increase public awareness of these initiatives. The goal is to reach a wide audience in a way that develops people’s imagination, critical thinking and participation.

The 2003 Awards will go to the winners of
The Transforming Violence Poster Design Competition and
The Transforming Violence Essay Competition.

The 2003 Transforming Violence Awards are sponsored by the Judith Lee Stronach Fund for Non-Violence. We are grateful to Judith Stronach (1943-2002) for her inspiration and generosity.

Design a Poster! $2,000 in cash prizes

The Transforming Violence Poster Design Competition
You are invited to enter the competition by designing a poster/exhibition panel that increases public awareness of innovative work being done around the world. The exhibition panels will show how an organization or individual is promoting coexistence and transforming violence. The winning posters will be inspiring as well as informative, and will make the topic accessible to a wide audience.

Topics of Posters

• Organizations or projects that transform violence The exhibition panels/posters will tell the stories of programs and projects that promote coexistence and implement creative approaches to violence at all levels of society. Posters can be about projects that you research through the Social Intelligence Database on our web site, or a group can produce a poster about their own project. You can also make a poster about any of the projects listed under Resources in the Essay Competition.

• Honor the Unsung Heroes. Make a tribute to a person or project whose approach to transforming violence inspires you.

Winning posters and honorable mentions will be displayed on the Transforming Violence web site They will also become part of the Transforming Violence travelling Exhibition due to open in England and the United States in 2003; the exhibition will then be replicated and travel to other countries around the world.

There will be $2,000 in cash prizes. The prize money will be divided between winners in two categories:

1) classes/groups of school-age children
2) other individuals/groups

A cash award of $1,000 will be presented to the individual or group submitting the best poster in each category. There will be a panel of judges reflecting a diversity of cultures and perspectives.

Collaborative Competition - Work with others!
Everyone is eligible. Entries are welcome from individuals or groups. Unlike most other competitions we encourage all entrants to get as much help from other people as they can. If you can find someone to help you with the content or presentation of your work we encourage you to do so. We encourage intergenerational collaboration. So it doesn’t have to be all your own work – you can motivate and mobilize people to help you in realizing your vision.

How you go about this is up to you. Do research. Use your creativity!
You may want to interview people who started or have taken part in the project. There may be particular aspects of their story you would like to tell. Perhaps you might want to find out if anyone is doing (or could do) similar work in other communities. Use photographs and other graphics to illustrate the story. Find a form and way of telling the story that will be appealing, get the message across, and inspire people to become active in this work.

How to Enter
There are 4 steps to entering the Poster Design Competition:

PLEASE NOTE: Posters may be written in any language but they must be accompanied by an English translation to be eligible for the Award.

Transforming Violence reserves the right to publish or display posters or extracts from posters submitted to this competition. Winning posters and honorable mentions will be published on the Transforming Violence web site We will also seek national and international publication for selected posters.

1. Read:
“About Transforming Violence”
“What is Transforming? What is Violence?”
“What is Coexistence?”

2. Choose a project or organization that inspires you and create a poster/exhibition panel that describes it to others.

3. Poster Specifications:
The posters will consist of one or more panels with text, photos and graphics that describe an innovative project and its underlying philosophy. The exhibition panel/poster display should be readable, accessible and inviting.

The overall size should not exceed approximately 3 ft X 6 ft (or 1 meter by 2 meters).

4. Submit by July 1, 2003:

• Completed one-page Entry Form.
• Poster/exhibition panel (you may submit more than one poster)
• We also welcome supporting photos, newspaper articles, videos, brochures or other visual materials about the project which may also be used as part of the exhibition and added to the ‘Social Intelligence’ database. These materials cannot be returned.

Deadlines and Announcement of winners

Please send all posters and supporting materials to:

Transforming Violence
ATTN: Sue Finch
P.O. Box 33698
London N16 OYA
United Kingdom

If you have further questions, contact us: exhibit@transformingviolence.org

View this page without graphics ('printer friendly' version)

Poster Competition
Essay Competition