Confronting adolescent bias and intolerance through cross-cultural immersion: an American-Croatian collaboration

This article describes a partnership to develop youth leaders and positive interventions to reverse the cycles of violence and bigotry that come when young people experience the pain and trauma of growing up in a war zone. In Croatia, Project REACH (Recreational and Educational Activities for Children's Health) serves youth who have lost their families--and their innocence--in the senseless war and "ethnic cleansing" of the former Yugoslavia. Its partner, The Children's Village (CV), provides residential treatment services for youth who have lost their families as a result of chronic abuse or neglect and who have been exposed to high levels of family and community violence in one of the most beleaguered urban areas in the United States. The partnership exposed young people from these two supposedly different parts of the world to experiences that would enable them to examine their lives, their biases, and their assumptions about the world. It was hoped that participating youth would come to see their own potential to be leaders in breaking a cycle of violence, promoting tolerance and understanding, and creating a positive effect on the world around them.