In the words of Michael Kott, vice president and director of the AED Center for Civil Society and Governance: "Peace happens when neighbors learn to work together and see tangible benefits of cooperation. Our show uses commercial television strategies to open doors of neighbors' houses to get them not only to talk, but also to solve problems together." Although talking about ethnic tolerance at this particular moment in Serbia and Kosovo is understood as a distinct challenge, the reality TV model is designed to instead show viewers alternative ways to behave, communicate, interact, and cooperate across ethnic divides.

Casting calls for the show went out all over Kosovo and Serbia, and 200 youth aged 17 to 21 applied; 18 semi-finalists participated in an intensive 2-week conflict resolution workshop, and 12 youth made it into the final cast of the show. On the weekly programme, a team called the Purple Lions competed against the Yellow Phoenix, testing team members' ability to work together by completing tasks purposely designed to give something back to the local community. During each episode, the 2 inter-ethnic teams completed a "challenge" - making video material to promote local municipalities, creating a sculpture with a conservation message, staging a street performance, raising money for homeless Roma children, and many others. At the end of each episode, a rotating jury of celebrity judges determined the winning team by judging how the teams worked together and the quality of the final product. A professional mediator also provided feedback about team performance.

Broadcast in November and December 2008 on national stations in both Serbia and Kosovo with a combined reach of about 1.69 million viewers, CooperaTiVa then aired in Macedonia and Montenegro, making it accessible to 1 million more viewers. In a 6-month period, the CooperaTiVa interactive website (no longer in operation as of September 2009) received more than a quarter-million hits.

Conflict, Youth.

The Balkan region has repeatedly experienced war and violence over the past 10 centuries, and as recently as 1999. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008, and a fragile peace still holds.