In early March, a group of 10 professionals from Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam arrived in Pensacola as part of a U.S. State Department International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) project titled “ASEAN: Community Engagement with Youth.” The purpose of the exchange was to highlight creative ways communities and institutions...
In mid-March, the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council welcomed a group of six African visitors from Angola and Sao Tome and Principe as part of a U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) project focusing on accountability in government. For the project, they traveled to Washington D.C., Salt Lake City, Pensacola, and Cleveland for...
In mid-February, the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council hosted five visitors from Colombia as part of an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) project titled “The Road to Markets and its Role in Rural Development.” These visitors were in the country to look at the themes of agricultural and rural development. The group arrived on a...
In early February, the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council hosted seven international visitors from Australia, Cyprus, Israel, Kenya, Morocco, Nepal, and Nigeria as part of an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) exchange titled “Education and Activism for Young Women.” These visitors came to Pensacola to meet with women leaders in the community and representatives of...
The 2017 Youth Ambassadors Brazil exchange brought a group of 10 teens and one adult mentor from all across Brazil to Pensacola for 12 days in January. Their time here illustrates how ours is a generous, passionate community which continually steps up to support the concept of citizen diplomacy and the power it has to...
I was pleasantly surprised to be chosen to attend the Global Ties U.S. National Meeting. As a first-time attendee, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but with my involvement with the young professional’s committee of the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council, I was excited to learn more about international exchange and foreign relations. I arrived...
DYLEP stands for Digital Youth Leadership Exchange. It’s a fully funded digital exchange between American high school students and their counterparts in Iraq that lasts from June to August 2017. Participants (ages 15-18 at the time of June 1st) engage with each other on designing community service projects and youth leadership activities through online forums,...
In early December, the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council welcomed a group of 14 professionals participating in an International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) project looking at the topic “Women Leaders: Promoting Peace and Security.” The participants were all leaders in their communities working on issues including domestic violence, human rights, and security. They came from...
In late September, eight young visitors from across Southeast Asia spent time in Pensacola as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI). Put in place as a boost to regional integration efforts, YSEALI brings together young leaders from across the region to focus on solving common problems through collaborative...
In early November, the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council welcomed three members of the Serbian national assembly as part of an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) project focusing on U.S. elections. The group spent Election Day in Pensacola and gained many insights into the campaign and elections process at the local level. Their first full...
