Boulder Kisumu Sister City Committee Selected as Top Program by U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy
Boulder Kisumu Sister City Committee Selected as Top Program by
U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy
Boulder, Colorado September 22, 2010); Boulder Kisumu Sister City Committee (BKSCC) is pleased to announce their citizen diplomacy program proposal has been selected as a Top Program by the Community-based Organizations Task Force and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD) and as such will be highlighted as a key component of the upcoming U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy, to be held November 16-19, 2010 in Washington, DC.
The Task Force, chaired by Patrick Madden, President & CEO of Sister Cities International and Sherry Mueller, President of the National Council for International Visitors, will make a strong case for the cause of global citizen diplomacy at the local and state level and demonstrate how citizens can be engaged globally both at home and abroad. They will also showcase opportunities for local and state governments to collaborate for greater impact.
In preparation for the Summit, Task Forces in nine sectors – business, community-based organizations, development assistance, global health, higher education, international cultural engagement, international voluntary service, K-12 education, and youth service - were created to highlight ways in which organizations within each sector can expand existing initiatives and offer new and innovative programs to encourage more engagement of Americans in global citizen diplomacy. The Task Forces are co-chaired by experts in their respective fields and represent broad networks of U.S. non-profit, non-partisan organizations. Summit Task Force groups compiled and vetted hundreds of program submittals as part of the selection process, and will make presentations on the role of their sector in increasing U.S. citizen engagement in international affairs at the Summit in November.
As part of the criteria, the creative use of new technologies and the identification of international partnerships were highly encouraged. Each selected proposal focuses on one or a combination of major global challenges that Americans as citizen diplomats working collaboratively with fellow American and international partners can address. They are:
Preserving the Environment
Reducing Poverty & Disease
Increasing Respect for Human Rights
Creating a Globally Competent Society
Encouraging Cultural Engagement
Achieving Food Security
Securing U.S. & Global Financial Security
Portfolio summaries of ten selected Top Programs from each of the nine sectors will be available at the Summit for all participants, including potential funders.
The U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy is a national meeting presented by the USCCD in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. The Summit is designed to broaden the momentum generated from the work of the USCCD as a national resource base and network for Americans to be engaged as citizen diplomats, and two major leadership forums focused on the revival of citizen diplomacy as a critical component of U.S. public diplomacy and foreign policy strategy.
The Summit will be the first such meeting since President Eisenhower’s People-to-People conference on the same subject 54 years ago, and will serve as the launch for a “Decade of Citizen Diplomacy” with a goal to double the number of American citizen diplomats by 2020.
A complete listing of the selected Top Program organizations, and detailed information about the U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy may be found at: www.usc4cd.org/summit/taskforce
Boulder Kisumu Sister City Committee and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy stand together in their commitment to the expansion and promotion of citizen diplomacy initiatives and urges their fellow Americans to join the effort.
The Boulder Kisumu Sister City Committee is a 501 C3 not-for-profit tax exempt organization founded to encourage the people of the City of Boulder, Colorado USA and Kisumu, Kenya to acquire a consciousness of each other, to understand one another as individuals. as members of their community, as citizens of their country, and as part of the family of nations.
The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization established in 2006 to promote and expand opportunity for all Americans to be citizen diplomats, and affirm the indispensible value of citizen involvement in foreign relations. Registration and additional information about the USCCD and the U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy may be found at: www.usc4cd.org
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Darryl Brown, Chairman, Boulder Kisumu Sister
Diane Rasmussen, Director of Communications
City Committee
U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy
email: admin@boulderkisumu.org
525 SW 5th St, Suite A
720-384-7189
Des Moines, IA 50309
drasmussen@uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org
515.282.8192 Ext. 240
