Dear CCI friends,
Today, 25 CCI travelers will depart the U.S. for Moscow and nine different regions across Russia. A videographer will capture footage for YouTube to describe our ventures.
The Press Release below was created at the request of our regional coordinators to give to universities so that we can talk with classes of students. It also went to regional mayors, civic clubs and the media. It sounds like our subgroups of two to four Americans will be kept quite busy during these regional visits. Their chief tasks are to interact with many Russians, to share ideas about how to rebuild connections between our countries, to learn how their regions and private sectors are developing, how Russians are faring under sanctions, to share the challenges of building and maintaining democracies and learn how they are viewing international relations today. Lastly, but most importantly, they will encourage cooperation and the development of bi-country projects to create goodwill and understanding between our two peoples.
Since the Press Release below covers CCI’s agenda for 2019, we felt it would be interesting to you. Scan it to see if you can participate in one of our programs, each of which we ran successfully during the first Cold War.
Would you like to start 2019 by traveling to Russia for a magnificent New Year’s celebration coupled with Citizen Diplomacy or with new bi-country projects and programs? Let us know what is exciting to you! Share this with others and suggest they go to our website, ccisf.org, to subscribe to our CCI email list.
Wish us well with this next venture! Keep up with us through our Foto-Journal pages during the trip!
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
The Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI) Restarts Citizen Diplomacy Programs with Russia
Our Future is too important to leave up to short-term policy makers
August 31-Sept 15, 2018, American citizen diplomats travel to 10 Russian regions
from Moscow to Irkutsk (15 Russian cities and towns)
They will learn of local Russians’ histories, points of view and simultaneously create friendships and goodwill between each other. The message will be clear that diplomacy is far more sustainable and profitable than standoffs, political posturing and war.
CCI, America’s preeminent non-governmental, nonprofit organization of the 1980s, 90s, 2000s, is resuming its classic programs to reduce tensions, rumors and propaganda between the U.S. and Russia during today’s extremely dangerous political climate.
Programs Planned F0r 2019
Americans Meet Mainstream Russians (AMMR)
American delegations of 25 persons first go to Moscow, then to multiple Russian cities in micro-groups of two to four persons. There they are hosted by Russian Rotarians or former CCI program participants. The Americans meet local people, discuss many topics and create future options for staying in touch. Next, they reconvene in St. Petersburg for a “Report Out” to share information about the experiences and learnings of their micro-groups. Findings are then released to the public through Foto-journals, YouTube and Internet articles. (AMMR is an updated version of CCI’s original citizen diplomacy program which lasted for 8 years and took some 2,000 Americans to the USSR before Soviet people were allowed to travel abroad).
Russians Meet Mainstream Americans (RMMA)
Russian delegations of 20 persons fly to the U.S. then split into five micro-groups of four persons. Each micro-group travels on a different loop of cities throughout the U.S. where they are hosted by Rotarians, Kiwanians and other interested Americans. Local committees house the Russians in American homes. They have speaking engagements in city halls, universities, libraries, churches, synagogues and large informal home events. Local organizers create press and TV opportunities and, in general, provide options for the two peoples to mix and mingle broadly. (RMMA is an updated version of CCI’s SMMA program which, thanks to a Gorbachev intervention, allowed CCI to bring non-communist party members from the USSR to 264 American cities in 1988 and 1989).
Russian-American Exchanges & Projects (RAEP)
CCI initiated numerous first-ever projects beginning in the 1980s, including month-long internships for Russian entrepreneurs to intern in successful American businesses parallel to those they were trying to start in Russia. We are working on new programs to begin in 2019–stay tuned!
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