Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council Inc

Youth Education: To allow local youth to meet these visitors, we welcomed 32 teenagers to our Youth Diplomats leadership program and worked with them for 11 months. A local business donated space for us to meet five times (estimated five meetings x $125 = $625), and the private sector donated approximately 110.28 hours of meeting room time for an estimated in-kind donation of $13,785 (110.28 hours x $125 = $13,785). Over the year, we worked with more than 100 teens through our virtual four-day summer camp and virtual and in-person leadership exchanges. We began training Youth Diplomats to assist us with virtual facilitation and hired two local university students to work with us on youth leadership groups. We hired an additional local college student to help us with professional exchanges and administrative work, giving three youths in our community office environment learning opportunities. We hosted four U.S. Department of State in-person exchanges for 51 teens from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Iraq, and Ukraine. All stayed with host families for 8 - 13 days. Not included in this estimation are the invaluable hours donated to citizen diplomacy by the host families who spent time with these youths during the 521 nights they stayed in local homes. Host families and a local transportation company donated an estimated $5,439 in transportation miles to make the program possible. The 51 international youths who came to Northwest Florida met with 146 local professionals in 44 meetings, and 50 participated in at least one of four classroom visits. We estimate that local professionals volunteered at least 268 hours (134 people x 2 hours each) to prepare for and attend meetings with the exchange participants. The Independent Sector estimates the value of a volunteer hour in Florida in 2024 as $31.61 (268 hrs x $31.61 = $8,471.48). Additionally, the community donated $1,100 in snacks and meals outside of the host families that were donated to the group. These teens interacted with the teens in our local leadership program and volunteered alongside them and other locals at Ocean Hour Florida and other volunteer activities, donating 97.5 hours at six different volunteer experiences. The short-term objectives are to educate teens in Florida about the world outside our borders by presenting them with new educational opportunities. The long-term objectives are a) to encourage youths to think more expansively, b) to help youths gain and improve workforce development skills, c) to expose them to new opportunities, d) to provide training in leadership to local teens, e) to contribute towards national security by creating intercultural friendships, f) to strengthen democracy in the United States by promoting civics and service to the nation, and g) to improve the image of the USA around the world.

Hospitality & Outreach: To encourage the concept of citizen diplomacy & to give members opportunities to interact with international professionals, we coordinated home hospitality dinners. Forty-three local hosts (4 Open World Hosts and 39 International Visitor Leadership hosts) invited international professionals to their homes for meals. The 39 IVLP hosts offered dinner to 55 IVLP visitors (55 meals x $29 GSA rate = $1,529 in donated dinners). The four Open World families also offered their homes to the six participants for eight nights (6 x 8 x GSA rate $156 = $7,488 host family lodging donation). We estimate that each of the 39 IVLP hosts donated five hours in shopping, prepping, hosting, and cleaning up after the 55 meals. The Independent Sector estimates the value of a volunteer hour in Florida in 2024 as $31.61 (39 hosts x 5 hrs x $31.61 = $6,163.95 estimated volunteer hours in IVLP dinner hosting). Not included in this estimation are the invaluable hours donated to citizen diplomacy by the host families who spent time with these six professionals during the 48 nights (6 people x 8 nights) they stayed in local homes. These families also donated breakfasts, dinners, and weekend meals at the GSA rates for these visitors for eight days (6 people x 8 days x an average of GSA rate $34.375 a day for meals eaten in homes= $1,650 donated meals with host families). We also hosted nine community coffees for 89 international professionals to meet 106 locals and offered the Great Decisions discussion series for 17 interested locals to explore topics they would likely encounter in a hospitality setting with international visitors. A local church donated a meeting room for the eight-day discussion series (8 x $125 = $1,000 estimated in-kind meeting room donation). We spoke to 66 locals at four civic organizations about the impact of international exchange in our community and held four receptions to share our mission. We staffed tables at six community events to increase awareness. We extensively promoted the opportunities offered by youth and professional exchange through interviews in magazines, newspapers, and television, as well as on our website, newsletter, and five social media platforms. The short-term objective of these efforts is to increase citizen diplomacy knowledge and recruit more hospitality dinner hosts. In the long term, we hope these events will build a more vital awareness of US foreign policy goals and lead to correspondence between our members and guests, helping us affect US foreign policy and national security "one connection at a time."