Learning Life and the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College are pleased to announce a special in-person, conversation about American polarization on Saturday, September 17, 6:30-10:00pm EST featuring three distinguished speakers on American polarization:
1. Nealin Parker, Executive Director, Search for Common Ground USA, and Founder and Director of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University.
Precise location in Washington, DC to be announced to participants.
Given limited venue space, please fill out this brief registration form now to confirm your interest and availability. We will then notify you asap if you have a seat. In the meantime, please mark your calendar.
The event is free, but participants are encouraged to join Learning Life’s Democracy & Diplomacy Community (DDC) to network, learn, and support this and other upcoming DDC events.
All participants must show proof of Covid vaccination (vaccination card and photo ID) to enter the event.
International Family Storytelling Launches
Part Two of Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy (FD) Training launched today as seven FD trainees told often wrenching stories about their lives and their families. The trainees, from the USA, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Albania and Georgia, told family stories about foster care, suicide, gender inequality, civil war, inheritance, kinship, and identity. You can hear each of their initial stories in this video, each five minutes or less, starting at 36:40 in the video:
Launched in 2016, Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative (FDI) is an ambitious, long-term effort to connect, train and empower families to participate in decision-making at local to global levels. We envision a world more connected and caring because every family has one or more family diplomats, and those citizen diplomats advocate effectively via nonprofits, businesses, media and governments for the needs, concerns and aspirations of families worldwide. In Phase 1 of FDI, from 2016 to 2021, Learning Life connected over 10,000 people worldwide to FDI via Facebook, and engaged families in different nations in live dialogues via Zoom, and asynchronous dialogues via our FDI Facebook Group to learn about each other. In Phase 2, starting in 2022, motivated volunteers across the world are getting training as family diplomats (FDs). Phase 3, the final phase of FDI’s development, will connect trained FDs with nonprofits, businesses, governments and media in order to advocate for the needs, concerns and aspirations of different families across the world.
This year, the Phase 2 FD training runs every Sunday, 12:00-1:30pm ET (New York/Washington DC time) from July 10 to October 23 via Zoom, with certificates of completion for those who complete Part 1 on power and citizen diplomacy, plus family issues, patterns and trends (July 10-August 21), and Part 2 on family storytelling (August 28-October 23). On Sundays, October 9 and 16, the FD trainees will deliver their final family story performances via Zoom, and all those interested are invited to attend. To attend, contact us at email@learninglife.info to get the Zoom link. Get full details on the 2022 Family Diplomat Training here.
Learn more about FDI and how you can get involved here.
Stakeholder Spotlight: Nick Burton
The “Stakeholder Spotlight” is an occasional series of posts highlighting people who are helping to advance Learning Life’s work. Our third post in this series features Nick Burton, who interned with Learning Life in summer 2014, while he was a student at Liberty University. Now a successful real estate investor, Nick reconnected with Learning Life founder, Paul Lachelier, last year, and began donating generously to support Learning Life’s work. For ways you can support Learning Life, click here.
What is your current occupation?
I am currently a Real Estate Investor.
In 1-2 paragraphs, please tell us more about you.
I am a DC native. I decided dropping out of college and becoming a full-time real estate professional was the way to go. For seven years, I have served as Tim Bratz’s Director Of Acquisitions for Legacy Wealth Holdings, wholesaling hundreds of single-family homes and purchasing thousands of apartment units. The Legacy Wealth team and myself have also coached over 1,000 real estate investors on how to simplify and scale into the multifamily real estate world. As an avid collectibles and memorabilia collector, I pride myself on my organization and willingness to collaborate to get the job done.
Why did you decide to support Learning Life?
Paul Lachelier was one of the only people to ever give me a chance. He gave me an internship when nobody else would even look at my resume. Paul is an outstanding individual with the drive and heart to really make a change.
Citizen Diplomacy International Meeting #14
About Citizen Diplomacy International
Due to globalization, the internet, rising education levels, and long-term democratization, citizen diplomacy is growing, and becoming a more important part of diplomacy and international affairs. Thus, in 2020, thePublic Diplomacy Council of America(PDCA), a US-based NGO devoted to advancing the field of public diplomacy, formed the Citizen Diplomacy Research Group (CDRG) to advance the research and practice of citizen diplomacy. In 2023, the CDRG became Citizen Diplomacy International (CDI), a network and program of Learning Life, a Washington DC-based nonprofit devoted to developing innovative learning communities in order to widen and deepen participation in democracy and diplomacy.
CDI meets every three months online via Zoom for 1.5 hours to share research and news on citizen diplomacy developments worldwide with an eye to building a vibrant global CD sector for a more participatory, equitable and sustainable world.. Meetings typically begin with two presentations on CD research or practice, followed by discussion of the presentations, then news and announcements of past or upcoming international CD-related initiatives, publications, funding, conferences, etc.
Anyone — including scholars, students, citizen diplomacy practitioners, current and retired official diplomats, and others interested — can join CDI to learn, network, and/or present substantial research or practice in citizen diplomacy. For more information or to join the CDI email list, contact email@learninglife.info. You can also connect with CDI members via our Facebook group and Linkedin group, to which you can post citizen diplomacy-related articles, books, events, funding, etc.
The meeting drew 29 participants from eleven countries: the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Romania, Turkey, Israel, St. Lucia, Peru, Bolivia, and the USA.
Agenda:
1) Opening Remarks & Introductions (10 minutes)
Review of meeting agenda. During this time everyone is encouraged to post to the chat a one-paragraph bio about themselves, including your name, city, country, job title and organization. Introductions via chat saves us time, provides written details about you, and allows us to share your info after the meeting with those who could not attend. In addition, I will share the Zoom chat content to the CDRG email list following the meeting, so whatever you share will get a wider audience.
2) Two Presentations (30 minutes total):
Presenters:
Lior Lehrs, Research Fellow, Davis Institute for International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: “Unofficial Peace Diplomacy: Private Peace Entrepreneurs in Conflict Resolution Processes.”
Anca Anton, Senior Lecturer, University of Bucharest, and Raluca Moise, Acting Course Leader in Public Relations, University of the Arts London: “The Citizen Diplomats and Their Pathway to Diplomatic Power.”
3) Questions & Discussion about the Presentations (35 minutes) 4) Announcements (15 minutes).
B) Meeting participants have the opportunity to publicize citizen diplomacy events, publications, projects, programs, and related needs. Participants can also post details and links to the Zoom chat box to share with the wider CDRG email list.
