This timeline provides a historical overview of Learning Life’s development from 2016, when the first of our three programs, the Family Diplomacy Initiative, was established.
2016:
January: Family Diplomacy Initiative (FDI) planning and organizing begin.
August 27: First live international family dialogue between families in DC and Dakar. Details here.
December 30: Report issued of Learning Life’s accomplishments in 2016, engaging 50+ volunteers, conducting seven live international family dialogues, and producing 25+ FDI fact sheets, news posts, website pages, program and dialogue guides, etc. Details here.
2017:
August: Completion of FDI Project 1: an online community photo project engaging 24 participants from eight families in Washington DC, USA, Dakar, Senegal, and Jerash, Jordan.
December 30: Report issued of Learning Life’s accomplishments in 2018, including launch of the Mentoring Program and Cook, Eat & Learn Sessions, plus successful completion of a pilot Global Storytelling Challenge. Details here.
July: Completion of FDI Project 2: an online food culture project engaging 24 participants from eight families in Washington DC, USA, San Salvador, El Salvador, and Dakar, Senegal. Details here.
November 7: Mentoring Program reaches 100 mentor-mentee meetings.
December 18: Release of first four Learning Life international silent stories engaging Washington DC youth as actors.
December 29: Report issued of Learning Life’s accomplishments in 2019, including doubling of FDI Facebook Group membership, 33% growth in Mentoring Program size, and new partnerships. Details here.
2020:
April 1: FDI Facebook Group grows to 500 members worldwide.
August 31 Release of second four Learning Life international silent stories engaging youth from the USA, El Salvador, India and Australia as actors.
September 20: FDI Facebook Group grows to 1,000 members worldwide.
November 15: First multinational FDI live family dialogue engages 39 participants from nine nations in discussion of preliminary findings of FDI Project 3. Details here.
December 30: Completion of FDI Project 3: an online food culture project engaging 60+ participants in 35 nations. Details here.
2021:
January 4: Report issued of Learning Life’s accomplishments in 2020, including quadrupling FDI Facebook Group’s worldwide membership, completion of largest scale FDI dialogue project yet, and more. Details here.
January 17: First meeting of inaugural Family Diplomacy Ambassador (FDA) Team.
January 25: First meeting of inaugural Board of Directors (BOD).
January 28: Mentoring Program reaches 500 mentor-mentee meetings.
February 18 and 21: First meetings of inaugural Board of Advisors (BOA).
June 10: FDI Facebook Group grows to 5,000 members worldwide.
July 21: Learning Life celebrates its 25th Democracy Dinner
July 23: Learning Life receives IRS recognition as an independent U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Fifth 2021 International Family Dialogue Focuses on Politics
This Sunday, October 10, more than 40 people from 15+ countries (Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, USA, Trinidad & Tobago, Italy, Nigeria, Uganda, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and China, etc.) joined Learning Life for the fifth of six live international family dialogues via Zoom focused on the question: how does politics impact family health and safety?
The six-dialogues series is part of the Family Diplomacy Initiative, Learning Life’s flagship program devoted to connecting families across borders to share and learn together. The October 10 dialogue started with a brief video about the dialogues, then some context from Learning Life’s founder, Paul Lachelier, then discussion of a variety of political issues impacting families, including war, refugee crises, religious discrimination, corruption, authoritarian rule, oppression of LGBTQ people, restrictive adoption laws, health insurance coverage for families, and more.
To view the full video-recorded dialogue, click here.
All six family dialogues are free, and are held, in English, on Sundays, 12:00-1:30pm EST (New York time) via Zoom. Each dialogue has a different date and topic as follows:
June 27: Global Trends in Family Life: How are families changing worldwide, and how does this impact family health and security? Topics might include global patterns and trends in family demographics, parenting, childhood, family life, aspirations and viewpoints, etc.
July 25: Health Care Systems: How do health care systems shape family health and security? What exists and what’s lacking in local-to-global health care institutions? What are some of the major global health trends, threats, and some of the most promising large-scale solutions?
August 15: Work & Economics: How do economic forces affect family health and security? Topics might include work and unemployment, workplace safety, automation, income and wealth inequality, economic migration and remittances, work-life balance, etc.
September 12: The Environment: How do natural and man-made environmental conditions, local to global, impact family health and security? Topics might include home and neighborhood crime and safety, community life, green space, housing and segregation, transportation, pollution, climate change, etc.
October 10: Politics: How do local to global politics influence family health and security? Topics might include government service provision, leadership, civil society, governmental power inequalities between and within nations, immigration and refugee policy, war, human rights, rule of law, corruption, legal discrimination, etc.
November 14: Education & Leisure:How do education and leisure time activities influence family health and security? Topics might include formal and informal education, leisure patterns and trends, literacy, early childhood education, gender and class inequalities, etc.
To participate in the dialogues, please complete this pre-dialogues survey. The survey offers more information plus the Zoom link for all the dialogues. Note: Because these are family dialogues, we encourage (but do not require) you to participate with one or more members of your family in the same room, whether siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins, in-laws or other family members. If family members are not available or willing, please invite one or more friends or housemates. Everyone who plans to attend at least one of the six family dialogues should fill out the pre-survey linked above.
Citizen Diplomacy International Meeting #9
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, the Public 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 andLinkedin group, to which you can post citizen diplomacy-related articles, books, events, funding, etc.
15 participants joined the meeting from five countries: Panama, USA, Italy, Turkey and Ghana.
1) Opening Remarks & Introductions (10 minutes)
Review the agenda. During this time everyone is encouraged to post to the chat a one-paragraph bio about themselves. 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.
2) Two Presentations on Dance Diplomacy (30 minutes):
Dana Vanderburgh, former Executive Director, and Violeta Martinez, Panama Country Director, Movement Exchange, USA & Panama
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. Following the meeting, the chat box messages will be shared to the CDRG email list along with a video record of the meeting.
Enter to Win an International Prize
Like international affairs?
Want to help build a more caring world?
Want a really easy way to enter to win an international prize, worth $96-$118?
Just join the Family Diplomacy Initiative (FDI) on Facebook, and tell us you joined! Here’s how:
Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/familydiplomacy
Click the “Join Group” button
Type below “I joined!”
That’s it!To increase your chances of winning, share the link to this post with your family members, and ask them to each take the three steps above.
Learning Life will announce the winner at a special live international event on Sunday, October 24 via Zoom (you can learn more and register for that event here), and if you are the winner, we will contact you via Facebook to ask which of the 4 prizes below you want. Choose 2 of the 4 prizes, or double of 1:
$59 for one year of National Geographic — print magazine and digital (lots of articles, photos and videos all accessible via your smart phone, or laptop!)
$50 toward a language learning service you want to use
$50 donation on your behalf to an international nonprofit of your choice
USA only: $48 worth of tasty snacks from around the world for 3 months from UniversalYums.com
Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative connects families worldwide on Facebook to share, dialogue and learn together with an eye to nurturing a more caring world. Click here to learn more.
2017: 
August 31 Release of second four Learning Life international silent stories engaging youth from the USA, El Salvador, India and Australia as actors. 
