Our world is becoming more complex and interdependent as more people, goods, services and interactions flow across national borders. This changing global reality has triggered xenophobic, sometimes violent reactions that have been validated and amplified by political activists and opportunistic leaders. Diplomacy is rightly upheld as an important response to the mounting tensions within and between some countries, but diplomacy should not be left strictly to professionals. The internet and smart phones open exciting possibilities for citizens to be involved in diplomacy to help promote peace, prosperity and justice, but success and our global future depend in part on fresh approaches. This is the fourth in a series of posts intended to advance family diplomacy as a new form of citizen diplomacy for a more caring world. Read the first post here.
This post, in the form of a Q&A, answers some basic questions about family diplomacy, and how you can become a Family Diplomat.
Why family diplomacy?
Families are widely valued across the world, and deeply impacted by international affairs, from global trade, to immigration, to climate change. Yet the voices of families are hardly heard in intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, even as the voices of youth and women are rightly being amplified. Allowing families to connect, share, learn, and speak publicly to their needs, concerns and aspirations in and to governments across the world is vital to nurturing a more caring world. Learn more about why families should be involved in diplomacy here.
What is family diplomacy?
Family diplomacy means three things:
Families talking and learning together across lines of country, class, race and religion.
Families publicly voicing their own and other families’ needs, concerns and aspirations.
Families participating in the decisions that affect their lives via local to global nonprofits, governments and businesses.
Currently, via our Family Diplomacy Initiative(FDI), Learning Life is actively pursuing 1 and 2 above, and planning for 3.
To learn more about the idea of and reasons for family diplomacy, click here.
What is the Family Diplomacy Initiative?
Launched in 2016, the Family Diplomacy Initiative or FDI is the program through which Learning Life advances family diplomacy worldwide. In 2017-2019, Learning Life completed two pilot projects — a community photo project and a food culture project — that engaged a small number of lower-income families in the USA, El Salvador, Senegal and Jordan. Since summer 2019, we have been scaling up FDI to encourage thousands of people worldwide to share and learn about family life via our FDI Facebook Group. In 2020, we completed a larger food culture project, and in 2021 we organized a series of six live international family dialogues focused on the question: “what do families worldwide need to be safe and healthy?”
How can I become a Family Diplomat (FD)?
Family diplomacy will evolve as Learning Life develops FDI, but right now, here are four ways you can engage as an FD:
Fill out your own “We Are Family Diplomats” Poster with a photo of your family plus your family’s completion of the sentence: “We are family diplomats because…” See the above poster for an example from the Gowtham Family in India. You can email us with your family photo, sentence completion, family name, city and country at email@learninglife.info.
Respond to the weekly “Eye on Families” posts in the FDI Facebook Group to share and learn about families with others worldwide.
Take part in the annual FD training. In 2022, every Sunday for 1.5 hours from July 10 to October 23, Learning Life is gathering FD family storytelling trainees in different countries in one group via Zoom to learn from experts and practitioners about citizen diplomacy, global family studies (patterns, trends and issues facing families worldwide), and oral storytelling. FD trainees will have the opportunity to create their own family story, practice their stories together in our weekly meetings, culminating in performance of their stories live in October, with the best three storytellers receiving cash awards up to $1,000 (U.S. dollars). Click here for more information.
Anyone in the world is qualified to volunteer as an FD if they:
Are On Facebook, and willing to join our FDI Facebook Group.
Have a strong enough internet connection to participate in Zoom audio or video calls.
Speak English at at least a strong intermediate level.
Are at least 14 years old, and mature enough to participate meaningfully in FD activities.
Are committed to participating in FDI activities, including periodic live international dialogues and the annual FD training via Zoom described above.
Serving as one of Learning Life’s Family Diplomats takes about 3-5 hours per month on average (in 2022, 6-8 hours per month during the FD training July 10-October 23). The benefits include:
Make new friends across the world.
Develop a deeper understanding of the forces impacting families, and the perspectives of family members worldwide.
Gain a resume-building experience (for those who want it)
Get the chance to win recognition as one of Learning Life’s best Family Diplomats for those who participate most actively.
Families come in all shapes and sizes, so we define families broadly as two or more people related by blood, marriage, and/or a legal, caring commitment to each other. This, to us, includes same-sex and opposite-sex couples, unmarried couples, couples with or without children, single parents with one or more kids, siblings or cousins living together, grandparents living with grandchildren, and others, including adopted children and family pets. The importance of family is love, not who loves.
Photo below: Family representatives from Venezuela and the USA share their answers in the FDI Facebook Group in answer to the question “what does breakfast look like in your family?” as part of Learning Life’s 2020 food culture project.
Stakeholder Spotlight: Sherry Mueller
The “Stakeholder Spotlight” is a new occasional series of posts highlighting people who are helping to advance Learning Life’s work. Our second post in this series features Sherry Mueller, Ph.D., a widely admired American citizen diplomacy leader, and a strong supporter of Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative. For more information on ways you can support Learning Life, click here.
What is your current occupation?
I am a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the School of International Service (SIS), American University, Washington, D.C., teaching a graduate Practicum entitled “Cultural Diplomacy and International Exchange.” I am also the President of the Public Diplomacy Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes excellence in the professional practice, academic study, and advocacy for public diplomacy.
Please tell us more about you.
I grew up on a farm in northern Illinois and went to the last of the one-room school houses. There was one teacher for all eight grades. If you were bright you would be asked to help teach the younger children. By the time I was in the fifth grade I was teaching second graders spelling and reading. I think this experience was the first step in defining me as an educator. And I am still teaching. I am preparing to teach a practicum fall semester on cultural diplomacy and international exchange at the School of International Service at American University, my undergraduate alma mater. I have always enjoyed teaching because I view it as an intellectual journey of joint learning. I always say, if my students are learning as much as I am, we are having a successful semester.
Why did you decide to support Learning Life?
I donate to Learning Life because I passionately believe in the power of citizen diplomacy. There is an urgent need to connect people — to help them appreciate their differences but, most importantly, to help them appreciate their common human aspirations. That is the mission of Learning Life.
Democracy Learning Community Planning Starts!
On Wednesday, February 23, Learning Life held its first of ten anticipated meetings to plan the DC-MD-VA Democracy Learning Community (DMV DLC) in light of challenges of authoritarianism, polarization and participation inequality in the USA. The meetings will culminate in a report to be released by January 2023. The report will envision what a fully developed DLC could look like, drawing on the diversity of ideas and existing solutions to invigorating democracy in communities and metro regions in the USA and abroad. The report will also provide an action plan with specific activities that metro Washington DC stakeholders are willing to move forward with in 2023.
The 2022 planning meetings are the next step in the development of the DMV DLC, following on the first successful step: Learning Life’s Democracy Dinners. The Dinners were launched in June 2019 to bring together metro DC’s many democracy sector professionals to talk in small groups of 8-12 participants about the challenges and possibilities for democracy at local to global levels. The Dinners, conducted via Zoom since the Covid pandemic, are intended to help build a network in support of the development of the DLC, and since 2019, Learning Life has successfully built a growing list of close to 4,000 metro DC democracy professionals we invite to the Dinners, and over 150 people who have attended the Dinners once or more. “Our nation’s capital region is an opportune place to bring diverse, knowledgeable and connected people together to think creatively about how to strengthen democracy at a local level. In line with Learning Life’s mission to spread learning in everyday life beyond school walls, our intention here is to cultivate a democracy learning community that encourages wider participation, collaboration, and dialogue across our many lines of difference,” said Learning Life’s founder, Paul Lachelier.
To learn more about the DMV DLC, or get involved, click here.
Joe Toles Joins Board of Directors
Learning Life is pleased to announce that Joe Toles — nationally acclaimed father to eight young men adopted from foster care, mental health counselor, and foundation founder — has joined our Board of Directors. Joe will serve as Board Chair in 2022, and joins Treasurer, Khadija Hashemi, and Secretary, Suzanne Lachelier, on the Board. Joe has been involved with Learning Life’s since 2020, when he participated in the Family Diplomacy Initiative‘s international food culture project. He also participated in FDI’s 2021 series of international dialogues on forces impacting family health and safety, and is preparing to participate in this year’s FDI family storytelling training.
“I am thrilled to have Joe join the Board of Directors because he exemplifies the caring our intertwined yet divided world desperately needs. He also brings substantial experience in nonprofit leadership and communications. We’re really proud to have him as one of our family diplomats, and now as our Board Chair to help lead Learning Life’s growth.,” said Learning Life’s Founder & Director, Paul Lachelier. Learn more about Joe from his bio and Rachael Ray Show video below.
Joseph Toles is a New York State-licensed Mental Health Counselor, founder of The Joseph Toles Foundation, entrepreneur, and father of eight adopted young men. He received his MS in Sports Psychology from Brooklyn College, and he specializes in the comprehensive assessment of adolescent needs. A former Division One All-American Track and Field Athlete at Auburn University, Joseph also earned the honor of leading the Tigers team as Captain. Having grown up in the New York State foster care system, Joseph has dedicated his entire professional career to working in community-based schools and nonprofit service agencies. In 2005, Joseph formed The Joseph Toles Foundation so he could expand his work of supporting families beyond what could be done via a social service agency. At age 49, Joseph opened his home to adolescents who had also grown up in the foster care system. To date, he has adopted eight sons, his most recent son, Trenton, in winter 2022. Joe believes that a loving family is the best way to help a child who has been placed in the foster care system. In 2016, Joseph retired from his full-time responsibilities as a counselor in the public school system to evolve. He has since assisted professionals seeking a license as a Mental Health Counselor by teaching graduate courses at Alfred University, hosted a series of video shows for The Dad, created multi-media videos, which he distributes via social media, and authored his first book, The Spirit of Christmas. Joseph spends most of his time working towards educating and encouraging people to learn more about the plight of children who are living their lives in the foster care system. He uses his own story to demonstrate the power positive connections can have on a child, and how family is the most powerful elixir.
Learn more about Learning Life’s boards here. Learn more about each member of our Board of Directors, and other Learning Life people here.
Our world is becoming more complex and interdependent as more people, goods, services and interactions flow across national borders. This changing global reality has triggered xenophobic, sometimes violent reactions that have been validated and amplified by political activists and opportunistic leaders. Diplomacy is rightly upheld as an important response to the mounting tensions within and between some countries, but diplomacy should not be left strictly to professionals. The internet and smart phones open exciting possibilities for citizens to be involved in diplomacy to help promote peace, prosperity and justice, but success and our global future depend in part on fresh approaches. This is the fourth in a series of posts intended to advance family diplomacy as a new form of citizen diplomacy for a more caring world. Read the first post here. 
