See also Learning Life’s Citizen Diplomacy International.
THE FAMILY DIPLOMACY INITIATIVE
About FDI
Family is by far the most valued relationship in people’s lives across the world, surpassing work, politics, leisure, friends, and religion, according to the World Values Survey. At the same time, families are affected by the wide range of problems societies face, from diabetes and depression, to pollution and climate change, poverty and recessions, and war and terrorism. Despite the family’s vulnerability and value worldwide, seldom are families invited to participate in decision-making alongside business, labor and government, or engaged to connect people across the world’s cultural, economic and political divides. Family is thus a culturally powerful yet largely untapped force for a more caring world.
Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative (FDI) is an ambitious, grassroots effort to connect, train and empower a growing international corps of volunteer family diplomats (FDs) 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 FDs networked with fellow FDs across the globe, and these citizen diplomats together advocate effectively for the needs, concerns and aspirations of families worldwide via nonprofits, businesses, media and governments.
To achieve this vision, Learning Life is tapping into the power of the internet. Not everyone can afford to travel, but growing numbers of people across the globe are eagerly communicating online. The internet is an enormously popular, cost-effective, large-scale force that is used for good and bad purposes. The bad includes sowing disinformation, intolerance, and violence. The good though includes nurturing dialogue, learning, and collaboration that can open minds, nurture caring, and transform lives.
Learning Life is thus harnessing the power and potential of families and the internet to build an international family diplomacy movement online. In fall 2016, we launched Phase 1 of FDI by connecting lower-income families online in 
Washington DC, Puerto de la Libertad, El Salvador, and Dakar, Senegal. From 2017 to 2019, Learning Life completed two pilot projects — a community photo project and a food culture project — that engaged small numbers of lower-income families in the USA, El Salvador, Senegal and Jordan. In 2020 we completed a larger scale food culture project. In 2021, we more than quintupled the membership of FDI on Facebook, from less than 1,700 to over 10,000 people worldwide, and organized a series of live international dialogues on the question: “what do families worldwide need to be safe and healthy?” In 2022, we began Phase 2 of FDI, tapping into our growing global FDI network on Facebook to identify and begin training motivated Family Diplomats, improving their knowledge of citizen diplomacy and global family patterns by 11%, and their storytelling skill by 24% on average in 2022, and 9% and 28% respectively in 2023. Learn more about our 2022 and 2023 trainings’ impact. See the poster at the bottom of this page for FDI’s vision and three phases of development. In 2024, we are holding a series of four dialogues on family security with an eye to identifying families worldwide affected by five major issues: war, poverty, climate change, gender-based violence, and the internet.
“I participate in FDI because I want to be a better global citizen. Through FDI, I gain insights into the experience and perspectives of different people across the world, and that understanding helps me be a better global citizen.” -Prudence Hounhoui (left), Porto-Novo, Benin, FDI Member
Benefits of Membership
- You can join the FDI community on Facebook free.
- Attend FDI dialogues and meetings online to connect and make friends with other caring people around the world.
- Learn about international citizen diplomacy, family life, and the issues impacting families worldwide.
- Develop your leadership and communication skills as a volunteer family diplomat (FD) representing your country (more info below).
- Contribute to making a more caring world by giving voice to families.
How You Can Get Involved
Here are five ways you can get involved and support FDI (click the links below that interest you to learn more and get involved):
(1) Join FDI on Facebook to connect, learn and share with families worldwide.
(2) Sponsor a family diplomat for as low as $250 for individuals and $1,000 for organizations to support their international training. Meet some of our Family Diplomats here.
(3) Take part in the 2024 issue presentations: Once per month from July to November 2025, family diplomats (FDs) and interested people in different countries are convening to learn about five major issues impacting families – poverty, war, climate change, gender-based violence, and the internet (social media, gaming, etc.). Join us to connect, learn, present and provide feedback to presenters.
(4) Volunteer as a Family Diplomat or Family Diplomacy Ambassador: FDs learn about issues impacting families, connect with other families locally to globally affected by the same issues, and develop their skills to become effective advocates for families worldwide. FDAs recruit volunteer FDs and fellow FDAs in their community, country and/or internationally, represent and advocate for FDI, and help Learning Life advise, connect, train, and/or learn about our FDs. Both attend meetings every two months via Zoom, and participate in communications via Facebook and/or Linkedin between the bi-monthly meetings as needed.
(5) Intern with Learning Life: Want to connect with the world, and gain experience in democracy and citizen diplomacy? Learning Life interns are undergraduate or graduate students who typically volunteer about 10 hours/week for several months, usually in spring, summer and/or fall, to gain resume-building nonprofit experience as they assist with a variety of Learning Life tasks, including research, outreach, social media, fundraising, design, planning, and else. To apply for a Learning Life internship, please send along your resume to email@learninglife.info.
For More Information
Want to learn more about family diplomacy? Click here for a deeper dive. For video recordings of FD trainings and family storytelling:
For readings on or related to family diplomacy, see:
Families: A New Voice for a More Caring World
Five Reasons Why Diplomacy Should Involve Families
Open Letter to Learning Life Families
Toward a Contextual Ethics of Diplomacy
