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 began a series of dialogues on family security with an eye to identifying motivated family diplomats, and connecting 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
How You Can Get Involved
- Join the FDI community on Facebook to connect with the world and learn about families worldwide.
- Launching in 2025: Subscribe free to our monthly email Family Diplomacy Dispatch featuring international family facts and trends, profiles of families worldwide, fun family content from the internet, and more.
- Participate in casual, fun, participatory Family Dialogues to share pictures and information about your family, and learn about other families. These dialogues take place live via Zoom on the first Sunday of every month at 12-1pm New York time in March to November. Subscribe to the Dispatch above to get notice of the meetings and the Zoom link.
- Earn the chance to represent your family and country by serving as a volunteer Family Diplomat, and/or Family Diplomacy Ambassador.
- Become a Democracy & Diplomacy Community (DDC) member to help more people take part in democracy and diplomacy.
- Qualified university students have the chance to intern with Learning Life to gain professional experience in citizen diplomacy.
Benefits of DDC Membership
- Develop your leadership and communication skills.
- Learn about international citizen diplomacy, family life, and the issues impacting families worldwide.
- Help give voice to families for a more caring world.
- Support FDI, including individuals and families from lower-income households worldwide for whom paying DDC membership dues is a hardship.
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
