Become a Family Diplomat, or Family Diplomacy Ambassador

Like international affairs?

Want experience in citizen diplomacy?

Want to get to know people in different countries?

Want to help build a more caring world through family diplomacy?

Then volunteer as a Family Diplomat (FD), or Family Diplomacy Ambassador (FDA)!

Learning Life is accepting applications from individuals and families interested in volunteering to serve as FDs or FDAs.  FDs and FDAs serve online, not in person, so you can serve from the convenience of your home.  Applicants who can serve with one or more members of their family (siblings, cousins, parent or grandparent and child/ren, etc.) living in the same household, or walking distance so they can attend Zoom meetings on the same laptop, desktop, tablet, or phone, are especially encouraged to apply.

About Learning Life and the Family Diplomacy Initiative

Learning Life is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit developing inclusive learning communities in order to widen and deepen participation in democracy and diplomacy in our increasingly interconnected yet divided world.

Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative (FDI) is an ambitious, long-term, grassroots effort to connect, train and empower a growing international corps of volunteer of FDs and FDAs to advocate for families at local to global levels.  We envision a world more connected and caring because every family has one or more FDs and/or FDAs, and those citizen diplomats advocate effectively via nonprofits, businesses, media and governments for the needs, concerns and aspirations of families worldwide. 

Benefits of Being an FD or FDA
  1. Make diverse new friends across the world.
  2. Contribute to building family diplomacy, giving voice to families for a more caring world.
  3. Gain confidence and skill in communication.
  4. Represent your country as a FD or FDA.
  5. Earn a Certificate of Completion, with or without Honors.  Details below.
  6. FDAs: Develop marketable people-organizing skills.  Details below.
  7. FDAs: Have the chance to earn one of two $100 cash awards for the two best performing FDAs each year.
  8. Families: Deepen your relationship by collaborating in a different way, building family diplomacy together.
Family Diplomats’ Duties

FDs are expected to:

  1. Subscribe to the Family Diplomacy Dispatch.
  2. If you are on Facebook, join FDI’s Facebook Group, like and comment on posts, and post about your own family at least once per year.  See below for the kinds of posts we look for.
  3. Participate in the FD Dialogues, every first Sunday of each month in March to November at 12-1pm New York time (click here to figure out the time in your city), via Zoom.
  4. Complete a FD Poster about your family, if your family is comfortable being presented publicly.
  5. Promptly respond to Learning Life staff questions via email or social media.

The FD time commitment is about 2-3 hours per month for nine months per year, in March to November.

FDs who would like a Certificate of Completion must complete the above duties.  To receive a regular Certificate of Completion, FDs must attend at least 6 of the 9 monthly FD Dialogues, and participate at least once by voice and/or Zoom chat in each of the dialogues you attend.  To receive a Certificate of Completion with Honors, FDs must attend at least 8 of the 9 monthly FD Dialogues, and participate at least twice by voice and/or Zoom chat in each of the dialogues you attend.  This applies to FDs who participate as individuals as well as FDs who participate with one or more members of their family.  In other words, one FD’s attendance and participation cannot count for two FDs’ attendance and participation from the same family.       

For your Facebook posts (#2 above), to receive a regular Certificate of Completion, FDs must post to FDI’s Facebook Group at least once in a year (a post is not the same thing as a response to a post).  For the Certificate of Completion with Honors, FDs must post at least twice in a year.  Each post must contain at least one family photo, plus at least a one-paragraph explanation that includes (a) your family’s city/town and country, and (b) a family update (birth, marriage, death, celebration, issue), an interesting tradition, routine, or peculiarity about your family, OR a challenge your family faces — such as any of the five big issues impacting families that Learning Life is focusing on: poverty, war, climate change, gender-based violence, and the internet — and how your family is responding to that challenge.

Family Diplomacy Ambassadors’ Duties

FDAs serve as Ambassadors by helping to connect and involve more people in family diplomacy, and in so doing, gain valuable communication and people-organizing experience.  Thus, FDAs complete all the duties of FDs above (but with a lower FD Dialogue participation requirement for a Certificate of Completion – details below), plus:

  1. Attend FDA meetings twice per month at 1-2pm New York time on the first and third Sundays of every month in March to November.  On the first Sunday of each month, the FDA meetings immediately following the 12-1pm FD Dialogues on the same Zoom.  FDA meetings help FDAs get to know each other, share effective ways to connect and engage people in FDI, and collaborate as appropriate to achieve their organizing points goals.
  2. Earn at least 100 organizing points in the course of one year to gain a FDA Certificate of Completion, and 150 points to gain a FDA Certificate of Completion with Honors.

The FDAs time commitment is about 4-12 hours per month.  The time per month varies considerably depending on the number of organizing points (100 or 150) the FDA seeks to achieve over however many months (3-12) they choose, the ways to gather points (listed below) that each FDA chooses, and the efficiency with which each FDA achieves their points goal.

FDAs earn organizing points as follows:

  1. 1 point for every person you get to follow Learning Life on Facebook.  Each person who follows must also email Learning Life at email@learninglife.info with their first and last name plus the sentence: “I followed Learning Life on Fb thanks to [FDA’s First and Last Name].”
  2. 1 point for every person you get to join the FDI group on Facebook.  Each person who joins must also email Learning Life at email@learninglife.info with their first and last name plus the sentence: “I joined the FDI group on Fb thanks to [FDA’s First and Last Name].”
  3. 3 points for every person you get to subscribe to the bi-monthly, email Family Diplomacy Dispatch.  Each person who subscribes must enter your first and last name in the subscription form where they are asked who referred them.
  4. 5 points for every family that fully and correctly fills out the FDI Family Poster Survey.  Through the survey, families must enter the FDA’s first and last name as their contact, and must consent to being publicly featured on an e-poster.  FDAs are encouraged to have families they know who are affected by one or more of the five big issues impacting families that Learning Life is focusing on (poverty, war, climate change, gender-based violence, and the internet) complete the Family Poster Survey.
  5. 10 points for recruiting a new FD individual, and 15 points for recruiting a new FD family (i.e., two or more members of the same family serving as FDs together).  The FDs must attend and participate in at least five consecutive monthly FD dialogues via Zoom to be counted as recruited.
  6. 20 points for recruiting a new FDA individual, and 25 points for recruiting a new FDA family (i.e., two or more members of the same family serving as FDAs together).  The FDAs must attend and participate in at least five consecutive monthly FD dialogues and FDA meetings via Zoom to be counted as recruited.

FDAs who would like a Certificate of Completion must attend a minimum of three monthly Family Diplomacy Dialogues, and participate at least twice by voice and/or Zoom chat in each of the dialogues you attend.  To receive a Certificate of Completion with Honors, FDAs must attend at least 8 of the 9 monthly FD Dialogues, and participate at least twice by voice and/or Zoom chat in each of the dialogues you attend. 

Two or more FDAs from the same family have the advantage and benefit of working together to achieve the same 100 or 150 point goals they choose.  In other words, FDA families do not have to gain more points than individual FDAs.

FDAs who choose to focus on recruiting FDs and/or fellow FDAs, and start their FDA work after the start of meetings in March can have the FDs and/or FDAs they recruit attend their consecutive five FD dialogues, or five FD dialogues plus FDA meetings in two consecutive years.  For example, a recruited FD can start attending FD Dialogues in November and continue attending the Dialogues in March onward of the next year.

More Details for FDs and FDAs

FDs and FDAs can start at any time during the year, though keep in mind that the FD Dialogues run monthly from March to November.  Certificates are announced, and awarded via email in January of the following year.  So, an FD or FDA who, for example, starts attending FD Dialogues in September of one year can attend the October and November Dialogues, then resume attending the Dialogues in March onward of the next year, and will receive their Certificate of Completion in January of the third year.

Winners of the two $100 prizes for best performing FDAs in a given year are announced by January of the following year.

FDs and FDAs can live anywhere in the world, but should:

  1. Have a functioning and publicly visible Facebook profile with a clear headshot of the FD or FDA.
  2. Have an internet connection strong and reliable enough to attend meetings via Zoom by audio at least, if not also video.
  3. Speak, read and write English at a level that allows you to understand and participate fully in international conversations with other FDs, FDAs, and Learning Life staff.
  4. Preferably apply with one or more family members who live with you.  While Learning Life accepts individuals as FDs or FDAs, we strongly prefer and will prioritize recruiting two or more members of the same family serving together since this is family diplomacy.
  5. Serve for at least one year, and preferably longer since FDI is an ambitious movement to give voice to families in policymaking for a more caring world.  Like many things worth building, FDI takes years of persistent work by many people to grow, sustain and achieve success.
How to Apply

If you would like to serve as an FD or FDA, please complete the FD application or the FDA application.  Either application should take you no more than 10 minutes to complete.  Please do not fill out both applications, but rather choose to apply for the FD or FDA position based on whether the above-mentioned FD or FDA duties and benefits interest you more.

Thank you for your interest in helping to spread family diplomacy worldwide!