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Connecting with Friendship Force International

CIVs and Friendship Force Clubs: The Mutual Benefits of Building a Partnership

by George Brown

Friendship Force International (FFI) is a global network of clubs and individuals dedicated to providing opportunities for people of different countries and cultures to meet as friends. Through home hospitality exchanges, FFI has connected more than 500,000 people in over 60 countries since it was established in 1977 with the active support of then President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter. (Click on the logo below for the website).

Friendship Force exchanges are carried out by volunteer led chapters (clubs) in 350 communities on six continents. About one third of the clubs are in the United States, with a national network that is very similar to that of NCIV. Each year the clubs are given new exchange assignments, calling on them to organize one or more outbound exchanges to a designated host club, and to host one or more inbound delegations from abroad. The clubs look to their own membership as well as others throughout their community to serve as ambassadors to travel abroad and hosts to provide a week’s homestay for inbound visitors.

Since each club has only a few exchanges a year, the local membership often is engaged in other community activities with an international focus. You’ll often find FF members active in Sister Cities, university student programs, World Affairs Council seminars—AND they also make great CIV hosts! There is also a direct contact between NCIV and FFI at the national level. NCIV’s president, Sherry Mueller, is currently serving as a member of the FFI International Board; and from 2000-2004 FFI’s president, George Brown, served as Executive Director of the Georgia Council for International Visitors.

As FF clubs and CIV affiliates look for ways to attract new members and program participants, it seems only logical that they should be able to work together. While this has happened informally over the years, a workshop at the recent NCIV National Meeting provided a more direct way for this to happen. With most organizations switching to the Internet and email for their communications, it is relatively inexpensive to add lists of people to any organization’s email distribution list. Think of the value to local CIVs and FF clubs if they can send program alerts to hundreds of additional international activists in their community. For the CIVs, Friendship Force members make great home hospitality hosts, as they are experienced in providing week long homestays. For Friendship Force clubs, CIV members are great prospects for outbound exchanges around the world, as well as potential host families.

One such example of a budding partnership on the local level can be seen in the Chicago area. The Friendship Force of Northern Illinois as well as the Friendship Force of Chicago have partnered with the International Visitors Council of Chicago by forming a strategic alliance that will provide members of the two organizations the opportunity to receive each others email program updates. According to the model they are using, no money changes hands. There is a short memorandum of agreement approved by the boards of the two local organizations and the members will be given the opportunity to receive the updates from the other organization.

The partnerships between FF chapters and CIVs can be just the beginning. Other community organizations such as Sister Cities and World Affairs Councils could join as well. To get more information on a FF club in your region, contact Rebecca Shaw at rshaw@thefriendshipforce.org. To find out about the emerging plan in Chicago, contact Peggy Parfenoff at pparfenoff@ivcc.org.

George Brown is the President of Friendship Force International and served as the Executive Director of the Georgia Council for International Visitors from 2000 - 2004.

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