The Community Connections Program, managed by the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and administered by World Learning, is designed to promote public diplomacy through the exchange of cultural ideas and values among participants, U.S. families and local community host organizations.

Program Overview & Goals

The Community Connections (CC) Program offers home-stay based practical training opportunities in the U.S. for entrepreneurs, local government officials, legal professionals, non-governmental organization leaders and other professionals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.  Local community host organizations arrange internships for participants based on interests and experience.

The goals of the Community Connections program are to:

• provide participants with professional training and exposure to day-to-day functioning of a free market system;
• encourage public-private partnerships in Europe/Eurasia by including private sector and government participants on U.S. visits;
• create links between U.S. and Europe/Eurasia regions and communities.

Click here to contact the NNIC's Community Contact program staff member.

Program Design and Delivery Recruitment and selection are carried out by World Learning’s three sub-contractor organizations: Project Harmony (Russia, Western NIS, Caucasus), American Councils (Central Asia and Belarus), and The Center for Social and Economic Development (Moldova).  All participants are recruited through an open competition and selected by local USAID Missions.

World Learning identifies U.S. hosting organizations for the overall implementation of the program. Host organizations arrange or internship and host-family placements of, local transportation, interpretation, and experience America activities.The U.S. hosting organizations work closely with local businesses and public and private organizations, which volunteer their time and resources to develop and implement programs for Community Connections visitors.

Please also see our News & Events section for upcoming visits from Community Connections delegations!