CIPUSA has developed various educational and training projects throughout the years involving both international professionals and U.S. professionals. These programs have resulted positively training over 100 individuals, developing new curriculum and schools within universities, establishing an NGO training center and career development center, and impacting students in Russia, Turkey, and Eithiopia.
Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program (Volgograd, Russia)
To help foster greater contacts between Americans and Russians, the State Department launched the U.S.-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program, which provides grants of up to $100,000 to support collaboration, including meetings, virtual interactions, exchanges, and internships, between American and Russian organizations. CIPUSA was awarded this grant in 2013 for the Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University & John Carroll University Cooperative Exchange. The first in person exchange of the program was in May 2014 and involved a delegation of JCU professors and CIPUSA staff traveling to Volgograd, Russia to meet with the VSSPU team. VSSPU sent a delegation to Cleveland in October 2014.
This project gave professors of foreign languages, communications, political science and history the opportunity to share best practices, ideas, and tools to help their students excel in language acquisition. Program activities included faculty exchanges, web seminars, roundtable discussions, collaboration in curriculum and syllabus development, an open exchange of teaching resources, and one-on-one student online video exchanges. Long-term plans are in place to create student and faculty short-term exchange programs beginning in 2016.
Community Connections Program
Since its inception under the State Department’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs, the broad public diplomacy goals of Community Connections have been to contribute to economic and democratic reform and to promote mutual understanding in Eurasia – providing visitors broad exposure to U.S. society and helping to create personal connections with Americans, advancing democratic and free-market principles in a region where those principles are still tenuous. The Community Connections program, administered by World Learning, continues to promote the overall U.S. Embassy and USAID goals of supporting public diplomacy and the specific goals of Community Connections. CIPUSA and its affiliate offices began hosting Community Connections delegations in 2006. Recent delegations have been hosted from Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
Engaging Marginalized Youth Through the Arts (Istanbul, Turkey)
The Council of International Programs USA (CIPUSA), YORET Foundation of Istanbul Turkey, Cleveland Public Theatre, Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Municipal School District and Motivations Through Excellence partnered on this U.S. State Department funded grant to create a "Train the Trainer" program to provide arts educators and community service professionals in Turkey with the opportunity to strengthen their skills and knowledge to engage marginalized youth through performing and visual arts.
Development of a Community Work & Life Center (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
The Council of International Programs USA (CIPUSA), the Addis Ababa University (AAU), the African AIDS Initiative International, Inc. (AAII) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) partnered to provide a cross-cultural training program and creation of a career center through the Community Work and Life Center located at Addis Ababa University.
NGO Women Leadership Training Center (Cairo, Egypt)
Funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in partnership with the Alliance for Arab Women (AAW) this program was designed to enhance the skills of 10 Egyptian women in NGO management and leadership through educational seminars and “hands-on” observational internships to become trainers in the NGO field. After participating in an intensive one month program in the U.S. the 10 women returned to Egypt to create an NGO training center for women resulting in training over 100 women.
Social Work in Education in Ethiopia (SWEEP) (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
Funded by the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO) in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Addis Ababa to establish the first-ever graduate degree in social work in Ethiopia.
Establishing A School of Criminal Justice at the University of Bucharest (Bucharest, Romania)
A Higher Education, Government and Community Partnership Funded by the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO) and World Learning in collaboration with Tiffin University and the University of Bucharest to develop community justice administration reform in Romania.
South Africa Internship Program
Funded by the U.S. Government to train South Africans in the fields of public administration, library science, and media.
HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention (Accra, Ghana)
Funded by the USAID to train senior and mid-level professionals worldwide in AIDS prevention and control, including educators, youth workers and public health officials.