| Type | Non-governmental organization |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1951 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Doris Twitchell Allen |
| Location | Newcastle upon Tyne, England (International Office) [1] |
| Focus | Peace Education[2] |
| Website | [1] |
CISV International (formerly Children's International Summer Villages) is an international organization, founded on the aim of achieving world peace through cross-cultural understanding.
The organization operates international programs on an annual basis to bring together participants from member countries. CISV also operates in smaller communities with local chapters.
CISV currently holds participatory status with the INGOs Conference of the Council of Europe, and the organisation has once again been approved to be a sub-organisation under UNESCO.
Contents |
CISV was founded in 1951 by Doris Twitchell Allen. Since then, the organization has expanded into 80 countries, and over 150,000 delegates have participated in more than four thousand international CISV activities that delegates have made up over the course of these years.[3]
For Dr. Allen and the CISV organization, children and youth were seen as the ideal starting point for peace education. Programmes were developed which offered young people opportunities to meet their peers from other countries and to form intercultural friendships. Locally, programmes give people the chance to learn about the cultures in their own communities and explore important themes related to peace and understanding.
The CISV International experience is based on the six travel programmes:
Participants participate in hands-on work contributing to a community project.
The CISV International programmes page provides more detailed information.
As well, CISV have chapters hold local programmes that aim to share the CISV experience within the smaller community.
CISV also has other things you can do, such as being a leader, more commonly meant for the Village, Summer Camp, and Interchange (Also for NYM). They are the ones who take the delegations to the Camp/Village. There are also usually 6 Junior Counselors (JC's) on a Village picked from chapters around the world who provide a link between children and adults on Villages. They are age 16-17 and it is common for there to be 2 JCs from the country the camp is being held in. On every programme there is a Staff team, usually from the hosting country although there are sometimes international staff. They are incharge of all the doings of the camp with the help of the JC's and the Leaders. When a camp is being run there is always a need for Host Families. These are families who have participants to stay at their houses when the camp has either not begun yet, has ended and participants have some time to wait before their flights leave or, in the case of a Village, when the leaders weekend off is underway. Another thing which is important is Junior Branch. There are many roles to be taken on throughout your local and national Junior Branch, these vary from country to country and national junior branch roles are usually taken on by Juniors aged 16+, however, you can contribute in many ways; from helping to plan your Junior Branch meetings to helping to raise money to host programmes.
The International Office of CISV is located in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. While critical administration for international programmes takes place at the Office, the vast majority of organizational work is done at the local "chapter" level.
Each of CISV's 62 countries has a national association, which oversees and supports municipal chapters. Besides the Executive Boards, local chapters have Junior Branches, youth-based groups that has the goals of building community among its members, developing skills and attitude that are relevant to accomplish the goals of CISV. Aside from the International Office staff, CISV is entirely volunteer-run.
CISV USA was the first National Association of CISV when CISV international came around. It includes local chapters in: Atlanta Area, Brandywine Valley, Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Jacksonville, Gulf Coast, Maine, Miami County, Michigan City, New York, Northwest Ohio, Omaha, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain/Denver, San Francisco, Smoky Mountain, Springfield, MA Washington, DC, and Youngstown-Cleveland.