Reaching out to the world one citizen at a time

This year is the 50th anniversary of a state organization you may not have heard of: the Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy (or UCCD). According to their website, they work as a nonprofit partner with the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program.

Each year, UCCD welcomes more than 400 emerging leaders from around the world to Utah for short-term professional and cultural exchanges. Felicia Maxfield-Barrett, the communications and events director for the Utah Citizen Diplomacy Center, was a guest on <a href=”http://610kvnu.com/assets/podcaster/324/2017_05_04_324_57242_2867.mp3″ target=”_blank”>KVNU’s For the People program on Wednesday</a> and told us what the purpose of the organization is.

“Two things…one is that we promote respect and understanding between the people of Utah and other nations. And really we do that through our guiding principle which is also part of our namesake. It’s citizen diplomacy and that’s the idea that everybody has the ability to help shape foreign relations,” according to Maxfield-Barrett.

“And we just do that one handshake at a time, or one conversation at a time, or one lecture at a time. Anything that can start getting us thinking about how we interact with each other on a global basis.”

There are many events planned for this year. As part of their Global Conversations program one event will be on May 11th in Salt Lake City. It’s entitled “Passing the Diplomacy Leadership Torch to the Next Generation.” It is specifically geared on tapping into the connectedness of the millennial generation. You can RSVP and get more information at <a href=”http://www.utahdiplomacy.org” target=”_blank”>utahdiplomacy.org</a>.

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