Programs: Community Connections

Community Connections

Program Overview

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. It seeks to establish and strengthen links between U.S. communities and communities in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Between 2000 and 2005, eleven groups (10 people each) of professionals in business, education, law, and medicine visited Worcester for a three to four-week long program of professional meetings, practical training, job shadowing, and homestays s.  ICW keeps in contact with alumni after their return home and has organized three “follow-on” programs that involve ICW staff working with alumni to organize professional training seminars in their home countries.

There are two types of Community Connections programs:

Business Programs are for English-speaking professionals who come to the United States on four-week internship training programs. They receive some group training on business topics, but during the majority of the program participants work in individualized internships with businesses similar to their own.

Professional Programs are three weeks long and are organized around a particular theme, for example, urban planning, youth advocacy, and information & access. Participants on the professional programs do not need to speak English to qualify for the program.

ICW, as a local community host organizations, arranges internships for participants based on interests and experience. Companies offering internships range from small, family-run enterprises to major, multi-national "Fortune 500" corporations.

The goals of the Community Connections program are to:

Program hosted by the International Center of Worcester

Year 2009

April 23 – May 14, 2009
ICW hosted a group of 10 delegates from Rivne and Volyn Oblasts areas in Ukraine on a program entitled ‘‘Preservation of the Historical and Social Environment of Cities.’’ This three week community connections program was funded through the USAID. The goal of the program was to raise awareness about the importance of preserving the historical, cultural, and social environment of cities and to examine how this can be done while assuring services and economic security for the population. Participants learned how to make a city attractive to live in, how citizens are involved in determining their environment, and what key elements are needed to be considered in schools, hospitals, and other services.

October 1-22, 2009
ICW hosted a group of 10 medical professionals from Moscow and Tver Oblasts, Russia. They participated in the community connections program funded by the USAID. The program’s goal was to provide participants with a broad understanding of various American healthy lifestyle campaigns, as well as the opportunity to establish professional connections with peers in the US, so that they can gain the knowledge, support, and inspiration necessary to successfully facilitate healthy lifestyle changes in Russia. Participants got the opportunity to learn about issues such as health delivery systems to local people, tobacco, alcohol, drugs, safe sex, and violence prevention, role of the media in promoting healthy lifestyles, substance abuse treatment, enforcement of drug and alcohol laws, and reproductive health, and HIV prevention.

Year 2008

May 22–June 12, 2008
ICW hosted a group of 10 leaders in the field of civil rights and community development from St. Petersburg, Russia, sponsored by USAID. The program was designed to show how the U.S. government and private organizations work to promote more tolerant attitudes between individuals towards members of different races, adherents of other religions, and people with different views on sensitive issues. It showed how various governmental and non-governmental agencies work together to create a more tolerant environment in their communities, how all sectors of society are involved in tolerance work, how educational institutions provide education on the subject and their collaboration with law enforcement agencies.

August 6-27, 2008.

ICW hosted a group of 10 visitors in the health care profession from Azerbaijan. The overall objective of this program was to demonstrate ways in which health care providers, government agencies and professional associations in the United States monitor quality, set clinical guide-lines, continue health service quality improvement, employ techniques of evidence based medicine and license hospitals and healthcare professionals. This program was part of a larger USAID effort to help the Azerbaijani government restructure and reform their former Soviet health care system.

Year 2007

September 5-26

ICW hosted 10 business, government, and NGO professionals from the Donetsk Oblast, located in the southeast corner of Ukraine.  They participated in the Community Connections Program funded by USAID.  The objective of their program was to show the latest methods and technologies of recycling industrial waste and to study how such recycled materials can be used to produce the same or other products that have a market value.

August 1-21

ICW hosted ten medical professionals, government officials, and non-profit managers from the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.  They participated in the Community Connections Program funded by USAID and focused on the theme of Infectious Disease Prevention with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS and blood supply safety


Year 2006

November 1- December 06

5-week program for 9 Business Entrepreneurs from Georgia
Topic of the program: “Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development”.
Sponsored by: U.S. Agency for International Development Bureau for Europe and Eurasia
Administered by: World Learning, Washington D.C.
Local Program Designed and Directed by: International Center of Worcester
Photos
Participants:
Amaghlobeli, Lasha
Beselia, Zurab
Chogovadze, George
Duduchava, Shorena
Kankia, Levan
Khubulava, Alexander
Machaidze, Dinara
Metreveli, Natia
Razmadze, Nino
Samkharadze, Nino

April 26 - May 16

3-week program for 10 public health professionals from Tajikistan
Topic of the program: “Healthy Lifestyle Education”.
Sponsored by: U.S. Agency for International Development Bureau for Europe and Eurasia
Administered by: World Learning, Washington D.C.
Local Program Designed and Directed by: International Center of Worcester
Photos
Participants:
Abdukhamedov, Numonjon
Ergasheva, Fariza
Khasanova, Gulnora
Kosymova, Rano
Munavvarova, Umeda
Shoimurodov, Nasim
Shukurov, Firuz
Murzoeva, Ibodat
Nasimova, Tazarf
Kosimova, Dilorom


Year 2005

May 20 - June 18

4-week program for 10 Business Entrepreneurs from the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Topic of the program: “Practical training opportunities and internships in the United State”.
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Photos
Participants:
Marguba  Akhatova
Kristina Davoyan
Syuzanna Fatyan
Aziza Haidarova
Dilorom Safarova
Parviz Shukurov
Said Shukurov
Djamilya Vafayeva

February 24 - March 17

3-week program for 10 Judges and Lawyers from city of Novosibirsk, Russia.
Topic of the program: “Law and Justice”. Sponsored by the US Department of State
Photos
Participants:
Evgeny Buzmakov
Rimma Chatovkina
Tatyana Derkach
Elena Mikhaylova
Mikhail Nozdryukhin
Natalia Omelekhina
Konstantin Pershkov
Inna Petrunina
Nina Romanovskaya
Nataliya Shefer

Year 2004

July 14–August 3

3-week program for 11 managers and Professionals in Small and Medium Enterprise Development
from the Karshi Region, Uzbekistan.
Topic of the program: “Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Development”
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Photos
Participants:
Dilfuza Abdurakhmanova
Kizlarbibi Botirova
Sanat Juraev
Gavhar Kilicheva
Yulduzoy Mamadiyorova
Gulnora Odilova
Guzal Sariyeva
Firuzdjon Tashatov
Abdullo Turdiev
Jamila Tuymaeva
Gulniso Ziyatova

March 26–April 24

4-week program for 9 Business Entrepreneurs from the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. Topic of the program: “Practical training opportunities and internships in the United States”.
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Photos
Participants:
Mikhail Anchikov
Marina Chugunova
Arkady Droevsky
Olga  Ivleva
Igor Medvednikov
Vassili Mironenkov
Andrey Popov
Liudmila Vedeneeva
Andrei Zykov


Year 2003

October 10-November 8

4-week program for 9 Business Entrepreneurs from the city of Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia.
Topic of the program: “Practical training opportunities and internships in the United States”
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Photos
Participants:
Albina Bulgakova
Galina Butova
Rasil Fayzullin
Richat Gazizov
Elena Islamova
Goulnara Kameneva
Alfia Lobova
Lyalya Maxyutova
Rim  Zoubairov

March 28 - April 28, 2003

4-week program for 10 Business Entrepreneurs from Moldova .
Topic of the program: “Practical training opportunities and internships in the United States”.
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Participants:
Natalia Albot
Mircea Apostol
Sergiu Beznitchi
Dorin Casenco
Oleg Chelaru
Andrei Cumpanic
Nicolae Malcoci
Viorica Petrov
Serghei Starus
Tatiana Sterbet

January 22 –February 23

4-week program for 9 Business Entrepreneurs and one Government Official from the city of Novgorod, Russia.
Topic of the program: “Practical training opportunities and internships in the United States”
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Participants:
Evgueni Ibraguimov
Evguenia Jirova
Iouri Korechkov
Vera Koulebiakina
Stanislav Osin
Maxim Pankratov
Pshenitsyn Yury (Government Official)
Vitaly Rogozhin
Alexey Savinykh
Alexander Zevunov 

Year 2002

March 28–April 21

3-week program for 10 Managers and Professionals in Public Health Administration from the city of Omsk, Russia.
Topic of the program: “Public Health”
Sponsored by the US Department of State
Participants:
Svetlana Baytugaeva
Vladimir Doubel
Vera Drozdova
Liubov Neklyudova
Liudmila Popova
Leonid Shirinskiy
Alexandre Tioumentsev
Vasiliy Vasilevich
Aleksandr  Vikhodtsev
Svetlana Vorobeva


Year 2001


November 8-December 9

4-week program for 10  Business Entrepreneurs from the city of Novosibirsk, Russia. Topic of the program: “Practical training opportunities and internships in the United State”
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Participants:
Elena Balbourova
Natalia Bobrova 
Evgueni Lantoukh
Natalia Manokhina
Roman Nepop
Alexei Pliousnine 
Denis Serebriakov
Evgueni Shatalov
Maxim Shein
Alexander Styukhlyaev

January 25 - February 18

3-week program for 10 Russian Professionals in Educational Administration from St. Petersburg Region.
Topic of the program: “Educational Administration in USA”
Sponsored by the US Department of State
Participants:
Erna Bolshakova
Elizaveta Firago
Valentina Gergert
Marina Iakovleva
Ol’ga Koval’chuk
Larisa Loseva
Galina Martynovskaia
Nina Matiushenkova
Alexsandr Molotok
Nadezhda Soko

Year 2000

September 26 - October 24

4-week program for 10 Business Entrepreneurs from St. Petersburg Region, Russia.
Topic of the program: “Practical training opportunities and internships in the United States”.
Sponsored by the US Department of State.
Participants
Olga Andreeva
Galina Aristova
Dmitry Kishchenko
Kirill Razumov
Igor Redkov
Larissa Rjechevskaia
Sergey Sibilev
Sergey Stoliarov
Sergey Tarasov
Irina Tscheglova