Since its inception, in 1973, Friendship Ambassadors Foundation (FAF) has cultivated international affiliations and partnerships in order to fulfill its non-partisan and non-sectarian mission to promote youth leadership development and peace through cultural exchange throughout the world. FAF’s history and resources make FAF uniquely capable of helping young people find their voice and share their values, and the organization can play a significant role in this dialogue moving forward.

FAF’s signature program is the Youth Assembly at the United Nations, now in its fifteenth year, which has provided a unique platform for fostering dialogue and generating partnerships between exceptional youth, civil society, the private sector, and the United Nations. As yesterday’s FAF participants became the leaders of today, so too will today’s FAF participants become the leaders of tomorrow. 

Founded by Fulbright Scholar Harry Morgan and well-respected travel professional Cappy Devlin, Friendship Ambassadors Foundation, Inc. (FAF) has facilitated international travel and exchange programs as an independent foundation since 1973 – and for more than 15 years prior to that as an informal program supported in large part by Lila and DeWitt Wallace (founders, Readers Digest). Since its inception, FAF has cultivated international affiliations and representation in order to fulfill its mission to promote Youth Leadership capacity-building opportunities and Peace Through Cultural Exchange.

The Foundation’s rich history includes significant collaborations to help heal families of victims of terror, with a strong focus on communities throughout the world where cultural strengthening with the US is critical. FAF has focused on regions emerging from natural or man-made disasters and received national recognition for its work with 9/11 families in particular. In 2002, the project, Finding New Hope, received $3.1M from American Red Cross, Hitachi, and Rotary International, and included signature funding of over $1.6M from the Lions Clubs International Foundation.

FAF Programs Include: Arts-based service programming in New Orleans (FAF and local Fairfield youth received two days named in their honor for public service by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, with special commendation by the US Senate); the creation of the Greenwich/Vienne, Sister City relationship (where hundreds of Fairfield residents have been able to travel to and host sister city members); the annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations™; Youth Symphony for United Nations; and Youth Band for United Nations (led for several years by Greenwich High School music teacher John Yoon and comprised of Fairfield youth). FAF is also proud of its many formal affiliations with a long list of non-governmental organizations, placing the Foundation in a unique position as it pursues its mission.

FAF programs have included many well-known participants throughout the past four decades, including United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, author Alex Haley, Mother Teresa, Senator Jay Rockefeller, President Vaclav Havel, three American astronauts, Reverend Jesse Jackson, social entrepreneur Kathy Ireland, Dr. Arun Gandhi – the list goes on and on. However, the Foundation is most proud of the tens of thousands of private citizens and the millions of lives that have been touched and changed by the participation, engagement, and exchange the public projects engender.

Mission Statement – 2014 – Founded and Incorporated as a 501c3 in 1973
Friendship Ambassadors Foundation is an organization with broad, international relations, that creates the platforms upon which transformative, intercultural exchanges, youth leadership programming, and humanitarian volunteer service projects take place.  These  programs often focus on the arts or service related to UN development goals, while building friendships, advancing mutual understanding, global cooperation, and sustainable development through cultural tourism, worldwide.

The Shared Vision brought to FAF by its Current Board, Advisors, and Staff 
To enable and enhance understanding among the peoples of the world by bringing diverse communities together in an atmosphere of culture, cooperation, and mutual respect.

Friendship Ambassadors Foundation utilizes cultural exchange to affect improved relations between and among cultures in need of strengthening as well as for the healing potential it provides to those affected by natural and made made disasters.

Beyond religion, business, or politics, and outside the realm of debate, there is a commonality to the human experience that only cultural exchange can reveal.  Working with cultural thinkers, youth leaders, academics, and arts organizations worldwide, the foundation has created useful programs that ease cross-cultural tensions, help people understand and value ‘the other’, and heal themselves in the process.

The foundation also facilitates the travel and exchange experiences of those groups that seek these types of peace-building and global development opportunities for their own personal and organizational development and for the long term, new and profitable relationships they engender.