Childrens International Summer Villages Inc, Dallas - Ft. Worth Chapter

Founded in 1950 as Children's International Summer Villages, CISV educates and inspires youth and their families to become active and contributing members of society - active global citizens. Our programs cover a wide range: international camps for ages 11 through adulthood, family-hosted exchanges, and local community-based projects. All are based on sound educational principles and objectives.

CISV programs provide participants with the Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge (ASK) to become agents of change, locally and globally. Featuring an experiential learning-by-doing approach, CISV seeks to stimulate the life-long development of effective collaboration, communication, and leadership skills.

The focus is on developing personal and interpersonal knowledge about participants' cultures and communities through group living and activities shared in an intercultural setting. The four main content areas of CISV programs are diversity, human rights, conflict and resolution, and sustainable development.

Raising awareness of these issues opens the eyes of participants to opportunities for action in their home communities and the wider world and encourages them to become active global citizens. CISV uses an experiential education model where participants engage in activities, reflect on new understandings acquired from these activities, share what they have learned with each other, and connect what they have learned to life in their respective homes, communities, and the world.

CISV has seven unique programs each designed for a particular age group, with participants offered increasing levels of personal responsibility for program planning and execution, in line with their maturity.

Now in its seventh decade, CISV is a global federation of 69 Member Associations with over 200 Chapters or local groups, educating and inspiring thousands of children and young people and their families, empowering them to achieve their full potential and to play an active role in creating a better world. Beginning with the first Village, held in Cincinnati, OH in 1951, CISV volunteers have organized over 6,000 international programs for some 230,000 participants.

Our Needs

CISV Dallas / Ft. Worth's priority needs are to secure funding for our local programming which includes educational group activities promoting cross-cultural understanding in children, youth, and adults from around the world; as well as to provide Financial Assistance to program participants with scholarship needs.