Community Connections Program

Join in the effort to "bring the world home to Chicago"

Heartland international is one of forty organizations across the United States conducting a Community Connections Program for entrepreneurs, local government officials, legal professionals and nongovernmental organization leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

A program of the United States Agency for International Development, the Community Connections Program offers participants three- to five-week practical training opportunities. Heartland International matches participants with local businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations for a four-day job shadowing experience or a fifteen-day business placement. The goals of the Community Connections Program are to provide participants with professional training and exposure to day-to-day functioning of a free market system; to encourage public/private partnerships in the NIS; and to create linkages between U.S. and NIS regions and communities.

During the training program, participants stay with individuals and families who provide the participant with an intimate look at American culture, thus enhancing the total learning experience. Participants and hosts have an opportunity to exchange ideas, both culturally and intellectually. Hundreds of Chicago-area residents have opened their homes to the participants and made life-long friends.

Over four hundred Belarusian, Moldovan, Russian, Turkmen and Ukrainian entrepreneurs, legal professionals, government officials and nongovernmental organization leaders have participated in Heartland International's Community Connections Program in Chicago. The continued support of the Chicago-area's business and non-profit communities have made the Community Connections Program a great success. Well over 200 local businesses--ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to small storefront shops--have offered business placements. Chicago non-profit organizations have offered their expertise to participants through job shadowing experiences. These voluntary contributions help the Community Connections Program participants develop the necessary skills to contribute to long term economic and political stabilization in the NIS.