Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) Request for Grant Proposals: Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program: “Overseas YES Inbound Recruitment, YES Abroad Placement, and Alumni Components” for the 2011-12 Academic Year

The Office of Citizen Exchanges of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) announces an open competition for a grant to support exchanges and relationship building between high school students from countries with significant Muslim populations and the people of the United States. Public and private non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue Code section 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3) and public institutions may submit a proposal for the Overseas YES Inbound Recruitment, YES Abroad Placement, and Alumni Components to: Recruit and select approximately 1,077 students from designated countries (referred to herein as "inbound" participants), provide orientations, coordinate logistics, and provide follow-on alumni programs in support of an academic year or semester of study in the United States, incorporating themes promoting civil society, leadership, and mutual understanding; and select approximately 50 American participants and identify host families and schools for their placement and support in ten countries overseas. To implement the entirety of the YES program, two Requests for Grant Proposals are being announced at this time (the Disabilities Components will be handled through a separate grant process.): one (this announcement) covers Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES) Overseas Recruitment, YES Abroad Placement, and Alumni Components. A separate announcement will solicit organizations to arrange placement of Inbound Kennedy-Lugar YES students with U.S. host families and schools and monitor their health, safety and welfare, and identify and nominate U.S. students for consideration for the YES Abroad program. This Overseas YES Inbound Recruitment, YES Abroad Placement, and Alumni Components announcement requires: <bullet> Development of all program materials for marketing to U.S. and non-U.S. students, a host family and school handbooks, web presence, student application forms, and other standardized program forms and publications. <bullet> Recruitment and selection of approximately 1,077 YES Inbound participants in designated countries overseas. <bullet> Final selection of approximately 50 American participants from among those recruited and proposed by U.S. Placement Organizations. <bullet> Placement and support of YES Abroad American participants with host families and schools in ten eligible countries overseas. <bullet> All overseas orientations for all YES Abroad and YES Inbound participants. <bullet> Alumni programs for YES Abroad and YES Inbound participants. Organizations are invited to submit proposals to recruit, screen and select approximately 1,077 qualified high school students from over 35 designated countries; conduct local student and natural family orientations; provide cross-cultural training; collaborate with U.S. placement organizations for on-program counseling; coordinate programmatic and on-program participant monitoring activities; and evaluate program implementation for students participating in the YES Inbound program during the 2011-12 academic year. In addition, the organization selected under this announcement will select from among American students proposed by U.S. Placement Organizations 50 American students and place them in ten eligible countries overseas for the YES Abroad Program. For YES Abroad, the eligible hosting countries at the time of publication of this RFGP are: Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Oman, Thailand, and Turkey. The Bureau reserves the right to amend these lists at any time as conditions change. Under the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program Overseas Inbound Recruitment, YES Abroad Placement, and Alumni Components grant, applicants are encouraged to consider the formation of a consortium of partners to implement activities in all countries listed below. (Partial lists of country programs will not be accepted.) It is ECA's expectation that it will not be likely that one organization will have the desired experience and expertise in all countries, therefore the strongest proposals may be from organizations that propose oversight to a number of organizations with the necessary capacity to carry out activities in each country. Nonetheless, the applicant must accept full responsibility for coordination, standardization, and delivery of high-quality performance within each country.