Deadline: 6-Dec-21
The Bureau Of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has announced an open competition for cooperative agreements for the FY 2022 Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program: Student Placement and Monitoring Component.
The FLEX program, created in 1992, supports U.S. foreign policy goals by promoting mutual understanding and enhancing relations between the United States and the participating European and Eurasian countries. The FLEX program provides scholarships for high school students to live with an American family in American society for an academic year and acquire leadership skills while attending a U.S. high school.
The students live with host families, participate in activities to learn about American society and values, and, in turn, expose their host communities across the United States to the cultures and traditions of the people of Europe and Eurasia. To date, more than 30,000 students have participated in the FLEX program.
Goals
The overarching goals of the FLEX program are to engage youth, promote leadership, foster lasting ties between Americans and foreign participants, and promote mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of the participating Eurasian countries, by enabling the students to:
- gain an understanding of American culture, diversity, and respect for others with differing views and beliefs;
- teach Americans about their home countries and cultures;
- explore and acquire an understanding of the key elements of U.S. civil society, including concepts such as volunteerism, the idea that American citizens can and do act at the grassroots level to deal with societal problems, and an awareness of and respect for the rule of law; and
- share and apply experiences and knowledge in their home communities as FLEX alumni, initiating activities that focus on development and community service.
Funding Information
- Fiscal Year Funds: FY 2022 – base year – $10,365,000; FY 2023 – first NCC year – $10,365,000, pending successful performance and the availability of funds; FY 2024 – second NCC year – $10,365,000, pending successful performance and the availability of funds.
- Approximate Total Funding: $31,095,000.
- Approximate Number of Awards: 10 to 15 cooperative agreements.
- Floor of Award Range: To be eligible, your proposal must include a plan to place and monitor a minimum of 20 students
- Anticipated Award Date: February 1, 2022, pending the availability of funds.
- Anticipated Project Completion Date: September 30, 2025. This date reflects the anticipated duration of the award – one base year (2022-2023) plus two NCC years (2023-2024 and 2024- 2025).
Eligible Countries
The FLEX students are recruited from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Eligibility Criteria
U.S. public and private non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) may submit applications for this competition. Applicants must have nonprofit status with the IRS at the time of application.
The following additional eligibility requirements apply to this NOFO announcement:
- Grants or Cooperative Agreements awarded by ECA to organizations with less than four years of experience in conducting international exchange programs are limited to $130,000. Since an award under this NOFO must support at least 20 students, and since the costs required to support this number of students will exceed $130,000, organizations with fewer than four years’ experience in conducting international exchanges are ineligible to apply under this competition. The Bureau encourages all eligible applicants to provide maximum levels of cost sharing in support of its programs.
- All proposals must comply with the requirements stated in the NOFO and the Proposal Submission Instructions (PSI); non-compliance will result in your proposal being declared technically ineligible and given no further consideration in the review process.
- Only one proposal will be considered by ECA from each applicant organization. In cases where more than one submission from an applicant appears in grants.gov, ECA will consider only the submission made closest in time to the NOFO deadline; that submission would constitute the one and only proposal ECA would review from that applicant.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=336023
