Deadline: 15-Apr-21
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) announces an open competition for a cooperative agreement to manage the FY 2021 Organizational Components of the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program.
The FLEX Program provides scholarships for high school students from Europe and Eurasia to spend an academic year in the United States, living with a family and attending an American high school. The primary goal of the FLEX program is to improve mutual understanding and develop and strengthen long-term relationships between citizens of the United States and other peoples and countries.
FLEX Program Goals
The overall goals of the FLEX program are to:
- Benefit American students, communities, and schools by exposing them to new cultural experiences;
- Promote better understanding among youth from participating foreign countries about American society, people, institutions, values, and culture;
- Promote better understanding among U.S. participants about the society, people, institutions, values, and culture of their host countries;
- Foster lasting personal and professional ties between inbound participants and their host communities;
- Advance participants’ leadership skills, respect for diversity, critical thinking, and an understanding of civil society during the exchange experience and beyond; and
- Enhance Americans’ understanding of other countries and cultures and increase understanding of American values in communities abroad.
The following outcomes will indicate a successful exchange:
- FLEX participants will develop an appreciation for the culture of their host nation, an understanding of its underlying values and diversity, and increased tolerance and respect for others with differing views and beliefs.
- FLEX participants will share their home cultures with their host communities.
- FLEX participants will interact with their host communities and generate enduring ties.
- FLEX participants will acquire an understanding of important elements of a civil society. This includes concepts such as volunteerism and 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.
- FLEX participants will gain leadership skills that will enable them, as FLEX alumni, to share their experience in their home countries, perform community service, and initiate activities in their home countries that focus on social, economic, and environmental development.
Funding Information
- Approximate Total Funding: $13,584,000 pending the availability of FY 2021 funds.
- Approximate Number of Awards: One.
- Approximate Average Award: $13,584,000 pending the availability of FY 2021 funds.
- Floor of Award Range: None.
- Ceiling of Award Range: $13,584,000 pending the availability of FY 2021 funds.
Eligible Applicants
U.S. public and private non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue Code section 26 USC 501(c)(3) may submit applications for this competition. Applicants must have nonprofit status with the IRS at the time of application.
Other Eligibility Requirements
- Bureau grant guidelines require that organizations with less than four years of experience in conducting international exchange programs will be limited to $130,000 in Bureau funding. ECA anticipates making one cooperative agreement, in an amount not to exceed $13,584,000, to support program and administrative costs required to implement this exchange program. Therefore, organizations with less than four years of experience in conducting international exchanges are ineligible to apply under this competition.
- Technical Eligibility: All proposals must comply with the requirements stated in the NOFO, POGI, 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
- Eligible applicants may not submit more than one proposal in this competition. If more than one proposal is received from the same applicant, all submissions will be declared technically ineligible and will receive no further consideration in the review process.
- Please note: Applicant organizations are defined by their legal name, and EIN number as stated on their completed SF-424 and additional supporting documentation outlined in the Proposal Submission Instructions (PSI) document.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=331427