The three founders of Project Harmony - a teacher, a lawyer and an architect from the small village of Waitsfield, Vermont - could not have imagined the organization that would grow out of their grassroots efforts fifteen years ago. In 1985, they organized the first exchanges between American and Soviet youths. Through performing arts and student exchanges, Project Harmony set into motion a series of people-to-people initiatives that now encompasses more than 100 communities across seven countries.

Project Harmony programs have changed and matured over the years, one initiative establishing the relationships and social capital upon which the next is built. From singers to students. From educators to environmentalists. From business people to bureaucrats. From policemen to prosecutors. From lawyers to legislators. From social workers to psychologists. From administrators to activists. The participants reflect the breadth and depth of their communities. The programs address the needs of those communities. The results benefit the whole of all the communities involved, be they American, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Moldovan, Baltic, Scandinavian or otherwise. Project Harmony programs now address a wide range of themes and target diverse audiences around the world. The organization's growth has been geographic as well as thematic. We have grown from a volunteer-run group organizing grassroots exchanges to a dynamic professional organization with fourteen offices in four countries implementing professional and educational programs for several hundred individuals and groups each year.

The one element that ties all of these programs together -- the focus on finding cross-sector community-based solutions to local challenges. Project Harmony models this approach to problem solving by assembling a variety of local constituencies to examine issues of critical importance to communities through its various program initiatives. These programs introduce new perspectives and ideas into the problem-solving process through international and intercultural dialogue among participants. Over the years, it has given us great pleasure to witness and participate in the formation of working relationships and lifelong friendships between individuals from all corners of the globe who have discovered commonalities beneath distinct cultural differences.

Project Harmony has refined its ability to widen channels of communication and cooperation between members of different sectors within the communities in which it works. By making long-term investments in those communities, Project Harmony has been able to establish the relationships necessary to forge successful public-private cooperative partnerships in support of community development initiatives. For example, in Russia, Project Harmony's rich history of partnership with the people of Karelia over the past fifteen years has enabled us to leverage real change in the ways in which local communities address development challenges. Through its programs, Project Harmony has tapped into the potential energy of Karelia's best and brightest. These individuals now drive the creation and implementation of new initiatives, building on the social capital developed through Project Harmony's and other's investment in the local community.

Over the years, Project Harmony has fine tuned program models to maximize their effectiveness. These models have proven to be portable. The teacher exchange model so successful in Russia has worked as effectively in Scandinavia and Ireland. US-based youth leadership programs for Georgian, Russian and Ukrainian students have worked well with Bosnian, German and other Western European students as well. The Internet training and content development has worked as well in rural American schools as it has in the far reaches of Siberia. Why have these programs been equally as successful in such different places? We believe that this success comes from Project Harmony's ability to meet the changing needs of individual communities through its on-the-ground presence, knowledge of its partners and the underlying personal and professional commitment of its staff.

Project Harmony's commitment to its constituencies in the NIS and USA and elsewhere in the world is long-term. We invite you to join us on this challenging and exciting adventure as we take our programs to new parts of the globe and reach deeper into the communities where we currently work. As we seek to expand our work outward to new countries and cultures, we remain committed to nurturing the inward growth and depth of Project Harmony initiatives in the communities across the former Soviet Union. In the fields of education, community coalition-building, professional development and Internet content development, Project Harmony will continue to challenge its constituents to think about their work not only in the context of local community needs, but also in the context of the global community possibilities. It is with this vision that Project Harmony enters the next century.

Sincerely,       

Jared Cadwell, Charles Hosford and Barbara Miller
Managing Directors of Project Harmony