Center for Citizen Initiatives
Tennison and a growing group of business and professional Americans decided to try their hands at diplomacy and began putting together their first trip to the "land of the enemy."
The Cold War was at a peak - the KAL 007 airliner had just been downed by Soviet Interceptor Jets killing all passengers aboard, and the US and the USSR had 50,000 nuclear weapons on launch pads aimed at each other[citation needed].
Scientists predicted if 10% of the weapons were detonated, nuclear fallout would shortly leave planet Earth lifeless[citation needed].
On September 16, 1983, twenty would-be "citizen diplomats" and a film crew of four left the United States and headed for Moscow.
In 1985, Tennison knocked on the doors of the Ministry of Health of the USSR to try to get permission to bring the AA philosophy to the Soviet Union.
Fortunately, Gorbachev had just appointed a young change maker, Gennady Alferenko, to give exit visas to any Soviet citizen who had an invitation to travel abroad.
They returned home to the USSR and spread the news that America was a great and luxurious country and full of friendly host families.
In 1987 CCI's Environmental Initiative began by partnering with young Soviet-era environmentalists to defeat a Communist party-promoted Dam in Leningrad's famous Neva River.
CCI brought the concept of the American extension service to the Russia, to help private farmers get the latest agricultural data to operate their new hectares.
CCI developed Russian offices in St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Voronezh, Rostov on Don, Ekaterinburg, the Moscow Oblast (Dubna), and Vladivostok.
EDP ran for eight years and was gradually reduced as CCI's largest-ever Productivity Enhancement Program (PEP) for non-English speaking Russians was established.
The extraordinary amount of volunteerism brought to PEP kept program costs low and the benefits, in terms of numbers of Russian entrepreneurs served, high.
CCI never paid hosting civic clubs or American business trainers - they all gave their time and expertise pro bono to PEP.
- Schultz Awards Program - loans in return for equivalent charitable service - Russian Initiative for Self-Employment - a Micro-enterprise Incubator[7] - Non-Profit Management Initiative - work with new nonprofit initiators[8] - Presidential Management Training Program[9] - Consulting Services for Russian Enterprises[10] - Managed renovating of the School of Management of St. Petersburg State University[11] - Next Steps Anti-Corruption Program[12] - the Russian Leaders Institute - promoting leadership training for the best of CCI-trained entrepreneurs and taking 100 of them to Washington for Congressional meeting - Angels for Angels - computer laboratories for Russian orphanages[13] Announced in Sharon Tennison's June 9, 2008 President's Report, CCI opened a blog Russia: Other Points of View with the intention to promote better coverage of Russia in the US media.
