With March Madness – the annual collegiate basketball tournament that crowns a national champion in the United States – heating up, the U.S. Division of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) announced right now that, as element of its broader efforts to empower females and girls via sport, 14 club and federation basketball coaches from Serbia will travel to Louisville, Kentucky and Dallas, Texas from March 21 – April four to engage with their American counterparts, civil society, the University of Louisville, and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Conference, which is hosted on the margins of the NCAA Women’s Final 4.
When in the United States, these Serbian girls’ basketball coaches will participate in trainings and roundtable discussions on Title IX, the landmark U.S. civil rights law that afforded females and girls an equal playing field via education and sport mental well being disability rights and inclusivity in sport.
Sports diplomacy is a public diplomacy tool that gives a gateway for engagement for the United States with audiences and communities beyond the reaches of government-to-government relations. The Sports Visitor Plan brings non-elite youth athletes, coaches, and administrators to the United States and pairs them with their American counterparts, on the court and in the neighborhood. By way of these grassroots sports exchange applications, international exchange participants can expertise U.S. culture, engage with the American men and women, and discover shared commonalities as nicely as variations on a wide variety of concerns, which includes leadership, conflict resolution, democratic values, and public service.
For U.S. Division of State press inquiries, get in touch with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs: ECA-Press@state.gov. To study extra about Bureau’s sports diplomacy efforts, stick to on Facebook (@SportsDiplomacyDivision) and Twitter (@SportsDiplomacy).
