Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council
The Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council is a non-profit organization that promotes education and an understanding of international affairs, especially regarding the impact of foreign events, trends and policies on our country and on our lives. Founded as the Foothills International Study Group, in the fall of 1987, the organization soon evolved into the Foothills International Forum. In May, 2007, after the Forum affiliated with the World Affairs Councils of America the name was changed to The Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council. The organization has grown from a handful of members in the beginning to today's membership of several hundred. The Forum offers programs by experts in a wide range of international subjects, followed by lively question & answer period.
World Affairs Council of America
The World Affairs Councils of America has a long and storied history that stretches back some 90 years. Two groups, the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) and the World Affairs Councils worked together in the same organizational system from 1918 until the early 1950s. The FPA was begun in the spring of 1918 by a small group of individuals who worked with President Woodrow Wilson that included journalist and social reformer Paul Kellogg, who also served as FPA's first president. The founding members were concerned that at the end of World War I, Americans would choose an isolationist foreign policy over one of engagement and worked to nurture grassroots citizen involvement in international affairs. By 1947, these two groups operated as a national organization that was composed of a network of independent community councils.
In 1986, the National Council of World Affairs Organizations national office was established in Washington, D.C. This office evolved into the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA). Today, WACA is the country's largest non-profit organization dedicated to fostering grassroots understanding and engagement in international affairs and seeks to involve as many citizens as possible in an exchange of ideas, knowledge and understanding of global issues.
Photo: Bob Ash, Visit Denver