2023 – Reconnecting CFPNI
2023 CFPNI ALUMNI RECEPTION
Saturday, October 7, 2023
2 – 4 pm
Ulster University Atrium, Belfast
Learn more about the upcoming reunion by registering for information and by providing your profile for the Alumni Directory in the picture links above. Updates on the event will be provided every two weeks by email and FaceBook Group post. We encourage everyone to register their contact information and to join the FaceBook Group, even if you are unable to attend this year’s reunion. Future reunions are being planned annually, as long as there is the interest from alumni.
Reservations for attending the reunion will be accepted after September 1. Hotel discounts will be negotiated if there is sufficient interest.
1987 to 2007
The Children’s Friendship Project for Northern Ireland, Inc. (CFPNI) was a peace and friendship building program that fostered understanding and promoted interaction between the Catholic and Protestant teenagers of Northern Ireland, their families, and friends between 1987 and 2007.
In an effort to break the cycle of fear and mistrust, teenagers in Northern Ireland, who showed the potential to be future leaders, were selected and paired in cross-cultural teams to spend several weeks together during the summer in an American home where they could become friends in a neutral environment and could focus on their commonalities, rather than their differences.
CFPNI sponsored numerous gatherings in Northern Ireland, both before and after the summer, to build and sustain the friendships of the pairs, as well as to broaden cross-cultural contacts with other teenagers in the program, other family members, and friends. The over 2,000 teenagers who participated in the CFPNI program came from all six counties of Northern Ireland and all socioeconomic backgrounds.
