CISV-USA was founded in 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and CISV has been pumping through the veins of Detroit since 1966. Here is the story of CISV's Greater Detroit ChapterŠ Twelve years after its birth, a story about CISV aired on Walter Cronkite's documentary television show, The Twenty-First Century. The year was 1963 and the documentary was entitled "Too Young to Hate". The documentary featured a CISV Village (Gulf Coast Chapter, USA) and kids from different countries interacting, playing, learning and communicating - all without saying a word. A Ford executive in Detroit saw the show and was impressed. A seed was planted. Everett Baggerly, a member of the international group People to People, envisioned his sons attending a CISV Village. Ev Baggerly used his influence throughout the community to form a committee to get CISV on the map in Detroit. (Original committee member, Margot Schlegel, is still a Detroit Chapter member and her grandchildren have been CISV delegates!) Detroit became a CISV Steering Committee in 1966 and that December it sent its first-ever delegation to a CISV Village - in The Philippines. Detroit was voted in as an official CISV Chapter in 1968. Since the 1966 Philippines Village, The Greater Detroit Chapter has participated in more than a hundred international CISV Programs. Detroit delegates have ventured to Australia, Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Liberia, and Mongolia -- just to name a few countries ending in “a”! Between its highly active participation in CISV Programs (at home and abroad) and its eagerness to be on the cutting edge, Detroit is one of the United States' strongest CISV chapters. We are typically involved in up to 10 International Programs per year, including hosting an Interchange every summer and a Village every other year. Annually Detroit sends up to 50 delegates and leaders to CISV Programs around the world, with a typical participation breakdown of: 3 Villages, 2 Interchanges, 1 Summer Camp, 1 Junior Counselor, and 2 Seminar Camps. The Greater Detroit Chapter of CISV brings together not only children and families from different countries, but it strengthens relationships between its city and suburban communities. CISV is about planting seeds for peaceful solutions to worldwide problems. It accomplishes this by introducing people, fostering respect, providing safe environments, and then watching meaningful relationships grow. CISV believes that only through cross-cultural understanding is peace possible. Peace to Detroit. Peace to the world. back to home