2025 Brazil Youth Ambassadors Program

Program Objectives

• Mission Brazil seeks for institutional assistance to support the development and implementation of the Brazil portion of the 2025 Youth Ambassadors program for up to 46 selected students and 2 adult program assistants.
• The Youth Ambassadors exchange program offers outstanding, yet underprivileged, high school students from the public education system a short-term full immersion in U.S. culture and society, as well as skill-building opportunities for the 21st Century work environment. Awarded students visit the capital of the United States, attend meetings with public and private institutions, visit schools and social projects, participate in training sessions to help improve communication skills, leadership, teamwork, entrepreneurship, and innovation, as well as to develop a creative action plan to help address a key issue in their respective communities.
• Since its inception in 2003, Mission Brazil’s Youth Ambassadors program (YAP) has evolved from a small exchange program for a dozen high school students to Brazil’s internationally recognized – and hemisphere-wide replicated – flagship youth engagement initiative. The YAP brand is easily recognizable throughout the country and reaches audiences from the dense urban centers of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to the most remote parts of rural Brazil. Beyond the exchange itself, this program has become the catalyst for the Mission to build on strategic and lasting partnerships with the government of Brazil by pursuing complementary policy goals in the areas of education, English language teaching, strengthening civil society, as well as by keeping the U.S. as the top destination for Brazilians interested in studying abroad.
• As a result of its positive impact, since 2010, State Department started funding the program throughout Latin America. Embassy Brazil complements the funding to provide this unique exchange opportunity for more Brazilian students. The share of the program should allow the implementing organization to:
  • Implement and administer the online application process,
  • Assist the Embassy in the broad dissemination of information about the program,
  • Screen and pre-select Brazilian candidates for a final revision and selection by the Embassy,
  • Book and purchase participants’ in-country travel,
  • Book and purchase participants’ round-trip international tickets – everyone on the same flights both ways,
  • Purchase travel insurance during pre-departure orientation in Brazil, as well as for the day of the group’s return to Brazil and their return flights back home,
  • Provide travel allowance (in dollars) for participants to cover minor incidental expenses during the program,
  • Coordinate all logistical aspects related to the pre-departure orientation (venue set-up & equipment, promotional materials, ground transportation, lodging, meals and incidental expenses, transfer in-out, airport support, etc.),
  • In collaboration with the Embassy, develop and implement comprehensive content and assign specialists for the pre-departure orientation sessions,
  • Design and implement a three-month post-program initiative to assist participants in their re-entry, and as they try to implement the action plans developed during the exchange program in the U.S.

Funding Information

• Estimated Total Program Funding: $ 240,000
• Award Ceiling: $240,000
• Award Floor: $220,000
• Length of performance period: 1 year (including development, implementation, and post-program re-entry and follow-on initiative)
• Number of awards anticipated: One award (dependent on amounts)
• Anticipated program start date: January 14, 2025

Priority Region: WHA/Brazil

Participants and Audiences

• This funding opportunity aims at supporting the full and positive participation of up to 46 Brazilian public high school students selected for the 2025 Youth Ambassadors program, as well as two (02) adult program assistants selected from the pool of Embassy’s Partner Institutions spread all over the country.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Applicants are U.S. and overseas-based Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Educational Institutions and other qualified organizations that have proven record of extensive experience working with Brazilian youth, familiarity with the Brazilian culture and society, and who can comprehensively respond to the NOFO and be able to mobilize in a short period of time.
• The following organizations are eligible to apply:
  • Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/non-governmental organizations.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.