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 nowadays that, as component of its broader efforts to empower ladies and girls by means of 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.

Though 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 ladies and girls an equal playing field by means of education and sport mental overall health disability rights and inclusivity in sport.

Sports diplomacy is a public diplomacy tool that offers 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.  Via these grassroots sports exchange applications, international exchange participants can encounter U.S. culture, engage with the American persons, and discover shared commonalities as nicely as variations on a wide variety of troubles, which includes leadership, conflict resolution, democratic values, and public service.

For U.S. Division of State press inquiries, make contact with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs: ECA-Press@state.gov.  To discover a lot more about Bureau’s sports diplomacy efforts, comply with on Facebook (@SportsDiplomacyDivision) and Twitter (@SportsDiplomacy).