If individuals and groups from around the world can learn to live together as friends, the chances for lasting world peace are significantly increased, Catherine Long believes.

That’s why the Chattanooga attorney and other enthusiastic volunteers donate hundreds of hours each year working to send area young people to Children’s International Summer Villages held throughout the world.

“For example, this summer we sent kids to a village in France, and to a village in Mississippi,” Mrs. Long said.

Further, every three years the Chattanooga group hosts a “village” here for 11-year-olds from around the globe, making them feel at home in their temporary Tennessee home while they interact and develop friendships that CISV hopes they will maintain for decades.

The idea for CISV was formed in 1946, when Dr. Doris Allen read a magazine article titled “To Teach The World How To Be Free.” The key to a peaceful world, the article argued, was in adult learning and adult teaching.

Dr. Allen, a child psychologist, strongly disagreed.

“As a psychologist who had specialized in growth and development, I knew we should invert our perspective and look at children as potential agents of social change,” she later wrote. “I knew the extent to which they, when adults, would make decisions based upon attitudes and emotions learned in their pre-adolescent years . . . I knew that the ultimate source for peace, long range, lay with the children.”

Today, CISV has chapters in more than 60 nations – including 22 in the United States. Chattanooga is one of the smallest cities in the nation with an active CISV program, Mrs. Long said.

The local program was started by Dr. Fred Wright, a psychologist, who remains an enthusiastic proponent of the organization, she said.

The organization always has lots of projects in progress, and is constantly in need of volunteers.

For example, local CISV members are already hard at work preparing for a 2008 village that will be held in Chattanooga this coming July.

“It’s a huge undertaking, hosting 70 people for a month,” Mrs. Long said. “The village will consist of 48 11-year-olds, 12 leaders and another 12 local staff members.”

Most “leaders” are college students or recent college graduates who can devote four weeks to the program, she noted.

The villages have no paid employees. All work is done by volunteers.

In addition to planning a village here, CISV Chattanooga is recruiting area youths and adults interested in attending villages and other international gatherings around the world.

“Every year we send two village delegations,” Mrs. Long said. “There are always two 11-year-old boys and two 11-year-old girls, and a leader who accompanies them . . . The point is not for them to travel around and get to know the nation where the village is located. It’s to live in the village and get to know the people there.”

Opportunities also exist for older youths, she said. For example, Chattanooga CISV will send four young teens to Denmark this coming summer, and host a related interchange here in Chattanooga during the summer of 2009. The four young people who are selected all must be 13 years old as of summer 2008.

Many young people hear about CISV through word of mouth, she said, and contact the local organization to apply to participate.

Groups and individuals interested in learning more about CISV can contact her at 886-6098, Ms. Long said. She is available to speak to area groups about the program, and tries to bring along young people who have participated in CIVS activities to talk about their experiences.

Adults and youths interested in participating in CISV villages or other activities can call the same number, she said.