Network President and CEO Tom Bledsoe joined a U.S.-Russian delegation of sixty nonprofit leaders for a Civil Society Summit in Moscow July 5 – 7, organized in conjunction with President Obama’s summit with Russian President Medvedev. Sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Eurasia Foundation and the Russian-based New Eurasia Foundation, the highlight of the summit was a meeting with President Obama at the historic Metropol Hotel in Moscow.

The President underscored the vital importance of this bi-lateral exchange - the first of its kind between civil society leaders in the U.S. and Russia – in transforming U.S. Russian relations and building a stronger bond between our two peoples.

Thirty U.S. leaders were selected to participate in the summit from a range of fields including community development, human rights, the environment, education, health and the media. Community development was a critical concern and strongly featured because of the severe housing conditions throughout the country. With virtually no civic or private sector to address this critical challenge, the Russians were interested in learning about U.S. models directly from on-the-ground practitioners.

Because of the Network’s experience in hosting collaborative exchanges among U.S., Canadian and British housing leaders, the sponsors invited Mr. Bledsoe to make the opening plenary presentation about the Network’s model of peer exchange and the U.S. approach to housing and community development. He was also selected by the summit organizers to co-chair and facilitate the community development group along with Russian counterpart Vyacheslav Leonidovich Glazychev to develop recommendations to be presented to President Obama and the Russian President for further exchange between the United States and Russia. The sector groups met with their Russian counterparts – and in a plenary session - to share practices and experiences in candid dialogue on a wide range of community development and other issues. Noted Russian activists – such as Lyudmilla Alekseeva, the iconic head of the human rights movement - and other leaders from the independent media and environmental movement – were active participants.

Larry Swanson, Executive Director of the ACTION Housing and Vice Chair of the Network board of directors was also part of the US delegation, along with Calvin Holmes of the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Pat Clancy of The Community Builders and Lew Feldstein of the New Hampshire Charitable Fund. Debra Schwartz from the MacArthur Foundation participated as a foundation observer.

The Network intends to continue the peer exchange with Russian leaders and has invited one of the Russian sponsors to participate in its membership meeting in San Francisco in December.