Status of Armenian Schools in the Eastern Region: A Report of the AYF Central Language Council

OVERVIEW

The Central Language Council (CLC) is a newly-formed central council of the Armenian Youth Federation–Youth Organization of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (AYF-YOARF) Eastern Region. Its mission is to empower Armenian youth through the promotion of Armenian language use. As the representative of youth within the vibrant and evolving Armenian language space, CLC has a lot to learn from established organizations and institutions already working to cultivate our mother tongue in the diaspora.

CLC would like to recognize the formative and foundational role played by Armenian schools and their tremendously selfless faculty in serving as the bastions of Armenian language preservation and cultivation in the Eastern US for over a century. From small 15-student Saturday workshops to 700-student day schools, the self-sacrifice embodied by our largely volunteer Armenian teaching corps is in many ways unrivaled. Accordingly, we owe it to our teachers and our young Armenian-American generation to commit our communities to the pursuit of Armenian excellence through well-resourced and community-supported Armenian schools.

Gulbenkian Foundation Publishes Armenian Communities Plan

The new Programming Plan of the Armenian Communities Department (ACD) of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation lays out the key components of its funding priorities and activities for the next five years (2014-2018). Launching in December 2013, it is based on the Department's mission "to create a viable future for the Armenian people in which its culture and language are preserved and valued." The Plan is structured around the four priority areas which are crucial in fulfilling that mission: promoting the preservation of Armenian language and culture through education, supporting Armenia by investing in its youth and civil society, helping to improve Armenian-Turkish relations and preserving Armenian literary heritage.