Colleagues International is the Kalamazoo region’s leading international organization, linking businesses and institutions with hundreds of rising and established leaders. We are a volunteer-based citizen diplomacy organization and part of a network of volunteers that was nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. 

Since its inception, more than 1,300 foreign visitors representing more than 100 countries have been hosted in Kalamazoo. Since 1971, Colleagues International and its predecessor organization KACIP (Kalamazoo Area Council of International Programs) has been fostering and promoting citizen diplomacy – the idea that in a democracy, the individual citizen has the right, indeed the responsibility – to help shape U.S. foreign relations “one handshake at a time.”