“Passport to the Word”
Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International. A Rich History!
Initiated after the second-world war in Washington DC to promote peace around the world and envisioned by President Eisenhower, The National Sister Cities International Foundation has played an active role around the world for over 53 years and represents communities in all 50 US states, district and territories.
In 1986, during Mayor Bob Cox’s term, the Fort Lauderdale chapter of the ”People To People” project that was created in 1961 was reorganized since it had been dormant for several years. In 1986, Fort Lauderdale had three formal city affiliations: Medellin, Colombia, Rimini, Italy and Gold Coast, Australia. A year later, the project was once again alive. Committees were formed to support this special organization that was officially incorporated in 1987 from Fort Lauderdale People to People Program to Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International. The name was formally changed to Greater Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International (GFLSCI) on July 19, 1990.
In 1990, Mayor Jim Naugle began working closely with all GFLSCI committees in order to aggressively recruit Venice, Italy as a Sister City. GFLSCI hosted the Venice, Italy delegation, comprised of their International Minister and Economic Development members. Next, a GFLSCI delegation, led by Mayor Naugle followed up with a visit to Venice. At that time Ft. Lauderdale and Venice formally became “Friendship Sister Cities”. Unfortunately, just short of the two cities becoming “Official Sister Cities”, Venice elected a new mayor who was not ready to officially “twin” with any cities in America. However GFLSCI continued it’s quest to pair with Venice and on May 18, 2007 Fort Lauderdale and Venice became officially linked as Sister Cities.
Since 1986, the Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International organization has joined with sixteen additional Sister Cities for a total of seventeen, listed as follows:
| Mar del Plata, Argentina | La Romana, Dominican Rep. | Venice, Italy |
| Gold Coast, Australia | Sefton, England (deactivated) | Panama City, Panama |
| Belo Horizonte, Brazil | Agogo, Ghana | Kaohsiung County, Taiwan |
| Sao Sebastiao, Brazil | Cap Haitien, Haiti | Mugla, Turkey |
| Medellin, Colombia | Haifa, Israel | Margarita Island, Venezuela |
| Quepos, Costa Rica | Rimini, Italy |
Additionally, GFLSCI is in negotiations with nine more potential Sister Cities located from all corners of the world. The goal of Greater Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International is to be globally recognized as one of the most interesting and desirable “Sister Cities” in the world.
In 2007, GFLSCI has once again helped to bring Fort Lauderdale to the world stage by hosting the 51st Annual Sister City International Conference. More than 600 delegates from over 36 countries around the world attended the conference. GFLSCI looks forward to what the future brings to Fort Lauderdale and looks to deliver more events to help benefit our community and those who we are paired with.
