What is the Sister Cities Association?


Worldwide


The Sister Cities movement began in 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded the program in the United States. The mission, to foster international relations on a person to person basis, has grown across the country. Today in the United States 1,065 cities have 1,909 sister city relationships with 117 countries.

A Sister Cities agreement comes about when a U.S. community forms a lasting partnership with a community in another country. The process takes several years of contact and planning to complete. A well-planned program helps to improve the quality of life, breaks down cultural barriers for successful business ventures, and contributes to finding the solutions to common problems facing the people of the world today.


Our Association


The seven Sister Cities of Cincinnati are:

Our Sister Cities Program brings together both local government and private sector resources, for the common purpose of people-to-people exchanges and city-to-city projects.

The Sister Cities Association of Greater Cincinnati (SCA), an umbrella organization, was established in 1987 by then Mayor Charles Luken Today it serves to coordinate the activities of the growing SCA committees.

SCA is a member of the national organization, Sister Cities International, headquartered in Alexandria, VA. With mailing lists from all seven committees, we reach out to 3,000 people, all within the Greater Cincinnati thirteen county area. We have hundreds of volunteers offering their time and talent to the organization.

Impact


Since 1981 when the first efforts were made to link our City with Munich, thousands of Greater Cincinnati citizens and officials have traveled to our sister cities. In turn, we too have received civic leaders, and educators have shared many ideas with our sister city citizens.


Countless fruitful exchanges have developed, including:


Coordination with other groups

SCA has coordinated with other institutions in our area, including:

  • Consortium of Colleges
  • Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau
  • International Visitors Council
  • Japan-America Society
  • The Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce
  • Greater Cincinnati Council on World Affairs
  • Sister Cities programs in : Dayton, Hamilton, Middletown, Montgomery


    Organization

    Each Sister City committee operates independently of each other. Each maintains a chairperson(s) and organizes its membership, dues and budget, programs, volunteers, etc. Although there is autonomy between the committees, each has equal representation and access to the SCA.

    Each committee identifies two persons to serve on the SCA Board to attend monthly meetings. Matters of common interest are discussed, committee reports distributed, and policies discussed and implemented. Currently there are 24 members on the Board. The Mayor of Cincinnati is the Honorary Chairperson of the SCA.

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