FY 2025 Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program: Placement Components | DFOP0017289

Opportunity Information: Apply for DFOP0017289

The FY 2025 Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program: Placement Components opportunity is a U.S. Department of State funding competition run by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), specifically through its Office of Citizen Exchanges. It seeks organizations to carry out key placement-related functions for the YES Program, which is a long-running, merit-based international exchange that brings roughly 450 high school-age emerging leaders to the United States each year from countries the U.S. considers strategically important. The core idea is full academic-year immersion: students live with volunteer American host families across all 50 states, attend U.S. high schools, participate in community service, and build leadership skills through structured programming and everyday life in their host communities.

The placement emphasis signals that funded partners are expected to make the exchange experience work on the ground in the United States, where outcomes depend heavily on effective matching, oversight, and community support. In practical terms, that typically includes recruiting and vetting volunteer host families, placing participants in appropriate U.S. secondary schools, supporting participants and families throughout the year, coordinating local orientations and ongoing check-ins, ensuring student welfare and compliance expectations are met, and helping create meaningful opportunities for service and leadership development. Because YES participants are distributed nationwide, including many small and rural communities, strong local networks and the capacity to manage placements at scale are central to this component.

ECA frames the program as serving broader U.S. interests, particularly national security and people-to-people diplomacy, by building mutual understanding and long-term relationships with future leaders. A notable feature of the announcement is that it also highlights benefits to Americans, not just visiting students: host families, schools, and communities gain stronger global competencies and direct exposure to other cultures and perspectives. The exchange model is designed to produce ripple effects in communities that might otherwise have limited international engagement, especially outside major metropolitan areas.

From an administrative and funding standpoint, this is a discretionary grant competition using a cooperative agreement instrument, meaning the federal agency expects to have substantial involvement during implementation rather than simply issuing a grant and stepping back. The opportunity is listed under CFDA (now commonly referred to as Assistance Listing) 19.415 and is offered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status, as well as other eligible entities as allowed in the full notice.

The opportunity number is DFOP0017289, and the application deadline is August 15, 2025. ECA anticipates making about 8 awards, with an award ceiling of $7,242,250. The funding level and the expected number of awards suggest ECA may support multiple implementing organizations that each manage a portion of placements, regions, or specific operational responsibilities, though the exact division of labor would be spelled out in the full announcement. The notice was created on June 17, 2025, and applicants should rely on the full announcement for detailed scope, required activities, performance measures, compliance requirements, and submission instructions.

• The Bureau Of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2025 Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program: Placement Components" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.415.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-06-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-08-15. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $7,242,250.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others.

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