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TCKid: A Home for Third Culture Kids of all ages

Building Cross Cultural Bridges

TCKid is a non-profit organization that serves the community of third culture kid (TCK) and cross culture kid (CCK) adults and youth across geographical boundaries.  We also serve to inform the non-TCK and non-CCK, general public and those who serve this community.   TCKid’s mission is to increase and support the individual and general awareness of the TCK experience and unique gifts by facilitating connection and community engagement. 

In existence now since 2008, TCKid has a community membership now of over 23,000 and grown to include local chapters around the world in addition to its central virtual community on TCKid.com.  The birth and founder of TCKid.com has been featured on the BBC, ABC News, The Telegraph, the U.S Department of Defense and Education Week.  Under it’s current CEO, Myra Dumapias, MSW, TCKid was incorporated in 2011 as a non-profit organization and became a 501(c)(3) public charity in November 2013.

Our vision is to:

1. Provide comprehensive resources to help increase the understanding of the TCK experience and common challenges.

2. Celebrate the unique experiences of TCK’s while fostering a sense of community, self-expression, dialogue, and peer-support.

3.  Support the discovery of unique skills and talents related to the TCK experience and facilitate opportunities for expressing or applying them in various sectors of the community

Whether you are an educator, child development specialist, social worker, a counselor/program manager at a military base, a human resource manager, international entrepreneur or come from another field, we welcome you to be part of a movement of a growing awareness of a population with unique needs and skills.   Third Culture Kids (including adults and youth) may be all around you, yet are invisible because this identity of people who spent a majority of their development years (“Kids” in “Third Culture Kids”) in cultures other their their passport/birth or parents’ culture(s) (“Third Culture”) is still largely marginalized. Frequently moving internationally, adult Third Culture Kids have significant insight, perspectives, and skills that are developed as a result of growing up among worlds.

Yet, these gifts are often not realized until the Third Culture Kid (TCK) discovers that their personal experiences which often lead to a sense of isolation, is shared by many others. For some, this does not happen until their 30’s/ 40’s. Regardless of whether a TCK grew up as a military. foreign service, missionary, corporate, or other “brat,” the resulting effect on identity, relationships and social engagement is the same.

The sense of feeling rootless, the issues of unresolved grief, the high risk for post-traumatic stress disorder if isolated from resources, as well as the tendency towards critical thinking, creative problem solving and extreme sensitivity to world wide human welfare are very common. Although the average TCK has experienced as much loss and grief by the time they reach high school as the average person does in a lifetime, TCK’s also have unique perspectives that can benefit numerous social causes and humanitarian projects.

The implications about this population are many.  Join us in raising awareness, resourcing TCK adults & youth and the people who work with them, and connecting TCK’s to worldwide projects where they can apply their skills.

 Why Support Us

PROGRAMS:

TCKid.com Social Networking Platform

The main social networking platform of TCKid that was birthed organically among a growing group of adult Third Culture Kids that were engaged in active dialogues by 2007 and grew into what became TCKid.com the following  year. Countless dialogues that reflect stories of healing, growth, loss, unresolved grief, revelations, mutual discoveries, inspiration, change, personal journeys, the forging of friendships, the search for a sense of belonging and the home they found in TCKid. TCKid.com has played a large role in many individuals’ discovery of their TCK identity and therefore the first step in a journey of revelations and discoveries.

Join our private social networking platform for free!  Joining and remaining a member is currently free but we need support to keep it online for many who have yet to come to know the community.

Please consider supporting us with even $8 a month.

TCKid Research Bridge

We support the research projects of our members because much more information and data is needed about our community.  We offer to up to four (or more as resources become available) researchers who conduct academic or not-for-profit research on the Third Culture Kid (TCK), Cross Culture Kid (CCK), global nomad and expat populations dedicated space on our social networking platform (on TCKid.com).  Our goal is to facilitate community engagement in research projects and help build relationships between researchers and our community members.

We believe creating these relationships will better equip and inform researchers and enable researchers to be invested in the importance of relaying information back to those that helped make the research possible, as well as encourage the community’s investment in research projects. TCKid will also offer a section that will make various types of completed research studies on the TCK, CCK, global nomad and expat community available and accessible to the general community.

The research that will be available include academic, non-academic, formal, informal, peer reviewed and those that are not peer-reviewed.  Please Our ultimate outcome is to help increase the data, statistics and information about the TCK, CCK, global nomad and expat population.  Studies on populations identified by other terms, ie. Migrant families may also be included.

Visit the page of the first TCKid Research Bridge Sponsorship program beneficiary!

For more information, please message TCKidResearchBridge@tckid.com

TCKid TV/Radio: All Things TCK

An educational media program that aims to increase awareness, dialogue and inspire leadership and action on all things TCK. One program is TCKid Talks: An Interview Series Featuring Movers and Shakers from the Third Culture and Cross Cultural Community.  Categories include: Artists, Musicians & Filmmakers;  Educators/Authors & Researchers;  Those in Leadership Positions;  and Those Who Were Involved with Historical Events as a result of being a TCK.

Visit TCKid TV on Youtube!

Please inquire more at TCKidTV-Radio@TCKid.com

TCKid Life Transitions

A developing program that will be providing support to a hidden population among TCK’s and CCK’s: the population of caregivers and the loved ones being cared for.  This population is vulnerable to an added layer of isolation due to the commitments required by the caregiving role as well as the limiting disabilities or health conditions of the loved one being cared for.

In the TCK and CCK community, the caregiving-loved one relationship also has the potential to be affected by unresolved issues among family members with the backdrop of a global nomad past or lifestyle.  There are also issues related to cultural expectations about the caregiving role, which is complex for TCK’s and CCK’s whose identity has never been simple or based on one set of cultural expectations.

TCKid will be developing a program to help this population and the journey involved with the caregiving role and life adjustments that come with aging and disabling health conditions.  The program will address the adjustment involved in how caregivers and the loved one being cared for arrive at this stage in life, the process of continued life adjustments for both the caregiver and the loved one, any unresolved relationship issues that may be stirred up, referral support for related health and economic factors, and if applicable, support for the end-of-life transition.  The goal of this program is to help make this period of life as resourced as possible to free this stage in life to have as many cherishable and enjoyable moments as possible.

This program is birthed in honor of the life of Evangeline Vitug Dumapias, Jan 27, 1945-March 15, 2014, life-long supportive spouse of career diplomat and retired Ambassador Rodolfo I. Dumapias, mother of a 2nd generation TCK and grandmother of a 3rd generation TCK;  A traveler since birth who maintained childlike faith and open arms to friends she adopted as extended brothers, sisters, sons and daughters worldwide;  A Third Culture Adult who accepted the pain of each painful goodbye to heartily look forward to the next hello.

For more information, please contact myradumapias@tckid.com

TCKid Connect

A network that connects TCK’s to opportunities for community engagement in various projects needing cross cultural skills and expertise. More to be announced as development progresses.  If you would like to know more and consider being a pioneering sponsor for this program, please send a formal inquiry to tckidconnect@tckid.com.

How do we operate and sustain these programs?  

Why Support Us

Please visit our page that how your donation to a TCK-focused public charity will help.

TCKid has been run strictly by volunteers.   Having received its 501(c)(3) public charity status only in November of 2013, TCKid will now be able to apply for funding and corporate sponsorship.  However, it is extremely rare and highly unlikely that a non-profit organization can be funded only by grants and almost always also requires the support of individual donors and philanthropists. Please consider becoming a regular donor of TCKid to ensure these programs are sustained and the newly developing programs come into fruition.

Please click the “donate” button to make a one-time gift or a recurring donation through PayPal:

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS, SPONSORS AND PARTNERS

(paid staff positions contingent upon grant funding) –

Are you who we’re looking for?

TCKid, A 501(c) (3) community based organization, needs people share our value of relationship building and our perspective that our efforts are part of a movement who:

-          Love to coordinate events for TCK’s / CCK’s around the world

-          Can help us connect to reliable volunteers in different cities

-          Have a heart for caregivers and other isolated populations

-          Can help us gather various types of past and current research on TCk’s/ CCK’s

-          Would like to help with fundraising and promoting our programs

-          Have web design and platform migration skills and experience

-          Would like to help put educational and entertaining content together TCKid is also looking for:

-          Corporate sponsors to fund specific projects or programs

-          Partners who can provide counseling and other services

For more information about getting involved, please contact myradumapias@tckid.com