Communication about Local Visits Conducted by ECA Youth Programs Division
From AFSWiki
Greetings from Sponsored Programs!
After a busy placement season, we hope that students are settling into their new homes, and finding their way around their new schools and communities.
As you may be aware, there has been an increased focus on participant monitoring this year that will take several forms in the 2010-11 program cycle. Stephanie Cashmore has posted information about AFS-USA's monitoring plans and site visits on the Wiki. Please follow this link for more information: Communication about AFS Site Visits
In addition to AFS-USA site visits, staff from the Youth Programs Division at the Department of State will be conducting visits to students and host families who are participating in U.S. Department of State sponsored programs. This includes students on the CBYX, FLEX and YES programs. The goal of these visits is to ensure participant well-being through in-person site visits, and direct support to students, hosts, local coordinators and school officials. The Youth Programs Division is very excited to have the opportunity to get out of their offices to meet students and host families in their local communities, and talk with them about their experiences. They are also extremely thankful to local volunteers, host families and school officials for all they do to support these exchange programs.
Site visits this year will be focused primarily on areas with high numbers of exchange students. Within those areas, they hope to visit first time host parents, as well as any students or host families with identified needs or concerns. As much as possible, they would also like to attend enhancement activities and special events, such as International Education Week presentations, service projects and activities, mid-year students meetings, and area representative or local volunteer training.
Below is a tentative list of geographic areas to be visited by Youth Programs staff in the next few months. Please keep in mind that this is a working list, and subject to change due to priorities and resources.
Tentative Youth Programs Division Local Site Visits - September through December, 2010
Atlanta, GA
Chicago, IL
Green Bay, WI
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
Central California
Little Rock, AR
Springfield, MO
Nashville, TN
Ann Arbor, MI
Boise, ID
Pittsburgh, PA
Cincinnati, OH
Kansas City, KS
Cedar Rapids, IA
Birmingham, AL
Raleigh/Durham, NC
Central PA
San Antonio, TX
Washington, DC - taking place next week!
Minneapolis, MN
As they begin this process, the Youth Programs Division will attempt to provide as much advance notice as possible to enable proper planning and coordination of effort. In advance of each site visit, AFS Sponsored Programs staff will be contacted directly about visiting with students, host families, and local coordinators in that particular area. Often, within one geographic area, visits will include students from different placing organizations in addition to AFS. As soon as AFS Sponsored Programs staff is contacted about these visits, we will notify AFS Staff and Team/Chapter leadership accordingly. The first visit will take place September 27th and 28th to the Capitol Team.
Since this is the first year that Youth Programs will be conducting regularly scheduled visits, they welcome input and feedback on how to make the most of these visits, with minimum disruption to all concerned, in particular to host families. Any feedback can be submitted to afssponsoredprograms@afs.org.
Thank you for all you do to support all of our hosted participants. It has been a busy placement season - a herculean effort by so many of you - and we thank you. We’re looking forward to a great year!
