Liaison Monthly Discussion Guides
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Contents |
Purpose
AFS Liaisons must fulfill several requirements with regard to Participant and Host Family Monthly Contacts. Visit the Contact and Visit Requirements page for a brief refresher of contact responsibilities.
During the course of the exchange, Host Families and Participants can be expected to go through a cycle of adjustment. Though each person's experience is unique, it is important, as a liaison, to predict what the participant and his/her host family may be going through at certain times. These are the topics that should be addressed during the monthly contact sessions.
The following resource is designed to guide liaisons through their monthly check-ins with participants and host families by providing an outline of questions to ask and topics to discuss at certain points throughout the exchange.
Organization
The guides are organized by month. Each month has its own wiki page (see the links below). "Month 1" contains questions to guide your conversation with the family and participant during the first month of the exchange. Each link also identifies which calendar month corresponds to "Month 1", "Month 2" etc, depending on whether your student arrives in the NH cycle (August arrival), or the SH cycle (January arrival).
Month 12
The months of July for NH students and December for SH students are not program months and therefore do not have topics/questions associated with them.
Seasonal Events and Holidays Guide
Participants typically experience very strong feelings of homesickness during the times of year containing particularly important holidays, events or birthdays. These special events can occur at many different times of year and should be addressed as they occur. For this reason, they are listed separately from the monthly topics. Be sure to ask your student when their birthdays/special celebrations take place.
Semester Students
There is one guide per month corresponding to a year-long exchange program. However, if a student is on a semester program, use two guides at a time. For example, address "Month 1" and "Month 2" at the first visit, "Month 3" and "Month 4" during the second Monthly Contact, and so on.
Semester student will still experience a complete adjustment cycle, so it is important to guide them through fully because they will experience stages more rapidly than their year-program peers and will have less time to process their feelings. Likewise, families have less time to create bonds with semester students.
Orientation Topics
After each question in each guide you will see that there are letters in parentheses. These correspond to the AFS Orientation Topics addressed by each question. The AFS Orientation Topics are set forth by the AFS Orientation Framework and are topics that are important to a successful exchange. The following key is placed on each page:
- A&U = AFS and You
- PSW = Personal Safety and Well-being
- CL = Culture Learning
- CA = Cultural Adjustment
- G&E = Goals and Expectations
- RL = Required Logistics
It is not necessary to ask every question in the guide, but be sure to ask at least one questions from each orientation topic.
Monthly Discussion Guides
- Liaison Month 1 Guide (NH: August, SH: January)
- Liaison Month 2 Guide (NH: September, SH: February)
- Liaison Month 3 Guide (NH: October, SH: March)
- Liaison Month 4 Guide (NH: November, SH: April)
- Liaison Month 5 Guide (NH: December SH: May)
- Liaison Month 6 Guide (NH: January, SH: June)
- Liaison Month 7 Guide (NH: February, SH: July)
- Liaison Month 8 Guide (NH: March, SH: August)
- Liaison Month 9 Guide (NH: April, SH: September)
- Liaison Month 10 Guide (NH: May, SH: October)
- Liaison Month 11 Guide (NH: June, SH: November)
- Liaison Month 12 Guide (NH: July, SH: December)
- Liaison Seasonal Events and Holidays Guide
Additions and Changes
If you would like to make an addition or an alterations to one of our monthly discussion guide pages, please do not hesitate. However, first, look carefully to be sure your idea has not already been covered. Please also maintain consistent formatting with the guide you are altering.
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