Online Host Family Orientation to be Mandatory beginning in NH 2010

From AFSWiki

The National Council has approved the requirement that all host families complete an online orientation prior to arrival of their participant. This requirement will take effect for families hosting participants arriving in August 2010. Please note, the online host family orientation does not replace the local, in-person orientation. All Chapters and Area Teams are still required to offer at least one in-person host family orientation prior to the arrival of participants.

This decision was made primarily in response to changes in the regulatory environment governing J-1 visa exchange programs. Under these circumstances it is essential that we have a more efficient way to ensure that all host families receive orientation prior to the arrival of their participant and that there is a national system in place to easily track and verify this information. The launch of Global Link and the development of the soon to be released Activities module within it, provide the opportunity to streamline and partially, if not fully, automate verification of completion of the online Host Family Pre-Arrival Orientation.

The new, online host family orientation modules will be made available to host families in April and a new Host Family Pre-Arrival Orientation Leader’s guide will be available to volunteers in May. In order to avoid repetition, the new leader’s guide will be redesigned to complement the new online orientation. Members of both the Hosting and Orientation Advisory Groups will be involved in the development of these new orientation tools.

Stay tuned to afswiki.org and the Coming Together newsletter for additional information about how this new requirement will be communicated to host families and how they will receive access to the online modules.

Esra Kucukciftci
Robin Weber
Co-Chairs Orientation Advisory Group