Returnee Pilot Projects
From AFSWiki
- The Returnee Pilot Projects have been initiated since September of 2009 by Doug Bayer. The first project was the Returnee Mentor Pilot Project which involved 39 Returnees in its running who contacted 334 leads from September 20, 2009 until June 15, 2010. It was not originally planned for any other projects to come out of this one however as time progressed and situations arose it only seemed logical to implement the following at necessary times.
- The next project that overlapped was the Application Mentors which started March 22, 2010 and ran until May 1, 2010. Eleven students called 19 students in total over this time period to mentor them through their application process and to encourage them to go abroad. Out of the 19 students called three went abroad and three rolled over, the 11 others withdrew for numerous reasons documented in the project's page.
- Shortly after these two projects ended the Retention Callers Project started with a base of 48 Returnees who were in charge of calling 211 students accordingly throughout the summer. This program ran from June 22, 2010 until September 10, 2010, the date the last country that departed of which students who were being contacted went to.
- At the end of these projects the Outreach Specialist has been putting together data from all of them to come up with a quantitative analysis on the efficiency of Returnees doing these types of projects. Hopefully out of the overview it will be possible to look at what functions Returnees actually enjoy doing and do well versus activities that don't have an equally as great of potential. In addition out of the overview it will be possible to look at what countries "make" Returnee Volunteers and why. With this knowledge, moving forward with strong Returnee Volunteership and the possibility to nurture any Returnee into a strong AFS-USA Volunteer will be a possibility.
- Since the review of Returnee involvement in the first three projects a fourth, Returnee Pre-App Callers Pilot Project has been started. It is very similar to the Returnee Mentor Pilot Project except these Returnees will be calling students who have already submitted a pre-app versus the "interested leads" that Returnees called in the Returnee Mentor Pilot Project.
Contents |
Total Numbers from the Projects
Returnee Mentor Pilot Project
- Returnees informed of project: 1,851
- % Returnees who responded with interest: %5.5 (102)
- % Returnees who filled out screening: %48 (49)
- % Returnees who ended up participating: %79 (39)
- Application Mentors
These numbers are exempt from the below averages since this was advertised to a select group of people rather than a pool of unspecified Returnees as the Returnee Mentor Pilot Project and Retention Callers had been.
- Returnees informed of project: 16
- % Returnees who responded with interest: %100 (16)
- % Returnees who filled out screening: %68 (11)
- % Returnees who ended up participating: %100 (11)
Retention Callers
- Returnees informed of project: 2,735
- % Returnees who responded with interest: %6.6 (180)
- % Returnees who filled out screening: %60 (108)
- % Returnees who ended up participating: %44 (48)
- Average Conversion Rate
- % of Returnee who responded with interest from initial notice of project: %6.05
- % of Returnees who filled out screening after replying with interest: %54
- % of Returnee who ended up participating after filling out screening form: %62
The following numbers and percentages are based off of the amount of programs that had been participated in rather than the number of people. For instance some Returnees have been abroad two times so they have been counted twice for the region they came from, the programs they participated in, and which countries they went to.
- Number of Returnees who participated in at least one project and where they came from...
- West: 26
- Central: 24
- East: 33
- Number of Returnees who participated in at least one project and took part in a...
- Year Program: 45
- Semester Program: 10
- Summer: 28
- Country where Returnee went: Total number of Returnees who went to that country and participated in at least one project...
The countries with 5+ Returnees who've participated are in bold.
- Argentina: 11
- Austria: 2
- Australia: 1
- Belgium (French): 2
- Belgium (Flanders): 1
- Brazil: 1
- Chile: 1
- China: 2
- Costa Rica: 2
- Denmark: 1
- Dominican Republic: 1
- Ecuador: 2
- Egypt: 4
- France: 6
- Germany: 4
- Hungary: 2
- Iceland: 4
- Italy: 7
- Japan: 3
- Latvia: 1
- Netherlands: 3
- New Zealand: 1
- Panama: 2
- Paraguay: 5
- Portugal: 2
- South Africa: 1
- Spain: 2
- Sweden: 1
- Switzerland: 2
- Thailand: 2
- Turkey: 4
- Returnees from these countries had been informed but did not participate:
- Czech Republic
- Finland
- Ghana
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- India
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Norway
- Russia
- Tunisia
Ratios of Returnee Involvement by Country
- Country where Returnee went - number of Returnees who participated in at least one project / number of Returnee that were told who went to that country...
This list is ranked from the greatest ratio to the least greatest
- Iceland – 4 / 7
- South Africa – 1 / 2
- Belgium (Flanders) – 1 / 5
- Dominican Republic – 1 / 5
- Denmark – 1 / 7
- Belgium (French) – 2 / 23
- Austria – 2 / 25
- Switzerland – 2 / 34
- Portugal – 2 / 26
- Netherlands – 3 / 17
- Sweden – 1 / 14
- Brazil – 1 / 15
- Turkey – 4 / 61
- France – 6 / 163
- Hungary – 2 / 60
- Paraguay – 5 / 113
- Argentina – 11 / 245
- Latvia – 1 / 20
- Italy – 7 / 318
- Ecuador – 2 / 56
- Egypt – 4 / 133
- Chile – 1 / 82
- Germany – 4 / 157
- New Zealand – 1 / 43
- Australia – 1 / 54
- China – 2 / 63
- Spain – 2 / 111
- Thailand – 2 / 131
- Japan – 3 / 165
- Panama – 2 / 139
- Costa Rica – 2 / 241
- Returnees from these countries had been informed but did not participate:
- Mexico - 0 / 1
- Finland - 0 / 2
- Tunisia - 0 / 2
- Hong Kong - 0 / 3
- Malaysia - 0 / 3
- Honduras - 0 / 4
- Russia - 0 / 5
- India - 0 / 11
- Czech Republic - 0 / 19
- Norway - 0 / 22
- Ghana - 0 / 101
Integrating Returnees into the AFS-USA Volunteer Process
- Since September of 2009 the Returnee Pilot Projects have brought in the participation of 90+ Returnees throughout the nation who had been abroad in the last 6 years. As the year progressed and more Returnees came into participating in these projects a total of 41 Returnees became official AFS-USA Volunteers and an additional 3 have started the process of becoming AFS-USA Volunteers (last updated on 12/31/10).
- Included in each AFS Returnee Service Project under the Returnee Pilot Project it is stated whether or not the Returnee needs to be a registered volunteer. If so the Returnees who are interested in participating but are not registered are encouraged to get in touch with the Outreach Specialist who will lead them in the right direction of how to register with helpful tips on how to make the process smoother. After sending the Returnee the proper instruction on how to register the Outreach Specialist will wait one week before contacting them again to check-in on: how the process of registering has been working out for the Returnee, if they have started the process, and if not if they plan on registering. If no change has happened in their volunteer registration two weeks following the check-in email the Outreach Specialist will send one last email to give the Returnee the same tips on how to register and to let the Returnee know they can email him/her if they have any questions about the process.
- On the AFS-USA website Returnees can fill out an interest form letting AFS-USA know that they would like to be involved in either Online Info Sessions, Parent Info Sessions, or Fundraising Workshops. Many times the Returnees will think this makes them an AFS-USA Volunteer and it doesn’t. The Outreach Specialist will then email these Returnees after they have finished this interest form informing them it does not make them an official AFS-USA Volunteer and if they’re ever interested to follow the instruction to register within the email (s)he sends them.
Log
This Log is used when actions taken that encompass Returnees in a whole have been made and cannot be specified into one project's own log.
- 10/12/10: Doug Bayer and Damayonti Rowe met to determine what Returnee related service projects should require a registered volunteer status and which ones don't / The following projects now require official AFS-USA Volunteer affiliation: Returnee Mentor Pilot Project, Retention Callers, Application Mentors / The following projects don't need Returnees to be registered: Online Info Sessions, Parent Info Sessions, Fundraising Workshops, Parent Info Sessions, and Country Calls.
- 10/13/10: Doug Bayer met with Liz Wyman and Connie Kurtz on how to go about communicating with Returnees who have participated in at least one project but are not registered.
- 10/14/10: Emailed all Returnees who have participated in at least one project in the past year whose volunteer registration status is closed or inquiry or non existent with the appropriate instructions on how to register as a volunteer.
- 10/25/10: Emailed all Registered Returnee Volunteers letting them know I'm in the process of registering other Returnees, gave them instructions on how to find their local Volunteer team contact information if they have never been contacted / Emailed all Returnees with closed, inquiry, or non-existent statues on GL again with the instructions.
See Also
Other Pages of Interest
- Returnee Initiative A national task force working on the integration of Returnees into AFS as a whole
- Returnee activities Gives lists of ideas for Returnee activities in Sending, Hosting, Creating Leads, and much, much more
- Team Returnee Coordinator Volunteer Position Description
- Report back - Sharon Held attends Volunteer Summit in France Questions answered by numerous Partners about their: Volunteer activities involving young volunteers (18 - 25), problems with integration, benefits of integration, etc...
- Returnee Recruiting Pilot Lessons Learned A project that ran in 2008 of Returnees doing high school presentations
- Returnee Welcome Points of interest for anyone wanting to know how to welcome back Returnees in the best way. This page also has many more WIKI page links of interest about Returnees
- Returnee Evaluation Form A form for Returnees to fill out right after returning home about their exchange process
- Grants, Internships, Jobs in International Education for AFS Returnees and Others
