YES & FLEX Travel and Orientations
From AFSWiki
July 28, 2011
Greetings from the Inbound Sponsored Programs team in New York!
As we finalize placements for the CB, FLEX and YES participants and prepare for their arrival, we thought we’d circulate answers to some frequently asked questions that have arisen lately.
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Travel Dates – YES & FLEX
As in past years, FLEX students are arriving throughout the month of August with the first five students arriving this weekend (two Kyrgyzstan students, two Ukrainian students and one student from Tajikistan). The last FLEX students arrive to their host communities on August 19th. FLEX travel (both international and domestic) is booked by American Councils.
The Welcome Orientation provided to FLEX students in the local community is the first orientation they receive in the United States. They have had extensive pre-departure preparation in their home country, but there is no gateway orientation in the U.S. for FLEX participants.
FLEX travel dates can be found here: Comprehensive_List_of_Inbound_FLEX_Countries
YES Travel is different in the summer of 2011. The dates for travel to host communities are as follows: Sunday, August 7; Wednesday, August 10; Sunday, August 14; Sunday, August 21; Saturday, August 27th (YES 2nd arrivals, if necessary); Sunday, August 28th.
Please refer to a complete list of YES Orientation dates by clicking here: Comprehensive_List_of_Inbound_YES_Countries_of_Recruitment
All YES students will have an arrival orientation at the gateway in Washington DC. AFS is providing the orientations for all students recruited by AFS (EGY, GHA, IND, INA, KEN, MOZ, PHI, KSA, RSA, THA, TUR). American Councils is providing the orientation for all other YES participants. AFS books the domestic and international travel for AFS-recruited YES participants and American Councils books the domestic and international travel for all other YES participants. We are entering the travel of YES students into Global Link as it becomes available.
The specific arrival dates for YES and FLEX students are noted in the bio section of the student application. We have also shared travel information with volunteer constituents as it becomes available. Please contact Ori Behr obehr@afs.org or 212-479-1198 for questions about YES Travel and Erin Abrams eabrams@afs.og or 212-479-1171 for questions about FLEX travel.
Welcome Orientations in Your Local Community and Airport Pick Ups
For FLEX and YES students arriving outside your “normal” arrival cycle (our first major Core arrival window is August 10 – 12), it is fine to provide the welcome orientation when the next group of participants arrive. If, for example, one or two YES participants are arriving on August 4th, it is fine to incorporate them into the arrival orientation that you are organizing for August 10 – 12. Likewise, for students coming later in the month, it is fine to incorporate them into an orientation with participants coming on 2nd arrivals. Of course, it is also fine to provide an orientation individually upon arrival or shortly thereafter. AFS recommends that an AFS volunteer picks the participants up at the airport and further, it is our recommendation that an AFS volunteer facilitate the very first meeting of a student and a family. That said, we understand that this is not always possible, especially with arrivals spanning the full month of August. Occasionally (YES and FLEX participants ONLY), a host family may pick up the student at the airport. In those rare instances, it is critically important that the student meet with a local volunteer very soon upon arrival to the host community to create a connection to the local volunteer network. It is also essential that the orientation coordinator has provided us with the contact name and cell phone number of a volunteer to whom we can report any changes on the day of domestic travel.
Sponsored Programs Host Family Orientation Module
Please note that we have a wonderful Sponsored Programs Host Family Orientation module available in Global Link (under Resources, AFS USA Online Training, Course Catalogue, Hosting Courses). This is a great resource for local volunteers who are supporting YES, FLEX and CB participants and their host families. This is a required training module for host families of Sponsored Programs students (a supplement to the Host Family Orientation module). It explains the goals of the programs, the role of the Cluster Coordinator, enrichment activities and financial things like stipends and incidental expenses. Please check it out! The link to this supplemental orientation module is sent via email to SP Host Families. Please contact Chan MacDonald (cmacdonald@afs.org) for questions pertaining to receiving this link.
Ramadan Begins on August 1st
Many YES and FLEX participants are of Muslim faith and will be observing Ramadan upon their arrival to your host community. The Sponsored Programs team is offering two conference calls for host families, local volunteers and liaisons to learn more about Ramadan in order to best support these participants at this early stage in their stay in the United States. The phone calls are Sunday, July 31 and Tuesday, August 2. Please see the details for the Ramadan phone calls in our Wiki news posting of July 25, 2011.
It is NOT too late to have a Cluster of Sponsored Programs Participants!
There are several YES and FLEX participants who do not yet have families. If your team is interested in hosting a cluster of SP kids, let us know and we’ll get you started. We will also be hosting Malaysians in January, so if you’d like to begin with one or two participants and add a Malaysian or two in January, this would be wonderful. Please be in touch with Caren Marre at cmarre@afs.org if you have questions about new cluster development.
Questions?
Please reach out to any of us on the Inbound Sponsored Programs team. We are happy to help you with any questions that you may have.
Please see the full list of SP staffers here: Sponsored_Programs_Staff
