We know that no one is immune to the stress and anxiety that comes with AFS’s decision to shorten the hosting program. With that in mind, we are writing to announce a new resource to help you continue to support and guide Host Families through this challenging time.

The Host Family Webinar is designed to provide an opportunity for host parents to reflect on their AFS experience as a whole. The content features some guided reflection activities as well as a short interview with Dr. Michael Leidecker (former AFS Staff and current AFS Mental Health Consultant), discussing ways to help host families process the sudden departure of their students and cope with continued uncertainty. Materials can be found HERE.

Area teams are encouraged to offer this content locally to host families after their students have returned home to validate their experience and their learning.

For those teams who are unable to offer a local webinar, or whose host families are not able to attend as scheduled, National Webinars will also be offered, beginning this Thursday, April 2nd from 8-9:30pm EST. Additional webinars will be offered each Thursday at the same time.  Click HERE to see the full list of dates and to register your host families or share the link with them to enter their information directly.

Name, email address, and Area Team will be requested on the registration form.  Once registered, they will receive a confirmation email with the link to join a handout with reflection questions for review before the webinar. To avoid any delays when joining the webinar, host families must click the link in advance to download the zoom app prior to the webinar start time.

Please direct related questions to AskAFS@afsusa.org.

Thank you,

International Education and Participant Learning Teams