This summer, AFS-USA will be launching new and improved tools and resources for families who are hosting during the 2023-24 school year. These new resources will replace and expand on the information that families have been provided through the Global Family Tool during the last two years.

These changes are expected to launch during the week of July 10. Families who are planning to host during the 2023-24 cycle will be notified that week, once the changes have gone live.

When this launches, host families will be able to sign in to their AFS host family account (the same way they do to access their application) and will see a site that is much more consistent with the look of MyAFS. They will have access to AFS volunteer and staff contact information, travel information for their student (as it becomes available), and links to resources in the new Help & Learning for Host Families, which will have information that was previously found in the Host Family Handbook, which host families will be able to access throughout their experience.

Here is a sample of what host families will see when they log-in to their account:

Help & Learning for Host Families will be separate from the MyAFS Help & Learning that AFS Volunteers use but will have a very similar look and feel (and content will be consistent in both!). Help & Learning for Host Families will look like this when families or when volunteers access it:

Within each of those categories, there will be several articles that address common issues and challenges, taken from the previous Host Family Handbook. In essence, the new Help & Learning for Host Families will be a well indexed and easily searchable version of the Host Family Handbook.

We are excited about these changes and hope that you agree that this will greatly enhance and improve the experiences of our host families in the coming year.

If you have questions about the new Host Family tools & resources, please contact Scott Hume at shume@afsusa.org.  Thank you!