I appreciate your patience while we work toward a return to our standard and customary response times.
Author: Tara Hofmann
Please join me for a Town Hall this Tuesday, August 17th, at 8:00PM EDT.
AFS-USA has contracted the services of Hines-Gaither Consulting, LLC (HGC). HGC is a diversity, equity, and inclusion firm with over 15 years of experience. They’ve worked with nationally recognizable corporations and organizations throughout the United States, and they’re staffed with content experts who are highly qualified in their fields of expertise. Through their assessment and guidance, we hope to foster a culture of belonging, equity, and inclusion more effectively throughout our organization. One of the most important steps in the assessment process will involve meeting with AFS-USA volunteers to conduct focus group interviews.
In this video message, AFS-USA President and CEO Tara Hofmann shares a variety of updates on current activities, plans, and achievements. Bullet points of items discussed in the video are available so you can easily review and share these important updates!
No year has tested us more—we repatriated nearly 2,000 students and, as a result, faced unprecedented financial challenges. In true AFS spirit, volunteers, staff, supporters, and friends responded to the crisis by doing everything we could to move our mission forward. Please read and share Our Year in Review!
Regardless of all that we’ve encountered this year, the adjustments we’ve made, and the resulting sacrifices we’ve faced, I am extraordinarily thankful for all that AFS-USA Volunteers have accomplished this year. Whether it was helping facilitate the mass repatriation of our students, moving full-speed ahead with family-finding, implementing new methods for engaging with host families, students, and other volunteers, or any of the multitude of investments of time and talent, you have kept the AFS mission alive and well.
I know that last week’s announcement indicating a significant change to our inbound FLEX and YES programs was not only disappointing, but also unsettling. Many of you have worked hard to place these students with host families while also looking for new host families to host the unplaced students. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed, regardless of this transition to a virtual-only program for the spring, and I am grateful for the work you’ve done on behalf of these participants.
Here is an update on our #ChaptersSupportingAFSUSA, an initiative suggested by April Murphy that we have put into motion. I am grateful for those who have stepped forward to contribute funds at a time when AFS-USA really needs your support.
I am writing to invite you to the 2020 Virtual AFS Summit, which will be held from November 12-15, 2020 and is open to all AFS-USA Volunteers.
In the last week of September we launched #ChaptersSupportingAFS-USA—an idea that came from April Murphy, Chair of the Greater Phoenix Chapter and President of the AFS Arizona Superhero Team. April has asked her colleagues to contribute some of their existing funds back to AFS-USA at a time when the organization desperately needs funds.