As an AFS Host Parent, you are the best person for sharing the rewards of hosting an AFS Exchange Student, and part of serving as a host parent is sharing your experience with other potential host parents. There are several ways you can work with your AFS Volunteers to share the benefits and rewards of hosting an AFS Participant with other families in your community.
- If you think a friend, neighbor, or colleague would benefit from the AFS hosting experience, ask them to think about serving as a host family and put your local volunteer in contact with them.
- Encourage any interested families to learn more and get started with an application here
- If you know of several families who might make good host families, host a get-together to tell them about your experience. Your local volunteer can provide suggestions on how to organize these sorts of activities.
- Consider sharing your experience to inspire others, use these email, text and social media templates to spread the word: Host Family Outreach Templates
- Often, local newspapers and TV or radio shows are interested in interviewing host families and their hosted participants, especially Education or Family editors. Contact your local volunteer to consider how best to approach a contact that you might know, please contact the AFS Marketing and Communications Department at marketing@afsusa.org
- Speaking about your experience at your place of worship, a community forum, or a school about your experience are also excellent ways to encourage interested families to host an AFS Student while promoting intercultural education. By sharing your experience with other excellent families, you are helping to create a more just and peaceful world through international learning experiences, one family and one community at a time.
- Consider becoming an AFS Volunteer. Many of our thousands of volunteers started out as an exchange student or host family themselves, your experience is a valuable and sharing it with others can be very rewarding. Click here to read more about becoming an AFS Volunteer.