Family Home Stay Program

Hosting an international visitor in your home can be highly rewarding! Home stays allow visitors from another country to experience life in the U.S. and understand the values, culture, and political experiences that constitute American society. In turn, host families make long-lasting friendships and learn firsthand about another culture.

Lift the Children anticipates conducting educational exchange programs in 2009 that will require placing participants in American homes. We invite you to join a growing list of Sacramento area families who would like to share this wonderful experience. Our first home stay program will likely take place May 21 to June 11, 2009. Please let us know if you are interested in this program and we will add you to our list of hosts. We will contact you once the program is confirmed in early March.

Families come in many shapes and sizes! Many of our home stay families have space in their homes because children are grown or they do not have children. Family members who do not live at the host home also enjoy meeting and spending time with the guest.

Exchange Programs

The program through which we host international visitors is Community Connections, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The purpose of Community Connections is to promote mutual understanding between citizens of former Soviet nations and the U.S, providing participants with broad exposure to U.S. society and helping to create personal connections with Americans. Last year, Lift the Children hosted professionals from Novosibirsk, a major city in Siberia, and Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine.

Lift the Children has also hosted visitors from Guatemala under the State Department Volunteer Visitor program as well as our partners from Romania. We anticipate more than one opportunity to host international visitors in 2009.

Participants

In our exchange programs we have welcomed social workers, government officials, law enforcement personnel, medical professionals, media, and representatives from community organizations and advocacy groups. Selection for participation in the Community Connections program is highly competitive and participants undergo an extensive cultural orientation. Participants in all of our exchange programs have been accomplished professionals in their field—as well as fun and outgoing people.

Requirements for Host Families

To participate in the Community Connection programs families must live within commuting distance of the Child Abuse Prevention Center. We ask each family to provide breakfast, dinner, and a room for the visitor. All personal expenses are covered by an allowance provided to each visitor and all guests have insurance for emergency health situations. Interested families submit an application to Lift the Children and meet with us in their home prior to visitor placement.

Families are encouraged to include visitors in typical family activities, such as grocery shopping, soccer games, or trips to the mall. Lift the Children will plan social activities such as a welcome dinner, family potlucks, baseball games, or tours of the Capitol. Families are invited to attend these activities and find it fun to socialize with other families and visitors. On some weekend days, participants will take field trips away from home with Lift the Children.

We appreciate the help of host families in transporting their guest to daily and weekend activities, and will work with each family to create a transportation plan that fits their schedule. Families also are strongly encouraged to attend an orientation session prior to the arrival of the participants.

Families can take up to two visitors at a time. Some families find that hosting two participants is actually easier than one. We also encourage families to share a home stay with another family, so that each family provides a home for a week and a half rather than the full three weeks.

Timetable

Home stays can last from one to three weeks, and two families can split a home stay if they wish. With all of our home stay programs, we will notify families as soon as we are aware of a potential program and finalize the home stay once the program has been approved.

To find out more about the program, please contact Katie Smith at (916) 244-1964, ksmith@thecapcenter.org.

Read participant and host families had to say about their home stay experience:

Larissa (participant): The homestays were important to introduce life from the inside. My two host families touched me deeply. I loved staying with them.

Denis (participant): This was one of the brightest memories of my life both personally and professionally. Whatever politicians and media tell me about Americans, I will keep in my mind and heart what kind, generous and hospitable people they are.

Claire (family): The best part of hosting visitors was ‘traveling’ to Russia (in a way) and meeting new friends. Bonding and sharing hopes, dreams and family similarities. Cooking for each other. Establishing our own little house routine. I enjoyed their joy."

Tania (participant): I have drastically changed my impressions of America. The host families and presenters showed us various parts of America and now I know how similar we are.

Helen (family): I really enjoyed talking to two young people from a different culture and a different part of the world, to learn that they are much like we are in their desire to live in a peaceful world.

Victor (participant): I am a historian and my only view of Americans came from history. But now I have seen with my own eyes that America is a wonderful country populated by great people. I am convinced that America and Russia are two great countries that have wonderful people. I am convinced more than ever that there is no need to fight… I was impressed that the family is the core of society and is the object of the services. I like the fact that every child in America has a right and a solid chance to have a family.

Albina (participant): My host family became like second parents to me.

Iryna (participant): There is not a single day that I do not think about you and remember you and your wonderful family. I have put together a slide presentation in my computer, and now every day I can see photos of those remarkable 3 weeks which I spent with Lift the Children and your family.