We were a host family for a 15 year girl from Germany. The experience in our home was great, but we never received regular contact from the organization as they promised to do at the beginning of the school year. Everything seemed alright until our student went on a weekend function at a beach house. There was an incident that occurred that gave me no choice but to contact CPS. Soon after the incident, the student was pulled from our home. They removed us from the Facebook group, which I thought was a kick in the teeth. I am seeking additional help to insure that this organization is held responsible for what occurred at the beach house, and the actions they took after the incident. Avoid AFS at all costs.
AFS
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3.5 / 10
after 50 Reviews
Based on overall, support & value average ratings
Program website: http://www.afsusa.org
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
I had the misfortune of working for AFS-USA for a very short period of time and my opinion of that time is: You simply cannot run a business as if it’s a hippie commune in Haight Asbury during the “Summer of Love”.
A business needs constant waves of new ideas, goal settings, critical thinking and subtle and not-so-subtle changes to keep growing and expanding.
AFS-USA is run by people doing the same thing in the same way year after year. They are not bad people - just burnt out people. Some have been there over 25 years. Doing their jobs in the same style, at the same place, with the same folks. They not only have no interest or desire to change things, they are actively encouraged not too.
I could never understand the panic that would happen when they needed to make “goal” or the inability to comprehend when things went wrong. In an any major business , if a style becomes out of date , you change it, tweak it, fix it or remove it. You don’t just keep plugging away. At AFS-USA, they live for doing things exactly as they were taught some 35 years ago.
Hello? We have penicillin now. We have the Internet? HELLO?? This is not World War 1.
Also, while being a “non-profit”, I was shocked at the level of very “corporate” perks awarded certain individuals. This is a company that despises all things “Big Business” and applauds all things liberal and democratic. That’s great! Fly economy, then. Cut down on the amount of travel being done by staff to begin with. Is it really necessary to send a staff member to Paris to bring a “troubled teen” back to the States? That staff member gets free air-fare, a hotel and a decent semi-vacation…..for free..
From what the staff still there (they have laid off hundreds of people in a cost cutting scheme that again, sounds very “corporate” to me) says, it’s just a complete disaster and running on fumes.
Do yourself a favor. Send your kid around the world for his high school graduation present. Avoid this place.
Program:
Location:
Posted: July 8, 2013
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
By: Tolstoy
Age:
We are right now experiencing the same kind of situation that others have talked about, where a student was abruptly pulled from the home over a fairly minor issue, that could have easily been resolved with some guidance from AFS. The student made the unlucky choice of calling his liaison for help one day, and the next day found himself being picked up from school with his belongings and whisked off to a new family in another town. My children were heartbroken and filled with self-blame for what they could have done to cause this situation. Although we were advised by AFS to break all contact with the student, so he could start his "new life" elsewhere, we have followed his saga on Facebook, where he has poured out his frustration, anger and despair over being uprooted from his family and friends here, and his continued attempts, over the past 3 months, to return to our town. He has even rallied the support of his friends at his high school here, having them sign petitions supporting his attempts to return here. AFS seems to have turned a deaf, bureaucratic ear to his pleas. I think AFS simply does not have the staff to deal with situations of any kind of complexity. It is so sad for the student, who will remember for the rest of his life that his experience in America was marred like this. And sad for my children, who feel that the wonderful experience of having an AFS student somehow failed, for reasons they do not quite understand.
Program:
Location:
Posted: April 17, 2013
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
By: Lucybexpress
Age:
59
I have experienced AFS both as a parent of a student sent to a year long program in Germany as well as a liaison for students visiting the US. I have found the AFS teams in both countries to be responsive in supporting a variety of activities as well as providing guidance in times of need. In Germany, my son had several liaisons connect his transition to a new country and a new language. Someone was always available to him and he found friends in the AFS chapters as well as the people he met through school and community activities.
Personally, I have enjoyed the people and students of AFS and my family has been given the opportunity to connect with other cultures. I would recommend the AFS program without hesitation.
Program:
Location:
Posted: February 21, 2013
Overall:
10
Support:
10
Value:
10
By: Jknoth
Age:
55
We hosted a student. Initially the experience was exciting. The volunteers were responsive. But early on there was tension in the family. We were encouraged to work it out - a good suggestion. But then the student said she did not think it would get better. Without helping her figure out how she could tell us the problem they moved her. They -the liaison and her supervisor never helped us talk about the problems. She never talked to me about what the problems were. They just remove red her from the house without regards to anyone's feelings. This student could have learned so much about negotiating relationships but did not. I then spoke with the liason's supervisor. She was no help. She just dismissed the issue. I realize that some kids who were in the exchange program experienced something awful. But even with this small problem I think they did a dis-service to us as a host family and the student. I will not recommend AFS to anyone.
Program:
Location:
Posted: October 25, 2012
Overall:
2
Support:
1
Value:
1
By: CZ
Age:
55
Comments
We had a very similar problem with AFS not working effectively to support families and resolve differences. AFS says that switching families is a last resort but what we saw was it is almost a first resort to just make any problem disappear for a time. AFS host families are not involved in the discussion to move, they just swoop in and out of your family with little notice in their comings and goings. It is not very good for a family, but we figured the boy's happiness is more important than ours so we didn't say much (although AFS doesn't ask either). Once we got wind that our student was not happy from AFS and he was proposing a move, we finally just left our student do pretty much whatever he wanted. Had we done that from the start, we probably would have kept our student, but then I don't think we would have been very good parents. At least not what I would have wanted for my child if he was overseas. In our situation, within a month of arriving, our student made a buddy from a much wealthier household that was more in keeping with his high lifestyle. Our student complained to them about our rules and our cooking (which was less rich than he was used too). They in turn complained to AFS and even called the host parents to see if they couldn't take him. The problem seemed to start with my wife requiring from the beginning that he needed to let us know of his comings and goings and he needed to introduce us to his friends so we could look out for him. We didn't have to restrict any though but we did know where he was at. He didn't like this, but we persisted because we had an exchange student the previous year that was very deceptive. After he spent a whole year with us we found out he did alot of drinking and sex with his school friends. Some Europeans, especially among the rich, don't have many morals this way and sadly some of our American school children don't either. We were determined not to let this happen again under our watch. Both boys fit in well while at home with our other children, but were difficult as teens are with maintaining rules at times outside the home. Our first exchange student dealt with our rules with apparent compliance and a generally pleasant demeanor. We thought we had a pretty good year until we learned more about his activities after he left. Our second student dealt with it through endless and often exaggerated complaining from the start to anyone who would listen. We believed the complaints to be pretty unjustified but would have been willing to try to work at it if we would have been informed of it in a straight-forward, truthful way either by the student or AFS. AFS did eventually tell us what they thought was going on but by that time the decision was made by "someone" in AFS that our families just didn't match and that they planned on moving the student to his buddy's family with the complaining mom to try to make him happy. It took them about a month to get their paperwork processed for the new family and he stayed with us for that time so we figured AFS wasn't too concerned. AFS supposedly lists us as a good family yet, but still we felt robbed of an opportunity to help this student with his life. But maybe that is the problem, we were trying to help a student that just wanted his own way. In the end, this exchange program isn't about being a parent for an exchange student as much as AFS is about trying to show even a spoiled teen a good time in the states. We actually really liked having both students in our home, it was just some of what they did outside our home that was troubling to us and the way AFS handles complaints from these teens. This last student was supposedly from a "good" family. I was surprised when the student told me in the end that his parents fought constantly, were very profain, the father was seeing a phsycholgist for depression and had used alcohol and drugs, but they were all very wealthy. None of that was in the application. In those last days it also surprised me what our student told me he had learned from our family in the couple months he was with us. It was very good, as our family does not have problems in some of the areas that challenge his family. We do have some rules though and we are middle-class. I don't think he was yet making the connection between some rules and the things he did like most about our family. I think AFS just allowed too easy a way out for this student and didn't involve us in trying to resolve anything. AFS says they support host families but this was just about non-existant. We won't do AFS again and I don't know if we would do an exchange program again without knowing much more information about the family the student is coming from and what their real motives are for sending their son or daughter to the U.S. My oldest two children have studied abroad while in college and it was valuable, but after a couple high school exchange students, I think they are too young to be without their parents guidance. I think as long as you let the AFS-student do whatever they really want you won't have many problems, the problem is that many teens are not able to handle this well until later in life. In the end, I was left feeling very disappointed in AFS too as you are.
