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The Host Family Program of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol has two goals:
1. To help newly arrived United Nations diplomats, members of the Consular Corps, and members of the United Nations Secretariat and their families settle quickly into life in New York.
2. To give interested, qualified New Yorkers an opportunity to share their lives with the City's international community. This program is a cooperative and voluntary effort of private citizens.
Host Families include couples, with or without children, and single people as well. They are recruited through schools, colleges, clubs, churches, and interested organizations of all kinds, as well as through existing Host Families, Commission staff and volunteers.
The Program works the following way:
- Once an application has been completed and approved, one or more members of the Host Family attend an orientation meeting with the Program Coordinator. At that time, the family learns about the Commission and its programs, and the Coordinator learns about the family.
- Soon after their arrival in New York, UN diplomats and members of the Consular Corps are asked by the Commission volunteers whether or not they wish to participate in the program. A Host Family is selected whose interests and background seem to be compatible with those of the foreign family.
- The Host Family then invites the foreign family to their home, not to stay, but for dinner, lunch, tea, brunch, or whatever the host feels is the most comfortable way to entertain friends.
- This is the beginning of an ongoing relationship that we hope will continue for the length of the foreign family's stay in New York. The referral services of the Commission are available to the Host Family should the foreign family have any questions or problems that the hosts might find difficult to answer or solve. Such questions, for example, might involve medical referrals, legal matters, insurance, housing or schooling for diplomatic children.
The relationship between host and international families is flexible. In some cases, families will want to exchange frequent visits. In others, they might enjoy sharing professional interests and contacts. In each case, the Host Family Program offers the international community the chance to get to know the City and its citizens in a relaxed, informal family setting. It offers New Yorkers the rewards of new insights and friendships with a varied international community.
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