Good afternoon, Youth Exchange is a programme organised globally by RIOperated by district where I as the District Officer assist you at the Clubs in finding matching young people to come here to experience our culture of Scotland.
The emphasis is to ensure the person selected matches the goals shown above.
So what is Youth Exchange?The programme assist you as Clubs in meeting your goals to community service and as you will see from RI’s slogan for this year assist in Building Communities both at home and abroad.
The fundamental benefits of the programme are shown here:Visiting and experiencing another nation’s culture first hand and making friendships which have the potential of lasting a lifetime.It also has the potential of enabling you as Clubs to establish long term links with a Club in another country.
This is a programme which encapsulate all what I believe Rotary is about – the development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service
Whilst exchanges are on an individual basis a number of other district host international camp for many young people as shown in this slide.
This programme best suits a young person who wishes to experience an academic year abroad and would be expected to attend classes in their host country.Equally should a club send a student on this programme, then they would be expected to host a similar return to us. The student’s family would be a key part of this exchange.
This is like work experience and is short term rather than long term programme.Again the involvement of local clubs is essential
These are the guidelines for selecting a suitable person for YE programmes
Now to how it operates:
Suggested club committee structure to ensure successful engagement in the programme.
So consider being involvedHelp district in taking this programme forwardGet out to the schools, universities youth organisation and help to identify and select students for this programme
Like any Rotary programme there are many resources to ensure you can make the decisionsMy job is to assist you and the students in being involved.
I look forward to working with you all and am happy to come and speak to your club on Youth Exchange.