Homestay Families: Creativity and Flexibility

Homestay families or host families are a rich tradition within international exchange programs, providing participants with opportunities to experience everyday life in another culture, make life long connections, and receive needed support in an unfamiliar environment. Some programs have been hesitant or had difficulty finding homestay placement for participants with disabilities. Some of this difficulty relates to misunderstandings of what the participant will require in a homestay environment, along with cultural beliefs about people with disabilities.

Programs and participants must engage in a honest and interactive dialogue regarding what they need in a housing environment. Participants for whom this is their first international trip may not be aware of how much help they receive at home, or how much the environment has been altered for them.

Recruiting homestay families

Homestay recruiters should look for families with members who have disabilities to serve as host families for both participants with and without disabilities. Not only will having families with disabilities in the pool provide the possibility of a more accessible environment for the participants who have disabilities, but placing a participant without a disability with a family member with a disability may give them an opportunity to further expand their understanding the host culture with the addition of the disability perspective. Adding families with disabilities also expands your pool of potential host families for participants without disabilities.