Greetings from San Francisco!
The Youth Ambassador Program has officially launched and our first week of work in the San Francisco Bay Area was a big success!
Last week, Sara Lamson, Managing Director of Latin American Programs, joined me in the Bay for a week of meetings with local youth organizations and AMIGOS from the East Bay, Marin, Peninsula, Santa Clara and San Francisco Chapters. The highlight of our week was the Youth Ambassador Program Kick-Off Party held in Oakland on August 18th.
The event was help at Cocina Poblana on Jack London Square. We had between 65-70 people turn out, including alumni, chapter representatives and friends of AMIGOS in the Bay Area. We even had some AMIGOS Volunteers come who had just returned from the field – including one Vol who had just flown in from Paraguay 2 hours earlier! The Kick-Off was a fun opportunity for Bay Area AMIGOS to get together and it was also a chance for Sara to provide an overview of things going on at AMIGOS on a broader level (including strategic planning, exploration of new program offerings, etc.) and for me to introduce the Youth Ambassador program.
I was thrilled with the turn out for this event and encouraged by the support that attendees offered. People shared their ideas for service projects in the Bay Area, local organizations to get involved in curriculum development and one attendee even offered his office’s conference room for training events. Most importantly, we had nine families express an interest in being host families for our Paraguayan and Uruguayan Youth Ambassadors!
I am very excited to be working here in the Bay Area and I am proud of our local AMIGOS who are demonstrating a commitment to “Service for Life” by volunteering to get involved with the Youth Ambassador Program!
