Information for Rotarians

Rotary Youth Exchange is an integral part of the 5th Avenue of Service. As part of Youth Services, RYE has many components that can integrate into the other parts of YS.

• • The Outbound Program sends American students abroad for 11-12 months to stay with up to three host families.

  • The Inbound Program brings foreign students in from other countries to stay with American Host families. Typically there are 3 families hosting over the course of the year, for about three and a half months each.

  • The Rebound program helps returning American students re-integrate into American society, and to start to participate with Rotary activities in their community.

  • ROTEX is an organization of former Rebound students that want to continue helping the RYE program.

  • RYE students often take part in RYLA.

  • RYE students often join Interact, or give presentations to the Interact club about their experiences.

  • RYE students, when older, often join Rotaract or eventually Rotary. Supporting a RYE student, and allowing them to become part of the Rotary family is one of the best ways to create an ardent future Rotarian.

For your club to participate in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, a number of key things need to take place, including:

• Identifying and developing a Youth Exchange Officer (YEO) for your club (Important and necessary)

• Forming a RYE subcommittee for Youth Services to assist the YEO

• Identifying a Youth Exchange Counselor (YEC) for any Inbound Students hosted by the club (must be a different person than the YEO, and typically the same gender as the student)

• Having board support for the YEO, and forming a 3-year budgeting process for the Inbound student financial commitment (typically about $3000 total, but spread out over 3 years) (Outbounds have no formal budget requirement, but clubs are free to help the families with expenses if the board so chooses. Such help is not typical though)

• Inviting the Inbound and Outbound students to your clubs on a regular basis

• Encouraging members to invite the students to different daytime events or experiences.

• Optionally supporting the district in interviewing and District overnight social events

More details and forms can be found in the 6 page handout, RYE_D6490.pdf, found at the bottom of the page, and in the YEO pages page of this website.

Please feel free to contact: (next part is incomplete)

• Our District RYE Chair

• Our District Outbound coordinator

• Our District Inbound coordinator

• Our District Youth Saftey Officer

• Any of our District Committee