Welcome to the Sacramento-Davis Chapter Website!

2009 Volunteers and Training Staff (most of them anyway!)

 

NEWS

 

Informational Sessions are starting up in early August this year! Please check the calendar to the right for upcoming events. Also, we have a facebook group for our chapter. Please join it so we can send you up-to-date information about Informational Sessions, Orientations, and other Chapter related events!

 

Informational Sessions: short, local meetings where anyone can come and speak to veteran volunteers fresh back from the field, training staff, and board members. Learn about what Amigos is, what we do as a chapter, and what Amigos can do for you!

 

Orientations: longer, in depth meetings about the operations of the Sacramento-Davis Chapter of AMIGOS and the summer projects. What does the Training Program involve? How does the Chapter support the volunteers and their families? Anyone is invited to come!

 

Screening Sessions: these are short, required sessions designed to help the volunteers and their families get to know the staff and board and vice versa. We want to make sure that all prospective volunteers and their families are aware of the commitment and that the minimum requirements are met. See you there!

 

About Amigos de las Americas

For more than 40 years, Amigos de las Americas (AMIGOS) has conducted programs that send high school and college students on service/immersion projects in Latin America.

Every year a select group of volunteers spends six to eight weeks in a host country, working on projects that advance public health, build youth leadership and advance multicultural understanding. Countries where volunteers will live and work in the summer of 2008 include Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay.

In the eight months before departure, volunteers participate in training activities with their chapters. Training prepares volunteers in cross-cultural sensitivity, personal health & safety, and the culture of Latin America, as well as technical skills like planning and implementing projects with their host community. The chapter also works together to raise funds to cover the volunteers' summer expenses. In June and July, our chapter volunteers travel to their assigned countries. Once in country, they join with volunteers from other chapters throughout the United States. Volunteers are then placed with either one or two partners, in communities to live with families for the summer.

Life-long bonds have been built between volunteers and their adopted communities. Through AMIGOS, thousands of young people have learned invaluable lessons about cultural differences, community service, and their own ability to lead.