Intercultural Activity Toolkit: Families Across Cultures

Activity Information
Recommended Audience	International Students, Study Abroad General, Community members ESL, K-12 elementary/secondary through high school students
Length of Time	For maximum benefit, a 60-minute discussion with intercultural/cross-cultural activities
Resources	Minimum of 2 people Preferably, with focus on culture/country specific, artifacts, books, recipes from the country/culture being discussed
Number of Facilitators	1 per 2 participants
Source of Activity	Recipient of 2 separate NAFSA COOP Mini-Grants: FAC in 1998-1999 and IMC 2000-2001
Purpose	To increase awareness of cultural differences and ethnic diversity on campus and in the community

Families Across Cultures [FAC] / Introducing My Culture[IMC]

Activities will provide an opportunity for international and American families to learn about each other's family values and systems, family dynamics and relationship issues. See attached brochure for more information.

Program Development Timeline

Since FAC-IMC was implemented at 2 different stages, the following timelines are extracted from each program's proposal submission:

For FAC

The following is a projection of the estimated time line for preparation/training, implementation and evaluation:

For IMC

The following is a projection of the estimated time line for preparation, training, implementation and evaluation:

Basic Budget

For Fac

Total of In-kind and Cash contributions = $4440
Total of amount requested from NAFSA = $1000 (22.5%)

For IMC

* IEE: Office of International Education & Exchange
** CLASC: Community-based Learning And Service Center
+ a work scholarship for 4 units of tuition waiver

The above NAFSA COOP mini-grant awards provided seed money for FAC-IMC. Funding for these 2 programs continued with campus funding for 3 years. During these years (1999 – 2001), the 2 programs thrived and enjoyed phenomenal success. Budget cuts since then have resulted in shortage of funds and these programs are now being coordinated largely through collaborative efforts by our office (International Education & Exchange), Women's Center, Multicultural Leadership Center, and the Volunteer & Service Center.

Advertising/Communication Methods

For FAC-IMC, student coordinators were hired to:

• Promote the program on campus and to the community by designing posters and fliers and contacting campus newspapers to publicize their activities (if this person has the relevant skills, a Web site may be created)
• Serve as liaison between the students, campus and community including community volunteers and after-school program sites like the YMCA for school presentations of IMC
• Communicate through our Volunteer & Service Center to promote IMC presentations at local elementary schools
• Maintain a database of participants
• Evaluate the program by designing appropriate evaluation tools, for example, survey questions, interviews or evaluation forms
• Maintain a calendar of events for each semester (Fall and Spring)
• Plan weekly agendas and specify discussion topics and activities
• Invite community guest speakers as appropriate
• Facilitate weekly meetings
• Assist Program Coordinator in promoting program and activities (in addition to weekly discussions of topics of interest to participants, other suggested activities may include arts and crafts sessions, international recipe exchanges, celebrations of American or foreign country holidays e.g. Thanksgiving, Japanese Children's' Day, International Women's Day, etc.)
• Collect information for the database by designing an application form for participants