families so lisa is in charge of this region and lives in act and works with this route to car door towns is this correct that is correct i'm a n down route to all the way to cambridge so anything any family living in between acton in cambridge that was interested in hosting i would be responsible for recruiting that family view it necessarily as the countryside but it's a whole new experience that they otherwise would not have and so it's part of a growing experience that's a lifetime it only takes room in your heart and room in your home these children are ages six the youngest being six and the oldest being twelve for the first time visit and all it takes is a week first time most families usually only host for one week and it's about providing a free summer vacation to children living in new york city disadvantaged children living in new york city one week yup but it could be more it could be more encourage first time host families to only do one week because one week is a small amount of time after they've spent one summer with the family the family can reinvent the same child year after year and they can expand the amount of time they can say ok this summer we'd like to try two weeks and then maybe the following summer we'd like to try three weeks it really just depends on what fits that host family and we have buses coming to the area all summer we have buses arriving before fourth of july and coming in august and i let families know here at the dates they get to choose what date they would like to host and then the bus arrives to either act and or wes for or i think the closest probably the closest bus to this area would be actin but you can use anybodies bus and you go when you greet the child getting up the bus and then they stay with you for that one week and then they go home again on that bus now don't only sell this proposition to people you've actually done it yourself as i personally am but i'm with the program for twenty years as a volunteer i lived in upstate new york and i was on my way to work one day i was not married i did not have children of my own and somebody was doing an interview on the radio a volunteer was doing an interview on the radio and they said anybody can become a host family and i thought to myself anybody that's interesting i was the executive director of the youth bureau and i thought what a nice way for me to provide an opportunity to a child living in new york city so i made a phone call and before i knew it i was i became a host family even though it was just myself was twelve years old he was the oldest of five boys so for him to be able to get away from his four younger siblings was a vacation in itself ramallah is now thirty two years old and my family my husband and my two daughters now host his daughter and son is eight and this will be the third summer that she's come to stay with us we've expanded our time each each each year first first visit was one week and this year she's coming for ten days  now how are people screened so that's my responsibility we have an application that each family fills out every adult living in the home does a background check and then i go into the home and i do a home visit and i spend about an hour with the family everybody in the family needs to be there so dad the kids partners whoever lives in that home needs to be there and i spend an hour talking with the family interviewing them  talking about expectations how do we handle something if something goes wrong and then i take a tour of the home and i ask to see where the child will sleep and after i leave the question that i ask myself is what i want my children to stay in this family's home and ninety nine point nine percent of the time it's yes people are doing this for the right reasons which is to provide a free summer vacation to children living in new york city i saw in the paper work up to new york city we have a paid staff in new york city and they they process all the paperwork i do the referent all and all families need for references i talk with three of those four somebody that the family knows that knows the family in a professional capacity not meaning the husband's boss meaning somebody like a teacher or guidance counselor a cub scout leader a coach somebody that's a mandated reporter and i talk with them and and talk with them about the family they would be make good hosts and it's so far so good in this area i've never had anything negative come up and our families that are interested generally all families that are interested are matched with a child and fortunate of feedback you get well initially while the children are young it's it's just yeah it's just  providing a fun summer vacation for these children it's a lot of firsts it's a lot of things that children have never done before it's about going to the ocean it's about going to the pool it's about going to a farm to see a cow it's about playing in the backyard many of these most of these children live in high rise apartments they don't know what a backyard is yes they might have a park near them but they don't know what it's like to just go out your back door and go outside and play  so it's about providing that fun summer vacation as the children become adults we know that the adults talk about how powerful their fresh air experience that this program has had on them i think they don't kids don't participate in the program don't realize until they become adults or older that that this program has had a huge impact it shows them that there is something outside of new york city that life that seems like so far away yeah it was so we have children that i'm expecting the younger ones that are homesick they miss mom or dad they miss grandma whoever they're living with the situation we talk with the family and i'm going to be the first contact that the family will call and we talk with them they say we see if it's something that we can work out we have the children call their parents so that they don't you know that they're ok but if it doesn't work out first some reason it just doesn't work out we do have the capability of sending children back to new york city early we don't like to do it but sometimes things just don't work out most city families are doing this for the right reasons which means they want their child to experience life outside of new york city they want them to have that summer vacation so they're putting that child on the bus knowing that they're doing something unique for their child but sometimes maybe it's not just the right thing for a six year old and maybe they will try again when the child a little bit older and are you having difficulty coping families we are i think the i mentioned before the most challenging part of the program is the recruitment of host famil of the volunteers in this area we sort of sometimes scratch your head and say it seems so simple to us it's a week and it's about a little you know a little child to twelve years old coming  spending a week with your family so it seems so simple but you know and i think it's just people are busy people the other thing is that the child the child visiting you can never be left alone so if mom and dad both work  you know there's options of ne ne's or babysitters and i would have to be that person but they can never be left alone so i think that can be challenging no you thing in a camp for the day that's fine example one of our host families living in act and they had a family wedding to go to a mom and i had not made the met the babysitter so we worked it out so that that little girl there near the child from new york city came and stayed with me for the three or four hours so i technically babysat for that child so i have to be somebody that is involved with the fresh air fund program that the only people that that the child can stay and how he's the fresh air fund fund well private donations that's new york city that deals with that so they they do a lot of fund raising they have a lot of celebrities that are involved with the program program program she funds not only does fresh air fund program provide this program the host family program they also have camps in upstate new york where children can go and spend a week at camp and and so they have funding for that not all children live their lifestyle and that there are children in this world in this country that have a different life live a different life and you know i talked to some kids and i said what it what would you be doing if you were not here participating in the fresh air fund program and many of them say mom and dad both work or grandma works and they would be sitting in a small apartment small crowded apartment watching t v and they're on their phone they just don't have the opportunity to get out and it's not something some some children are it's not safe their their community they're living in the city is not safe for them to be outside  had unfortunate circumstance where we could not find one of the city moms to participate in the program for the next year they have to renew paperwork and we found out that she had been murdered so you know the is interested i guess my information will be up on the screen give me a call send me an e mail we say it's about the simple things it's about opening your heart and opening your home for one week letting your children experience having somebody that stay with you and having them talk about their how they live i think it's very important for our children to understand that to me it's a simple thing and you think and do you think all ladies without children could be considered as possible host anybody can become a host family and that was what my cue was when i was listening to this radio  i really enjoy letting people know about the program it's a wonderful opportunity thank you nice to have and that's what's going on today