By Taylor Kay, Senior Director, Work and Travel Program
The BridgeUSA Summer Work Travel (SWT) program relies on the involvement of six key players: the Department of State (DOS), the visa sponsor (like Greenheart), the host employer, the international sending partner, of course the exchange visitor and the welcoming American community. Coordinated community support can make a tremendous difference in the participant experience and in advancing the mission of this cultural exchange program.
In many places, the formal establishment of a Community Support Group has supplement individual efforts to create a safety net for participants. Since 2016, these Community Support Groups have put on an annual summit to discuss best practice and learn from each other’s experience. Three Greenheart staff attended the 2024 Community Support Group Summit, held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on November 12-15.
This was the first in-person summit since one in Branson, Missouri in 2019. It follows events conducted virtually during the pandemic. The turnout and engagement were high: over 100 attendees from SWT communities across the U.S. shared stories about the struggles they faced related to the seasonal flows of tourists, residents and SWT exchange visitors. These include:
- finding and improving seasonal housing options
- understanding the role of public safety officers
- developing safe, reliable and affordable transportation options
- connecting exchange visitors to the community and confronting and overcoming culture shock and loneliness.
Attendees realized that each community faces many similar challenges, despite differences in their geography, host employer base and the availability of government services.
More importantly, attendees also shared innovative solutions and examples that brought their community together. Myrtle Beach’s Community Support Group served as an excellent example of how to identify and tackle challenges. We heard from many local representatives: the mayor, the chief of police, the Chamber of Commerce, the mental health unit of the police department, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Attorney, a county legislator and volunteers from civic and religious organizations. Each talked about how important this program is to their community and shared their part in working to improve local transportation and housing availability and provide training on bike and pedestrian safety, water safety and crime avoidance.
At the close of the summit, we visited the All-Nations Café sponsored by Midtown Vineyard Church. Besides a welcoming atmosphere, this facility serves as the hub of support for SWT participants. It offers weekly orientations, meals, seasonal bicycle rentals, café and game nights, and English tutoring and mock job interviews. They estimate that participants from 53 countries lived in Myrtle Beach last summer.
The Department of State provided important program updates and showed a strong commitment to supporting and establishing new CSGs. That included:
- Data on the number of participants around the country
- The frequency and types of incidents reported by sponsors and exchange visitors themselves.
- Updates on visa processes and improving interview timelines.
DOS monitoring surveys show that the most reported issue nationally was that housing was not meeting participant expectations. Comes second, insufficient work hours and local transportation. In the Department’s view – and Greenheart’s too – the establishment and nourishment of community support groups can help alleviate these problems.
Interested in joining a CSG in your community? Check the Department of State’s directory. If you don’t see one listed, then perhaps it’s time to start one! Remember! You can always Contact Greenheart for help. Existing CSGs are also very happy to share their knowledge. They’d be happy to coordinate conversations among similar groups in each community, such as law enforcement or public transit. In fact, this collaboration was key to the establishment of the Myrtle Beach CSG in 2014.
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