San Francisco Bay Area Chapter

With over 60 years of experience preparing young people for travel and service abroad, AMIGOS training offers unparalleled global youth leadership development. Pre-departure training equips volunteers with the critical thinking, communication skills, and technical knowledge they need to make a meaningful impact across cultures while staying healthy and safe. San Francisco Bay Area Chapter training activities utilize the AMIGOS Core Curriculum and are youth-led, experiential learning opportunities that prepare volunteers for their in-country experience, build a community of youth and families with shared values, and develop life skills to help students succeed beyond AMIGOS. Training sessions are facilitated by the SF Bay Area Chapter’s Training Team and members of the Chapter’s Board of Directors.

AMIGOS San Francisco Bay Area Chapter provides chapter discounts, offers financial assistance, and covers local program costs through fundraising activities. The chapter engages in a significant fundraising campaign to help support families, and especially seeks to provide the AMIGOS experience to all volunteers without regard to family financial circumstances.

The fundraising proceeds are pooled between all chapter families as a group through a letter writing campaign. Thus, the targeted fundraising amount will vary by year, depending on the number of volunteers and the needed amount of financial assistance. All volunteers are required to fully take part in fundraising, which is an important component of the pre-summer training program. The chapter provides significant support to students and families throughout the fundraising process.

It is our mission to support every student that wants to participate in AMIGOS, regardless of family income. We offer a range of financial assistance packages on a case-by-case basis and encourage you to apply and work with us to find a price point that works best for your family.

Example 1: If you are a family that makes $40,000 per year and choose the 3-week Costa Rica project, you can expect to pay around 16% of the program fee or ~$844 (not including airfare).

Example 2: If you are a family that makes $80,000 per year and choose the 3-week Panama project, you can expect to pay around 32% of the program fee or ~$1,560 (not including airfare).

Example 3: If you are a family that makes $125,000 per year and choose the 6-week Paraguay project, you can expect to pay around 60% of the program fee or ~$2,325 (not including airfare).

While this income scale represents a potential range for family fee, each financial assistance application is reviewed for special circumstances that may not be represented in family income. Our goal is to make the AMIGOS program as accessible as possible.

Financial assistance (FA) applications should be completed on the student’s dashboard. On the application, students should select “Yes” that they intend to apply for financial assistance. Students must select “Yes” on this question for the Financial Assistance Form to appear on their dashboard. Students who choose to apply for FA will not be able to submit their application or pay their application fee until the FA form and supporting documentation (i.e., most recent copy of family’s 1040) has been uploaded.

Families can expect to hear about their financial assistance award after they have attended an interview day, along with their acceptance into the program. Families can be confident that our sliding scale is accurate to what they will be offered, and we are happy to talk to any families that have questions before then.