San Francisco-North Bay 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. The San Francisco-North Bay Chapter AMIGOS training is youth-led, experiential learning that prepares volunteers for their AMIGOS experience, builds a community of youth and families with shared values, and develops life-skills to help students succeed beyond AMIGOS. Training sessions are facilitated by the Training Team and include guest speakers from the community and the San Francisco-North Bay Chapter Board of Directors.

AMIGOS San Francisco-North Bay 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.

En la solicitud, los estudiantes deben seleccionar “Sí” indicando que tienen la intención de solicitar asistencia financiera. Los estudiantes deben seleccionar “Sí” a esta pregunta para que la Solicitud de Asistencia Financiera aparezca en su panel. Luego, al final de la solicitud, deben seleccionar “Solicito una exención”.

Los solicitantes que soliciten asistencia financiera pueden pedir una exención temporal de la cuota de inscripción no reembolsable $75. La exención es temporal, mientras la sección revisa la solicitud de ayuda financiera y determina una oferta de beca (si la hubiera). Si el voluntario y su familia aceptan la oferta para unirse a AMIGOS, deberán pagar la cuota de inscripción no reembolsable de $75.

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.