Host organizations are responsible for administering training and other program components in the United States. This includes not only seminars, site visits, and round table discussions, but also cultural excursions and host families for program participants.

You and your host family might not even speak the same language, but that doesn't mean you won't understand each other! Participant's opportunity to live with an American host family is a very important aspect of the Community Connections program. American host families do not receive payment for their time or effort, working with the program on a completely voluntary basis out of a desire to learn more about other cultures, other people, and to help others understand Americans more closely; public diplomats in a very real sense of the word. Quite often, participants and family remain in touch for a long time, and even visit each other on occasion after the program has been completed.

Participants from Ekaterinburg's 'Elections, Media and Voter Awareness: National, Regional and Local Levels' group taking part in an Independence Day parade, July 4, 2006, in Burlington, Vermont.