An Au Pair-ent Match
Au Pair Ageficies
co
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR
'8 STAFF WRITER
°- Although legislative changes
have allowed for the develop-
ment of more au pair agencies,
the following is the current list
of providers:
American Heritage
Association
(Au Pair Intercultural)
Fla-via Hall
P.O. Box 147
1VIarylhurst, OR 97036
(503) 635-3702
American Institute for
Foreign Study
(Au Pair in America.)
102 Greenwich Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06830
(203) 869-9090
American Scandinavian
Student Exchange (ASSE)
(eurAuPair)
250 North Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
(714) 494-4100
AYUSA International
(Au Pair Care)
One Post Street,• Suite 700
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 434-8788
Au pair Nadine Ried plays with Joel Kerwin and "Beauty," the Kerwin family pet, as Sue Kerwin looks on.
While
convenience and
culture drive the
trend toward
European
in-home
child care,
the results are
mixed for
the families
with au pairs.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR
STAFF WRITER
n the past, finding reliable in-
home child care was a major
headache for Susan Kerwin.
As president of a personal
training business, TheraFit Net-
work of West Bloomfield, Ms.
Kerwin would sift through ap-
plicants gleaned from ads in lo-
cal newspapers. Then she would
squeeze whatever time she could
out of a hectic family-work cal-
endar filled with clients and car-
pools to interview prospects.
Meanwhile, lag time between
caretakers could be as long as a
month.
"My fear is that they would
turn out to be terrible, and
I would have to start the
whole process all over again "
she said.
Now the Kerwins, like thou-
sands of other families in the
United States, are taking ad-
vantage of a service that provides
au pairs from European coun-
tries. In late April, they welcomed
20-year-old Nadine Ried from
Germany into their home.
Since 1986 more than 50,000
au pairs (French for "on par")
have come to work in American
homes in a program that is
billed as a cultural exchange. Lo-
cal providers say they have seen
a slight increase in the number
of families searching for such
care.
The program, under the aus-
pices of the United States Infor-
mation Agency, is run by eight
nonprofit agencies whose main
mission is to match families with
young, mostly female Europeans.
Attracted by ads in glossy
magazines aimed at co-eds, the
au pairs apply at field offices in
NATO countries. After being
screened and interviewed, the
au pair posts $500 in good-faith
money and is marked as a can-
didate for placement in the
American main office. The au
pairs then receive J-1 visas
which enable them to work and
stay in America for up to 13
months.
Families also apply, at region-
al offices in the United States. Af-
ter meeting with regional
representatives who explain the
program, the families put up an
agency fee of about $4,000. In ad-
dition to round-trip air fare, the
fee supplies the funding for the
operation of the field offices in Eu-
rope and America.
Once in the family home, the
au pair is expected to provide 45
hours a week of regular in-home
child care and light housekeep-
ing. In exchange, the family is re-
quired to provide a private room,
board, a small weekly stipend
and tuition to a local college, uni-
versity or adult-education pro-
gram.
The total cost of the program
is about $10,500, not including
board. Local institutional day
care providers charge between
$6,100 and $11,000 for 50 weeks
of service; going rates for in-home
care start at about $13,000,
which may or may not include
room and board.
"This is a good alternative to
babysitters who come and go and
day care," said Karen Simon, a
local child-care coordinator for
Educational Foundation for
Foreign Study
(EF Aufair)
One MemorlOIDrive
Cambridget,VA 02142
(617) 225-3838
World Learning Inc.
(Au Pair Homestay)
1015 15th street, N.W.
Suite 1100
Washington, D.C. 20005
(202) 408-5380
Interexchange Au Pair
161 Sixth Avenue #902
New York, NY 10013
(212) 9240446
Exploring Cultural and
Educational Learning/
Au Pair Registry
(Au Pair Program USA)
2098 Oak Haven Place
Sandy, Utah 84093
(801) 9445900
AU PAIR-ENT page 54