Emergencies

The health, safety and welfare of participants is the primary concern of InterExchange and the U.S. Department of State. Do not place participants in positions that can endanger their well-being or adversely affect their impressions of the U.S. or American people.

If your camp experiences an emergency involving one of our participants (e.g., accident, illness, mental, nervous disorder or fatality), call InterExchange immediately. We will provide guidance to help you manage the situation. If the emergency occurs after normal office hours (9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday-Friday) or on a weekend or holiday, you can contact a member of the InterExchange Camp USA staff at our 24-hour emergency support number: 1.800.597.1722 and follow the directions or call 917.741.5057.

Emergency room visits can be very expensive. All participants who visit the ER but are not admitted as an emergency will be charged a $250 deductible. Please advise participants to visit a doctor or urgent care first and only visit the ER if it is an actual emergency.

Severe Weather Instructions

In case of emergencies (e.g., hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, fires, terrorist attacks), you must advise participants to follow your guidance and/or that of local authorities if the guidance is different from InterExchange guidance.

The most important aspects of promoting safety are communication, preparedness and coordination. Make sure you have an emergency contingency plan and make your plan known to participants as part of their training and orientation. Timely communication with InterExchange throughout an emergency event is necessary and a requirement of hosting participants. Please always respond to InterExchange’s inquiries about the safety of participants as soon as reasonably possible.

Camps must issue emergency instructions to participants to prepare them in case of emergencies.

You must make participants aware of emergency and evacuation procedures issued by government authorities. Please also encourage compliance.