The Welcome Group Program creates newcomer social connections, supports newcomer integration priorities, and helps build more welcoming communities in Canada.
Thanks for your interest in volunteering with Together Project!
The Welcome Group Program matches “Welcome Groups” of volunteers with refugee newcomer families for social support and assistance with settlement and integration.
Over 3-6 months, volunteers will work together as a group to address the priorities identified by their matched household; in this way both newcomers and volunteers have an opportunity to get to know each other over time.
As a volunteer, you can help newcomers with:
We’re currently seeking Welcome Group volunteers to provide social support for refugee newcomers in Mississauga, Moncton, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.
You can sign up as an individual volunteer, or as a Welcome Group of 3-5 people.
We try to match groups with newcomers based on things like availability, skills, location, shared interests, and family composition. We like to think there’s a match for every kind of Welcome Group.
We recommend a weekly in-person or online interaction between Welcome Groups and matched newcomer families. Volunteers in a group can take turns as it suits their availability, and focus on areas of support they’re interested in; most volunteers dedicate 3-4 hours a month to their match.
Volunteers are supported by training and guidance from our staff, and will have access to interpretation/translation assistance. You can sign up as an individual, or with friends, colleagues, or family members.
You don’t need any kind of professional experience – we’re looking for applicants who are organized, sociable, and committed to helping welcome newcomers to their community.
Together Project’s Welcome Group Program matches groups of 3-5 people with recently-arrived refugees. We train our Welcome Group volunteers and provide resources for them to effectively support refugee newcomers.
The fastest way to get started is to form a Welcome Group with coworkers, friends, or family members.
We believe that groups of volunteers can help newcomers develop social connections as they integrate into their new communities.
Each Welcome Group will designate one Team Lead to liaise with Together Project staff. The Welcome Group Lead also helps the group organize their interactions with the newcomer family.
We suggest forming a group with friends, family, coworkers, or members of your community. It’s important that your group have an open and honest line of communication with one another in order to delineate roles and responsibilities and to play to your strengths as individuals and as a team.
To join or form a new Welcome Group, click here to fill out our volunteer registration form. If you do not have a full Welcome Group of 3-5 volunteers, we will endeavour to introduce you to other volunteers to form a group.
Once we receive your volunteer registration form, we will schedule a call to onboard you or your group. We will ask you to review our Letter of Understanding, apply for a vulnerable sector check, and to attend an online volunteer orientation session.
You will be asked to sign a Letter of Understanding (LOU) that outlines the expectations and conduct for Welcome Group volunteers.
Together Project will match your group with a newcomer family, taking into consideration the size of the family and their location and unique needs. We make our matches based on shared interests, newcomer needs, volunteer experience, skills, and more.
Together Project staff and volunteers will arrange for an online introduction to your matched family. At this first meeting, we ensure that everyone has the same expectations. We will provide guidance for communication, arrange for a language interpreter, and provide other support as necessary.
Here are some common areas of support: practicing conversational English skills; navigating services like healthcare; finding extracurricular activities for youth, and socializing and learning about Canada.
We will check in on your Welcome Group and newcomer family on a regular basis to see how you are progressing.
In our monthly Volunteer Resources Newsletter, you will receive information about upcoming community events and newcomer skills development programs that you may want to share with the newcomers with whom you are matched.
We will also invite Welcome Groups and newcomers to share their experience to inform our research efforts.
For more information about how to get started, please contact ahmed@togetherproject.ca.
We recommend that every month, volunteers dedicate 3-4 hours to their match. Your individual time commitment is flexible, as the responsibility is shared among group members. Welcome Group members can divide activities according to their availability and interests.
We recommend a weekly one-hour interaction between Welcome Groups and newcomer families. These interactions can take place online or in-person, when possible.
We are currently matching Welcome Groups with refugee newcomer families in Toronto, Mississauga, and Ottawa. Here are three ways to start volunteering with Together Project:
If you would like to sign up to volunteer, please use this form. You can expect to hear from a Together Project staff member within 1-2 weeks.
If you speak and write in another language, such as Arabic, Farsi, French, Dari, Kurdish, Pashto, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, or Tigrinya, you can register to be a Cultural Ambassador to provide linguistic and cultural interpretation between refugee newcomers and Welcome Groups. You can volunteer to be both a Cultural Ambassador and a member of a Welcome Group. To sign up, please use this form.
When you sign up as an individual volunteer, we can connect you with other volunteers to form a Welcome Group. Please bear in mind that this does take more time as we carefully select volunteers based on skills and newcomer priorities.
We are currently delivering our Welcome Group Program in Toronto, Mississauga, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Moncton.
We believe that groups of volunteers can help newcomers develop social connections as they integrate into their new communities.
Each Welcome Group will designate one Team Lead to liaise with Together Project staff. The Welcome Group Lead also helps the group organize their interactions with the newcomer family.
We suggest forming a group with friends, family, coworkers, or members of your community. It’s important that your group have an open and honest line of communication with one another in order to delineate roles and responsibilities and to play to your strengths as individuals and as a team.
To join or form a new Welcome Group, click here to fill out our volunteer registration form. If you do not have a full Welcome Group of 3-5 volunteers, we will endeavour to introduce you to other volunteers to form a group.
Once we receive your volunteer registration form, we will schedule a call to onboard you or your group. We will ask you to review our Letter of Understanding, apply for a vulnerable sector check, and to attend an online volunteer orientation session.
You will be asked to sign a Letter of Understanding (LOU) that outlines the expectations and conduct for Welcome Group volunteers.
Together Project will match your group with a newcomer family, taking into consideration the size of the family and their location and unique needs. We make our matches based on shared interests, newcomer needs, volunteer experience, skills, and more.
Together Project staff and volunteers will arrange for an online introduction to your matched family. At this first meeting, we ensure that everyone has the same expectations. We will provide guidance for communication, arrange for a language interpreter, and provide other support as necessary.
Here are some common areas of support: practicing conversational English skills; navigating services like healthcare; finding extracurricular activities for youth, and socializing and learning about Canada.
We will check in on your Welcome Group and newcomer family on a regular basis to see how you are progressing.
In our monthly Volunteer Resources Newsletter, you will receive information about upcoming community events and newcomer skills development programs that you may want to share with the newcomers with whom you are matched.
We will also invite Welcome Groups and newcomers to share their experience to inform our research efforts.
For more information about how to get started, please contact ahmed@togetherproject.ca.
We recommend that every month, volunteers dedicate 3-4 hours to their match. Your individual time commitment is flexible, as the responsibility is shared among group members. Welcome Group members can divide activities according to their availability and interests.
We recommend a weekly one-hour interaction between Welcome Groups and newcomer families. These interactions can take place online or in-person, when possible.
We are currently matching Welcome Groups with refugee newcomer families in Toronto, Mississauga, and Ottawa. Here are three ways to start volunteering with Together Project:
If you would like to sign up to volunteer, please use this form. You can expect to hear from a Together Project staff member within 1-2 weeks.
If you speak and write in another language, such as Arabic, Farsi, French, Dari, Kurdish, Pashto, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, or Tigrinya, you can register to be a Cultural Ambassador to provide linguistic and cultural interpretation between refugee newcomers and Welcome Groups. You can volunteer to be both a Cultural Ambassador and a member of a Welcome Group. To sign up, please use this form.
