In this episode, two dedicated volunteers, Mohammed & Sara, share stories and insights on welcoming newcomers to Mississauga. Special thanks to the Pendle Fund Community Foundation of Mississauga for supporting the Mississauga Welcome Group Program! Listen on Spotify, ApplePodcasts or GooglePodcasts.

In Spring 2021, Together Project hosted three focus groups with 20 newcomers about our communications and how to best center newcomer voices within them. Participants were recruited from within our Welcome Group matches, as well as from outside the program. We appreciate all the feedback they provided and would like to share some of the main takeaways and suggestions. 

Together Project and the Crossroads Clinic, at Women’s College Hospital, are seeking Together Project volunteers to assist newcomer refugees in booking COVID-19 vaccination appointments. Newcomer refugees urgently need help to access COVID vaccine appointments, given the complexity of navigating booking systems and the barriers many newcomers face, such as digital constraints (limited internet/technology access, less familiar with websites), language barriers, lacking OHIP, etc. Trained Vaccine Access volunteers can make a potentially life-saving difference by helping bridge these gaps. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/2ROv5LS

Together Project is launching the Welcome Groups for Newcomer Parents and Young Learners program. This initiative will focus specifically on refugee newcomer families with school-age children in Toronto and Peel regions, and provide matched volunteers with training, resources, and guidance around addressing newcomer families’ unique challenges with regards to their children’s education. The program will produce a guide that will provide an in-depth overview of the different challenge areas refugee newcomer parents face engaging in their children’s education. The guidebook will offer tools, resources, and services that will enable volunteers and newcomers to work together to address these challenges. This targeted training will help Welcome Group volunteers more effectively support newcomer families with a safe return to schools as part of pandemic recovery.

Seeking information about newcomer vaccine access in the GTA? Please see Together Project’s April volunteer newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/togeth…/dec-volunteernewsletter-7822400

In this episode, Joudy discusses her experience coming to Canada as a young newcomer, continuing university and overcoming social isolation during the pandemic with the help of Together Project volunteers.

Listen on Spotify, ApplePodcasts or GooglePodcasts.