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.

Together Project looks forward to working with a new spring cohort of TD Welcome Group volunteers who will be matched with refugee newcomer families for six months of social and integration support. With the support from the TD Ready Commitment, Together Project has matched 14 TD Welcome Groups consisting of 96 TD volunteers since 2019. Based on our most recent survey conducted with government-assisted refugee participants:

-100% of households reported satisfaction with the match experience

-100% of households reported feeling less socially isolated

-100% of households reported feeling that their match has helped them make progress towards their most important integration priorities

-89% of household reported the formation of stronger social connections

-78% of households reported feeling more welcome in their communities.

Learn more about a recent match between a newcomer family from Mississauga and a TD Welcome Group at TD Stories.

Thank you to MakeWay for featuring Together Project’s work in this new article. ”

“Since its inception, Together Project has partnered with five settlement agencies and made more than 175 matches between 650 newcomers and 700 volunteers. 90% of volunteers report having learned more about refugee integration, and 80% of refugee newcomers report that their Welcome Group has helped them feel more connected to their communities, and resilient through their settlement journey in Canada. Pivoting to continue programming through the Covid-19 pandemic, Together Project was able to design a model of “remote social support.”