Ngozi (not her real name) is a refugee claimant single mother with three children who arrived in Canada about one year ago. She is in a Welcome Group match with five women volunteers for six months. Ngozi shares her thoughts on remote social support with Together Project Co-Director, Anna Hill. Read more.

“I help with Arabic translation between volunteers and newcomers. At the beginning I was in almost every WhatsApp chat translating. It gave me a lot of hope that I am doing something useful. I never knew my language could provide so much help in Canada.” – Khadije. Read more here.

Together Project has launched a podcast! We will be interviewing volunteers in our Welcome Group program to share their experiences being matched with refugee newcomers in Toronto and Mississauga. Listen to our first episode now featuring Amy, Eunice, Melissa and Byra. Special thanks to Rahwa for allowing the volunteers to share their stories. Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/2YNjQ7b or Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fiXjVE

Together Project uses the term “vulnerable newcomers” to refer to the government-assisted refugees and refugee claimants we serve. These newcomers are considered to be more “vulnerable” than other newcomers because they typically encounter more barriers when trying to rebuild their lives in Canada. Welcome Group volunteers can help by providing six months of social support to newcomers to assist with their integration priorities such as language learning, career navigation or access to education. Learn how you can enhance newcomer resilience and mitigate social isolation by offering remote social support at https://togetherproject.ca/matching/#volunteer

We would like to thank TechSoup Canada for publishing our guest blog post about remote social support, and Charity Village for reposting it. This piece explains the changes we have made at Together Project to support newcomer refugees through online volunteering during the pandemic. “We have been learning together with our program participants and while there have been hurdles to overcome, there have also been many new opportunities for growth for our initiative.” Join our Co-Directors for a Tech Soup webinar on July 29th webinar to learn more about the impact of remote social support. Register here.
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2523399384103612429

Together Project’s Welcome Group Program trains community volunteers to help refugee households address specific integration challenges as the basis for meaningful social connection. Specifically, we build social bridges between newcomers and Canadians to help increase newcomer social capital, decrease social isolation, and build more welcoming communities. Together Project is currently engaged in two studies on the impact of our Welcome Group Program and how social bridges can: 1) reduce prejudice and increase understanding of newcomers and 2) increase the social capital of government-assisted refugees. Learn more about how you can Welcome, Connect, and Empower refugee newcomers to create a shared sense of Belonging. Sign up to volunteer at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvOJdxvFLSr6sV-4Mj0tKvo29dRsR9J7GVxGRxCbVN7tdxLw/viewform