The Story of a Welcome Group in Surrey, BC: “These volunteers were going above and beyond!”

In his role as Volunteer Coordinator at DIVERSEcity, Together Project’s partner in Surrey, British Columbia, Simar Thukral delivers the Welcome Group Program locally, and that means matching refugee newcomer families with volunteers. When an Afghan family of seven was referred to the program, Simar put together a four-person Welcome Group of former newcomers and Canadian-born volunteers to be matched with them.

“It’s always important for me to find volunteers who can support a family’s priorities after coming to British Columbia, and I’m glad that I was able to find that in this group,” he said.

As a former newcomer himself, Simar knows the importance of finding the right assistance for a newcomer family.

“The family was from Afghanistan, with five kids, and two parents who had a big language barrier. They had needs such as English practice, job search, social connections, and children’s extracurriculars,” he said. “These are common needs for each group. But what’s different in this group was that these volunteers were going above and beyond!”

Read more here.

Author: SurreyLIP