The Welcome Group Program: Accelerating refugee newcomer integration

Together Project and the Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Project invites you to the upcoming webinar: The Welcome Group Program: Accelerating refugee newcomer integration

Description:

Refugee newcomers face extraordinary barriers to integration upon their arrival to Canada. Most arrive not knowing anyone and face significant barriers in building new social connections, often resulting in social isolation, feelings of exclusion, and missed opportunities for employment and service provision. This was the challenge the Together Project set out to address by developing the Welcome Group Program.

This initiative enables groups of volunteers to engage in refugee integration by matching them with refugee newcomer households so they can provide meaningful social support tailored to the unique needs of each newcomer participant. The program aims to empower volunteers to empower newcomers in their integration journey.

Join this webinar to hear what the Together Project has learned about volunteer social support in the nearly six years of delivering, evaluating, and improving on the Welcome Group Program with partners across Canada.

You will also learn key considerations when promoting social connections for newcomer refugees and developing and managing impactful volunteer social support programs.

Presenters:

• Andrew Lusztyk: the programs lead and co-founder of Together Project. Before moving to Toronto, Andrew spent six years designing, implementing, and assessing community development initiatives across three continents. Since co-founding Together Project, he has been developing and directing its flagship Welcome Group Program, as well as working to measure and improve the initiative’s impact.
• Ahmed Barbour: the Volunteer Coordinator at Together Project, but before he became an official part of the team, he successfully completed two matches as a Welcome Group volunteer. With his professional background in business development and operations and his personal background as a refugee and newcomer, Ahmed has the compassion and vision to help the Together Project team manage multiple relationships with volunteers, refugees, and stakeholders. His past work is full of successful collaborations with global names in technology, and he brings his expertise to expand the reach and operations of Together Project.