The Year Ahead - Volunteer Settlement Clinic Pilot Project

Next year marks the beginning of the Volunteer Settlement Clinic Pilot. At VIRCS, our 3 Settlement Workers help over 1600 newcomers each year with housing, health, family issues, legal issues, translation, access to services, and immigration.

Over the past eight months, a small team of volunteers has been working closely with our Settlement Workers to develop training and guidelines for volunteers in order to provide more sustainable, one-on-one support.

In February, the pilot group will be ready to start helping, providing service to clients one-on-one with the help of trained staff. This pilot project will run until the end of April, when we will look at what we've learned, make any changes to better help, and begin training volunteers for the permanent clinic!

Starting in January, an update for this project will be posted here each month, including the intake dates for volunteers who want to help. Stay tuned!