I hope everyone had a great holiday season! We had a great time here at VIRCS, with our Winter Children's Celebration, looking back on some great moments, and planning for the future. There are some exciting things happening at VIRCS this year, so read on!
- VIRCS Newsletter Launch
- Children's Winter Celebration was a huge success: Thank you volunteers!
- Youth Fundraising Campaign a success: over $5,000 raised in 6 weeks!
- Be-Friends and Family Friendship Update: buddies needed
- New Sparks program for elementary-aged children begins
- New Documentary-making workshops at VIRCS with the MEEP team
- Update: I-Plan-It program for young adults
Thanks to the VIRCS Volunteer Marketing Team, we are happy to announce our new newsletter!
Every month, this newsletter will be available at VIRCS and on-line, providing information about all of the events and weekly activities happening at VIRCS. It will also include some information about upcoming and past events, and a new staff biography each month.
To see a copy in .jpg format now, click here.
To get a copy in .pdf format, contact me.
Copies are also available to everyone at the VIRCS front desk.
Children's Winter Celebration a Success!
Thanks to all of our great volunteers for helping with this year's Children's Winter Celebration!
This year, we had face painting, decoration making, origami, storyrtelling, dancing, and more! Also, I would like to send a special thanks to the Central Baptist Church for donating their great space to us again this year.
Thank you everyone for your support!
Youth Fundraising Campaign a success: over $5,000 raised in 6 weeks!
Thank you to all of those who donated to our Giving Tree for Enable. We raised over $5000 before the end of December 2009!
Because of this support, we are able to continue running Homework Clubs, One-on-one Tutoring, Youth Activity Nights, and Sparks services. Our youth program, Enable, is not out of danger yet, and is still in need of funds to run our annual summer leadership camp, Strides.
If you would still like to make a donation, click here!
Be-Friends and Family Friendship Update: buddies needed
If you would like to make a new friend, or just help someone get to know the city, consider signing up for our fun Be Friends or Family Friendship Programs. In each, we will match you up with someone who is new to the city, new to Canada, and shares some of your interest in hiking, movies, sports, or whatever it is you like to do.
Be-Friends is for people aged 19-30 years, and Family Friendship is for parents of all ages.
To sign up, please contact Aviva, Letitia, or me!
New Sparks program for elementary-aged children begins
Sparks is a fun afternoon for elementary school-aged children focusing on language, learning, and fun!
Sparks has begun for the year, and this year VIRCS is proud to be going to George Jay Elementary School for the event every Wednesday, from 2:30pm to 4:30pm.
If you know newcomers with little ones, this is a great safe space to meet other children, learn English, and make friends.
For more information, contact Negin or Danny.
New Documentary-making workshops at VIRCS with the MEEP team
Love making films and documentaries? Help newcomers make some environmentally-themed trailers to be shown in local theatres during our Trailer Trash project!
Over the next four weeks, MediaNet and VIRCS will be helping teams of newcomers from around the world script, shoot, and edit their own short documentaries on environmental awareness and sustainable living from a multicultural perspective.
If you'd like to help out, contact Rosalyn to learn more.
Update: I-Plan-It program for young adults
I-Plan-It is going strong! Our combination of employment, life skills, language learning, and one-on-one counseling service for newcomers, aged 15-25, has been extremely popular, nad has already helped dozens of people find first apartments, start bank accounts, get first jobs, and more.
For the new year, we are still searching for some positive male role models to work with newcomer youth aged 15-25, as part of our social night on Thursday evenings, and life skills workshops on Saturdays.
For more information, contact me!
