ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Our Welcome Volunteer Programme (previously called “Welcome Groups”) pairs Montrealers with newly arrived refugee claimant families during their first months in Montreal. Welcome volunteers provide valuable support to newcomers, helping them become familiar with the resources and services available in their new neighbourhoods. Working from an advocacy perspective, these volunteers will also advocate on their behalf to obtain services when needed. Most importantly, they welcome newly arrived families to Montreal and let them know that support is available if they need it. 

“When I was referred to your organization, I had many needs, I was very stressed, and I didn’t want to leave my house. I was paired with a volunteer who was very open and who quickly made me feel at ease. She helped me find a lawyer and to make a medical appointment. She truly was an enormous help.”
— Refugee claimant supported by a Welcome Volunteer


HOW IT WORKS

Once refugee claimant families are settled into their new homes and have received their delivery of furniture and household items from Welcome Collective, they have the option to participate in our Welcome Volunteer Programme. We pair these families with Welcome volunteers based on the common language that they speak and any other commonalities they share. 

Welcome volunteers receive training and are tasked with calling the family each week to see what questions the family has and what challenges they are experiencing. Volunteers answer the questions that they can and research answers to any other questions. For more complex issues, volunteers can consult with a Welcome Collective social worker who will follow-up.

Volunteers typically call the family once a week until most questions and worries are addressed, and stay in touch with the family for at least 2 to 3 months.


TRAINING & COMMITMENT

The Welcome Volunteer Programme takes place over 3-month cycles, and we ask volunteers to commit to 2 of these cycles (for a total commitment of 6 months). The programme includes 3 initial training sessions of 2-3 hours each: an introductory training, an anti-oppression training, and the official family-volunteer pairing session. It is mandatory that Welcome Volunteers participate in these training sessions. 

Training dates for the cycle beginning in March 2025:

  1. Thursday March 20th, 5:30 PM-8 PM (2.5 hours) in person at our warehouse in Ahuntsic!
    Learn about the reality and needs of refugee claimants and your role as a volunteer, plus go through case exercises

  2. Thursday March 27th, 5:30 PM-8:30 PM (3 hours) online (Zoom)
    Anti-oppression training

  3. Thursday April 3rd, 5:30 PM-6:30 PM (1 hour) in person at our warehouse in Ahuntsic!
    Official pairing with the families and getting started!

After volunteers are paired with newcomer families, Welcome Collective will conduct weekly check-in meetings (on Zoom) during which volunteers can share their experiences with their fellow volunteers and ask questions to the Welcome Collective coordinator. It is not mandatory to attend every meeting, but it is expected that volunteers will attend many of them. 

Overall, the time commitment to be a Welcome volunteer is a minimum of 2-4 hours per week, for a minimum duration of 6 months (2 cycles of 3 months each). This volunteer programme is conducted entirely remotely, though volunteers may choose to meet the family with whom they are paired in person if the volunteer and the family would like to do so.


ABOUT THE VOLUNTEERS

The most important qualifications to be a Welcome volunteer are your empathy and solidarity, as well as a friendly and welcoming attitude! Other requirements include:

  • Availability for 3 initial training sessions 

  • Commitment to participate in the programme for 2-4 hours per week for two 3-month cycles (total of 6 months)

  • Ability to communicate effectively by telephone in French or English. We also welcome volunteers who can also communicate in one of the following languages: Spanish (top priority!), Arabic, Creole (Haiti), Portuguese

Everybody is welcome to apply to become a Welcome volunteer, whether you were born in Montreal or elsewhere in the world, whether you’ve lived here for 30 years or just a few years.

We encourage former and current refugee claimants to apply as well; we just require that you have lived in Montreal for at least 2 years before applying to become a Welcome volunteer. (Refugee claimants who arrived more recently can always volunteer in other ways; see our Volunteer page for more information!)


HOW TO APPLY

To become a Welcome Volunteer, fill out the application form with your statement of motivation. We will then contact you to confirm your interest and invite you to a 15 minute phone interview with one of our team members. Once we confirm your availability and qualifications, we’ll register you in the programme! 

Note that we have various needs in terms of languages spoken at different times of the year, depending on where refugee claimant families are arriving from. It may be that you would be an excellent Welcome volunteer, but we don’t have any spaces in the programme for your language skills. In this case, we will invite you to our waiting list and will contact you as our needs change! 

FAQ: Welcome Volunteers

  • All families we help are refugee claimants who have very recently arrived in Canada and belong to one of the following categories:

    1. single parents

    2. pregnant women

    3. large families with three or more children

    4. single people living with a disability or reduced mobility due to age or health.

    The refugee claimant families that we work with are referred to us by designated social workers who have assessed the families’ situations. When we start working with the refugee claimant families, they have recently moved out of the shelters in Montréal that house families when they first arrive in Canada, and have just found an apartment where they can live. All of the families are in the process of applying for their refugee status in Canada.

  • Welcome volunteers are initially paired with one family, and can choose to be paired with additional families as their schedule allows. Volunteers are responsible for getting in contact with the family, assessing their needs and checking in frequently with them.

    Volunteers are responsible for:

    • Finding out the needs and issues the family has;

    • Finding out any urgent questions the family has on a range of issues and help find answers (e.g. how to access food banks, how to register for French classes, etc)

    • Determining which essential furniture/household items they are missing in their new home and providing advice on how to get what they need;

    • Determining which other services may be required;

    • Providing other essential information the family may need to successfully settle in Montreal (e.g. how to stay warm in Montreal winters).

    Welcome volunteers have access to our online resource centre for refugee claimants, The Welcome Guide, and the continuous support of our team to succeed in their important mission!

    Welcome volunteers can also hold social events for refugee claimants, such as a picnic or a holiday meal, but are mostly in contact with the families by telephone.

  • Welcome Collective cannot accept donations earmarked for a specific family. All donations to Welcome Collective are legally required to go toward the costs of programming, operations, and special events that are intended to benefit all of the refugee claimant families we serve.

    Part of our mission is to ensure that refugee claimants who are arriving in Montreal are as self-sufficient as possible. For these reasons, we spend our energy on orienting them towards valuable, free resources. While some Welcome Groups help source small items for families, this is not a requirement and is not expected by either the families or Welcome Collective.

  • The Welcome Collective team is here to support our volunteers! Welcome Volunteers can exchange with their fellow volunteers and their Welcome Volunteer Programme coordinator at weekly check-in meetings (on Zoom). These meetings offer the opportunity to ask questions and learn from other volunteers’ challenges and successes.

    Welcome volunteers are responsible for letting their Welcome Volunteer Programme coordinator know if there are major issues that the family has encountered. If complex issues arise, a Welcome Collective social worker can step in to assist, or for issues that are beyond our capacity to resolve, we will do our best to refer the family to a social service that can help them.

  • While helping a newly arrived refugee claimant family settle into their new home can be a rewarding and meaningful experience, it can also be emotionally challenging. The refugee claim process takes many years, and the family may experience significant barriers (such as language, education, finances, or trauma from previous experiences) to becoming self-sufficient and settled in their new homes.

    This is why we emphasise to Welcome volunteers that their role is not to solve every issue that the family will encounter. Rather, the goal is to make sure that the family has a basic orientation of the city’s resources and social services and the tools to access them. Having a friendly face and a listening ear is also a major asset to new families who are coming to a country where they may have few other connections, community or resources.

  • Yes. Many of the families that we work with are free during the week and on weekends, so being available only at nights is not a problem! Most work will be remote (on the phone, or by video calls).