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#VMBehindTheScenes

TOGETHER WE CAN!  Partners across York Region join together to pave a path for  newcomers to enjoy and gain Canadian Experiences.

York Region Local Immigration Partnership is a team of organizations and people addressing the needs and identifying the gaps in services and opportunities for newcomers.

The York Region Newcomer Guide (January 2021) highlights the diversity celebrated across York Region. “More than 51,000 recent immigrants to Canada live in York Region (immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2011 and 2016) and 47% of all residents were born outside of Canada

People from all over the world live here. Our residents speak more than 120 different languages and come from 230 distinct ethnic origins.”

#WeSeeYou #TogetherWeCan

Our most recent discussion revolved around the various programs, services and initiatives that are currently available for newcomers here in York Region and how to further help newcomers gain Canadian experiences.  

The team identified a need to create friendly, relatable language that is easily understood by newcomers, how volunteerism can help root newcomers in their communities and gain Canadian experiences and how to best share this information to newcomers.

Opportunities presented included sharing best practices, cross promoting programs and services offered and making strong connections to further enhance newcomer supports.

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#VMBehindTheScenes

TOGETHER WE CAN!
Our Community Behind the Scenes
with Volunteer Canada and the Canadian Volunteer Centre Network.

Volunteer Markham is an active and engaged member of Volunteer Canada.  “Volunteer Canada works in partnership with the Canadian Volunteer Centre Network, which includes local volunteer centres and provincial associations of volunteer centres, to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. Beyond working in their own communities, volunteer centres recognize that they can have a greater impact as a larger network of more than 200 volunteer centres and provincial/territorial associations of volunteer centres. The Canadian Volunteer Centre Network strengthens volunteer centres, individually and collectively, to better promote volunteering, provide leadership on volunteer engagement and make connections in their own communities and across Canada. Establishing a common voice and building a cohesive knowledge base strengthens volunteering and increases the impact of volunteer centres locally, provincially and nationally. “

During our November meeting the Volunteer Centre’s shared resources, best practices, trends and concerns in their communities.  The main discussions revolved around youth engagement as well as vaccination policies and trends.  Opportunities for additional learnings and upcoming events and webinars were highlighted.  

Leaving this months meeting sparked the idea of exploring the creation of a National Youth Volunteer Network, creating a ‘micro volunteering’ campaign and updating our Events Calendar to share some valuable webinars to our members.  So stay tuned on how these may be part of our engagement work in the New Year.

We are all looking forward to celebrating across the nation International Volunteer Day (#IVD) on December 5th.

#Togetherwecan #BuildBackBetter #WeSeeYou #VMBehindTheScenes