Volunteer

As we have officially "Parked the CARR", we are no longer reaching out for additional volunteers. This website and this page will remain in place to thank our volunteers and to provide an example for other organizations to follow.

Since our inception in the fall of 2015, the many CARR volunteers have made a difference to the lives of people fleeing war and conflict. Along our on-going journey, we have learned, grown and been personally enriched as we share our time, talents and treasures.

The CARR has welcomed four refugee families into our community, the first in February 2016, the second in September 2016, the third in May 2018 and the fourth in July 2018. The first two families were government assisted (BVOR) refugee families, while the last two were privately sponsored families.

People in this community put their hands up in amazing numbers to help us make the new families feel welcome in their new home. We were so fortunate to have had this incredible pool of talent and experience to help us in this endeavour.  While we initially established separate teams to handle the various discrete jobs that needed doing, we later transitioned to setting up family support teams to handle all of the needs of each family. We realized that we needed to establish knowledge, trust and friendship among the family members and the volunteers who were assisting them to integrate, so smaller teams were ideal from that perspective. On each team we attempted to have people who were responsible for such functions as ESL instruction, financial mentoring, shopping assistance, health and safety, documentation, transportation, housing and clothing needs, children's education, job training, etc. In addition, the team members were encouraged to drop in for social time and just to be there for them whenever needed.

Previously we asked visitors to this site to let us know if they were interested in volunteering and whether they had an area of interest and expertise. Alternatively, we asked them to contact any of the members of the Executive for further information or just to discuss a possible future role.

The Former CARR Executive
Chair	Ann Munroe
Vice-Chair, Settlement Coordinator	Gordon Munroe *
Secretary, Volunteer Coordinator	Elsie Stresman *
Financial Management, Webmaster	Colin Stephenson *
Communications Coordinator	Jennifer Dickson
Fund-Raising Coordinator	Margo Bell
* Former Trustees of the CARR Trust Fund, which was closed effective November 30, 2021