VICTORIA IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE CENTRE SOCIETY
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Mission Statement
The Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society (VIRCS) is a non-profit organization that helps people who are new to Canada. Founded in November 1989 by three former refugees, VIRCS now helps over 3,000 clients annually.
About This Cause
Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society (VIRCS) is a charitable service agency that has helped newcomers (immigrants and refugees) settle in Greater Victoria, Canada for 29 years, with an active board of directors, a staff of 18 and over 250 annual volunteers. VIRCS successfully manages a wide range of services and programs, including:Settlement Services (1989-present) Since 1989, VIRCS has provided a wide array of Settlement-related services, supporting and empowering Newcomers in the face of the many challenges they face in a new country, Services are client-driven and confidential providing personalized holistic support and life planning for newcomer youth, adults, families, and seniors. Services include one-on-one and group activities and workshops.On average, the Settlement Services annually provide support to over 2500 Immigrants, protected persons, new Canadians and visible minorities from around the world every year. Enable (Child and Youth) Program (1989-present) The Enable program benefits over 200 newcomer children, youth, and young adults ages 6 – 25 each year. The mandate of the Enable program is to assist and support Newcomer Children and Youth settle into life in Canada. All program and activities are designed to assist Children and Youth with their academic, social, and emotional settlement needs in Canada.Volunteer Program (1989 – present) It is because of the rich set of skills and experiences that our volunteers bring to VIRCS we are enabled to deliver unique programs to our clients and their communities. VIRCS relies on many volunteers every day to ensure our programs run smoothly and efficiently. A volunteer coordinator interviews and assigns volunteers to projects based on their skills and the experience they hope to gain. The highest volunteer demographic are newcomer and Canadian born young adults between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. Volunteers contribute their wide variety of skills, including language skills for translation, computer skills, reception skills, and graphic design abilities, while gaining work experience and confidence speaking English. The program also provides volunteers and clients with a great opportunity to meet new friends. Volunteers fill positions in the reception, settlement, Home Tutoring Program, the Computer Literacy program, the Homework Club, ESL classroom, translation services, workshop facilitators, researchers, and website designers. Employment and Job Coaching Program (1989-April 2016) Over the past 23 years, VIRCS’s Employment Programs has offered a wide range of employment assistance services to support immigrants, refugees and visible minorities in finding and maintaining employment. ESL Programs (1990 – present) VIRCS has a long history of providing English-as-a-Second-Language programming to newcomers to Canada – refugees, permanent residents, new Canadian citizens, and sometimes even visitors to Canada. For the past 15 years, VIRCS has held classes on at least three days a week. Recently, there have been greater numbers of beginners than intermediate-level students, and we attribute this to the increased need to acquire employability skills among our clients. The small and friendly classroom size allows for maximum person-to-person interactions in what has always been a relaxing, non-institutional setting. Course content covers subjects and themes that are helpful to the students in their daily lives. We cover, for example, topics such as transportation, health, entertainment, relationships, community services, and business English. We provide the essential building blocks for the acquisition of the English language: grammar, vocabulary, reading, and listening comprehension.