Core Team Member - Each refugee family will have a few core team members as their main points of contacts who will help with a wide variety of needs. You'll be the most directly involve din the family's life. You'll answer the questions you can and will bring one of the specialty volunteers when you see the family needs more specific support.
Driver - Most refugees are not able to drvie and it's one of the biggest problems they face. It takes time to learn our traffic laws, get a driver's license, and get a vehicle. These families need help getting to the grocery store, medical appointments, job interviews, etc.
English Volunteer - Learning English is a serious struggle for many of these families. You don't need to speak their language to be able to sit with them and help them practice learning English.
Specialty Volunteer Roles
School Age Tutor - Many children resettling in the US have a hard time catching up and navigating our education system. Individual tutoring helps them adjust
Cultural Orientation Volunteer -Learning the American culture and how to interact socially, things like personal space, tipping a waitress, etc.
Career Guidance Volunteer - assisting in the process for finding, applying, and interviewing for jobs
Financial Literacy Volunteer - Helping understand their finances, learning to budget, pay bills online, understand credit scores, etc.
Digital Literacy Volunteer - Only 8% of Afghaans have internet access, many refugees have little understanding of technology, help with learning things like emails, google, navigating the internet
Donation Collector - Government funding for refugees is limited, so most families will be living in poverty. Volunteers are needed to track down donations based on the needs identified
Donor - Donor volunteers will be in a group that donation collectors contact when items or funds are needed for one of these families
Expertise Consultant - a core team member may need to help a refugee family with something like applying for welfare benefits or getting specialized education assistance for their children and not know much about those topics. If you have special knowledge in an area that might be useful like technology, education resources, eSL support, welfare/DMV/other gov't processes and don't mind core team member contacting for assistance.
Thank you for your interest in supporting the refugee community. Completing this form doesn't obligate you to any specific time commitment. Someone will contact you to discuss the specific roles you are interested in and get more information about your schedule and availability.
