ABOUT
Our
mission
WR Grassroots Response to the Ukrainian Crisis
connects volunteers and housing options to Ukrainians in Canada affected by the war.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
COMING SOON
Partnership Coordinator: Part-time (coming soon)
Event Coordinator: Part-time (coming soon)
Employment Coordinator: Part-time (coming soon)
Intake Coordinator: Part-time (coming soon)
Who We Are
We are your next-door neighbours, your coworkers, your sisters and brothers, the person you go to church with, or sit beside at your neighbourhood association meetings.
Our group started with a conversation and then a few days later a meeting with a dozen people and then 5 days later with a community event with over 100, followed by community events for 6 weeks in a row with over 100 people at each.
During these meetings, our community came together and started mobilizing. We didn't set rules, we did not create an executive, we left it up to those attending to imagine and start organizing around the issues we were seeing.
One year later we have over 500 volunteers, 145 hosts, helped welcome over 500 Ukrainian newcomers, created numerous baskets of food and hygiene items, and helped start up 2 facilities that offer housing for Ukrainians. Recently, we have started expanding our geographic reach to include Guelph, Perth, Oxford, and Bruce.
We are still completely volunteer-led, we still have no executive, and we still allow our volunteers to imagine and organize around the issues they see.
What We Do
We help Ukrainians connect with hosts in and around Waterloo Region. We then help to connect these hosts and Ukrainian newcomers with local resources and volunteers.
We do not advertise to Ukrainians overseas but somehow they find us. They find us by word of mouth, on Facebook, or by friends and family.
They complete our intake application and let us know that they need help with housing or other support.
We do our best to connect them with hosts within our network and then connect these hosts and Ukrainians with volunteers that can help with translation, transportation, food, social support, employment... and many more areas.
We do our best to work in partnership with already existing organizations and groups and are always looking for more.
Please reach out to us if you feel that there is an opportunity to work together. We believe strongly in collaborating and sharing resources. We have many dedicated volunteers that want to do more, we could really use additional partners that want to help increase the health of the Ukrainian newcomers as well as our hosts.
Teams
Ukrainian Intake Team
This team monitors all of the applications we receive each day and sends a welcome email. For those people who respond, have a CUAET Visa, and also have an idea of when they are coming to our area, we then continue with their application by helping them connect with housing as a first step.
Ukrainian Connect Team
This team does its best by staying connected with as many of the newly arrived Ukrainian families as possible. We not only direct them to our local settlement agencies but the vast number of other resources within our Region. You can find out more about these in our online Resource Guide on either the Housing page or the Ukrainian Support page. When the need arrives we also connect Ukrainians with local volunteers that have offered to help with transportation, translation, meals, donations, social support, advocacy, and much more.
Hosting Intake Team
This team connects with people who have an interest in learning more about becoming a host (offering space in their home). We answer their questions, we can connect them with other hosts, and we provide documents and resources to get your ready to host a family.
Hosting Check-in Team
This team connects with our hosts, helps to answer questions, guides them to local resources, as well as connects them with volunteers that want to help them support a Ukrainian guest or family.
Employment Team
We have been hearing for the past year how hard it is for Ukrainians to find work even when they have sought the help of Ontario settlement services.
We have decided to add an extra team to offer additional support to the Ukrainians who have completed our intake application.
Volunteer Team
PARTNERS.
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