IRIS Cultural Companions Program is seeking volunteers!

The IRIS Cultural Companions (CC) Program is seeking volunteers to do weekly visits with individual clients and families in New Haven. Cultural Companions is a wellness program that pairs a refugee or immigrant adult with a volunteer for the purpose of building a friendship, through experiential learning focused on English practice and shared interests. Companions build rapport through visiting and doing activities together. CC volunteers must be committed to investing in relationships with people who may be struggling with challenges related to mental health, financial stress, and cultural adjustment. Two friends or family members can pair up to serve together as CC volunteers with a refugee family. Companions commit to meeting for 2-3 hours per week for 3-6 months. The goals of the program are to reduce isolation and foster community navigation and integration.

Details:

❖ Hours per week needed: 2-3 hours per week, for a minimum of three months ❖ Schedule: Flexible ❖ Requirements: Creativity, flexibility, and patience; cultural humility and curiosity to learn and share culture with your companion; empathy and sensitivity with regard to difficulties refugee and immigrant companions may be facing, with an orientation towards supporting their resilience. ❖ Preferred qualification: Previous experience communicating with (and preferably tutoring) people with limited English ❖ Duties: The volunteer is paired with an immigrant or refugee adult of the same gender expression for the purpose of English practice and to be “cultural companions” focused on building a friendship. Volunteers will most importantly serve as friends but also as English learning partners. Volunteers will likely be paired with companions who speak very little English and will need to build rapport through doing activities together, while engaging in experiential learning. ❖ Support: IRIS will provide training and a list of suggested activities with opportunities for experiential learning.❖ Expectations: CC volunteers will do periodic check-ins with IRIS by phone or email and attend a 1-hour monthly Zoom meeting, facilitated by the IRIS CC Allies Team*. These monthly meetings foster a community of support, where participants collaborate to address challenges that arise in cultural companionships and share helpful practices, with the goal of deepening and strengthening CC relationships.

If interested, click HERE to do the general IRIS volunteer application. AND fill out this program-specific Cultural Companions Application.

If you have any questions, please email Ashley Makar, amakar@irisct.org