Huron County's Newcomer Support Association is Growing
by Bob Montgomery
A steering committee member of the Huron County Newcomer Support Association says they started out as an organization to help newcomers from Ukraine adapt to life in Huron County.
Halina Zaleski says while initially their goal was to help newcomers from Ukraine, they decided they had to expand and form the Newcomer Association when they realized people from Ukraine were not the only people who needed support. She says the first thing they had to do was connect with every other organization they could find that provides services so they could refer people to the group that could help them. But there is a lot of help available and they wanted to avoid duplicating services.
Zaleski says they also have a lot to do themselves, like finding host families so the newcomers have a place to stay, finding long-term housing and transportation is a huge concern. She points out many people come from large cities in Ukraine where they have public transportation, so that's a problem in Huron County. She says their volunteer drivers have been amazing about taking people to Kitchener or London for things like medical appointments. Zaleski says another little bump in the road is that because the Ukrainians are here on three-year visas, they're expected to go back to Ukraine, so the Ukrainians found a teacher in Exeter who can teach the children Ukrainian so they won't be behind when they go back. Volunteer drivers drive the teacher up to Goderich every Saturday to teach the kids.
Zaleski says one of the biggest challenges for the newcomers right now is unpredictability as far as the availability of volunteers is concerned. She says there are lots of them but they don't always know when they'll be available. So right now they have to find more volunteers and connect with more of the other organizations that can provide some of the services they need. She says they're expecting a surge of newcomers in March and if that happens they'll definitely need more volunteers. Anyone that is interested in volunteering can email huronwelcome@gmail.com
