New Association Looking for Volunteers to Help Newcomers in Huron County
by Bob Montgomery
The Huron Newcomer Support Association is looking for volunteers who would be interested in joining their group.
Spokesperson Halina Zaleski says their group was formed by volunteers when the Huron County Immigration Partnership hosted several meetings to address some of the questions people had about how they could help the people who were fleeing Ukraine after Russia invaded their country. Zaleski says it was clear they were going to need several volunteers to help them. So Zaleski says they're hosting a meeting on January 22nd at the municipal office at 57 Napier Street in Goderich to recruit more volunteers. They will be looking for two specific types of volunteers. They're looking for volunteers who can help with everything from housing, transportation, translation, getting to the right government offices for documents, etc. so essentially, people on the ground. Then she says they're also looking for volunteers for the steering group, which they'll be electing at their meeting on January 22nd.
The first Ukrainian family arrived in May 2022 and since then at least 85 more families have joined them. Zaleski says they started out helping Ukrainians but they want to help all newcomers generally.
There are a lot of different organizations anxious to help newcomers but one of the challenges is making connections with the appropriate organization depending on the needs of the newcomer. For someone new to Huron County making those connections can be very difficult.
Zaleski says when they first put the call out for volunteers they ended up with more volunteers than they needed but she says now that they have 85 Ukrainian families living in Huron County, they need more volunteers.
Their meeting will start at seven o'clock on January 22nd at the municipal office at 57 Napier Street in Goderich. Anyone looking for more information can contact her at 519-525-3572 or Local Immigration Partnership Manager Mark Nonkes at 519-524-0296 or they can email them at huronwelcome@gmail.com.
