I&R Training Draws Big Crowd! (Dec 2005 – Jan 2006)

In our quest to promote and establish 411 as a leading resource in coordinating information and referral training in Vancouver, we invite community agencies and their volunteers to attend our annual training. This fall we were very fortunate to have a wide representation from agencies throughout the Lower Mainland. We played host to volunteers who are interested in setting up information and referral services in their community centres. These included the Confederation Seniors Centre, Edmonds Seniors Centre, the Burnaby Seniors Outreach Program, and the Ladner Seniors Centre.

Connecting people to others who provide similar information and referral service creates a great network, and the sharing of ideas. Here is what one participant wrote: “Thanks for inviting me for this series. I very much enjoyed them and would love to be invited again next fall. Thanks as well for introducing me to the other two women from Burnaby, with whom I chatted before the seminar. It seems they want to start offering these services at two seniors centres, whereas I imagine offering them through Burnaby Seniors Outreach to people who are unable to make it to the centres.”

We also had volunteers attend the training series from the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Multicultural Family Centre, Pacific Association of First Nations Women, Marpole Place, Cerebral Palsy Association of BC, the Shri Guru Ravi Dass Community Centre, and the Sikh Resource Centre.

Our seven-week training schedule for the Information and Referral and Seniors Outreach Counsellors has now been completed for this fall. We were successful in attracting great facilitators that included a representative from Seniors Housing Information Program, Social Development Canada, BC Coalition of People with Disabilities, Legal Services Society, Vancouver Coastal Health, the Coalition to Eliminate the Abuse of Seniors, and the BC Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance. We’ll continue to host training sessions next year, and look forward to meeting new people.

~Joanne Van Snellenberg