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Katimavik seeking host families

Fort Langley group holds open house on Sunday, and is looking for billet families.
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Members of the Katimavik team who are living and volunteering in Fort Langley visited Chinatown in Vancouver recently. Families are being sought to billet team members for a nine-day period in March.

Langley families are invited to become Katimavik host families between March 5 and 13.  Katimavik is Canada’s leading national youth service learning organization.

It is looking for families in the Langley area who are willing to host Katimavik volunteers aged 17 to 21 from across Canada. This offers a chance to get to know a young person who is presently volunteering in the community, while introducing them to your way of life.

As part of Katimavik’s program, participants spend nine days with a host family in the region in order to get a better sense of the culture and local life of the community. For some volunteers this is also an excellent opportunity to benefit from a full-fledged linguistic immersion. This experience will be filled with discoveries for both families and volunteers.  Each family hosting a Katimavik volunteer receives a stipend to offset costs.

Those who are interested can contact LJ at 1-866-941-6589, extension 2203.

The Katimavik group arrived in Fort Langley on Jan. 4 and will live in the community until June 20. The group is comprised of 11 young women and is supervised by a project leader who lives with them. This is a pilot program  — the first all-female group in Katimavik’s more than 30-year history.  These volunteers are working five days a week at local not-for-profit organizations including: Fort Langley Historic Site, MountainView Wildlife Sanctuary, Langley Environmental Partners Society, Simpson Manor, and Fort Langley Community Association.

An open house will be held Sunday, Feb. 26 from 12 to 4 p.m. at 8833 Glover Road in Fort Langley. Entrance is at the back of the house. This  is an opportunity to meet the volunteers and find out more about the program.

Katimavik is Canada’s premier national youth learning through volunteer service organization. Since its foundation in 1977, more than 30,000 young Canadians have participated in Katimavik programs. Katimavik provides young Canadians with the opportunity to volunteer in community development initiatives across the country and develop valuable, transferable employment skills.

Katimavik service and learning programs focus on the development of lifelong personal, professional and social competencies in the areas of civic engagement, healthy lifestyle, cultural discovery, official languages, communication, environmental stewardship and project coordination. For the 2011-2012 program year, Katimavik will be present in 52 communities, in which more than 1,100 volunteers will be dispersed throughout the country.

For more information, please visit www.katimavik.org, the blog at www.gokatimavik.com, or get social with the organization on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.