At the turn of the 20th century, immigrants to North America began to visit libraries in order to take advantage their opportunity for a better life. They recognized that visiting a library would improve their chances of being successful in a new country.
Fast forward more than 100 years, and a community library remains a vital resource of information for newcomers to Canada.
The people at NewToBC recognized this and in 2013 they initiated the Library Champions Project.
NewToBC is an organization that partners with libraries and immigrant service providers, to develop, deliver, and promote services and resources that support immigrant settlement and integration in communities across the province.
The Library Champions project is managed by NewToBC and funded by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. To date, 800 new immigrants have been trained to be Library Champions and these volunteers have gone into their communities, reaching 55,000 new immigrants so far.
Library Champions are trained to conduct outreach to other new immigrants.
After the training, they develop a three-month outreach plan based on their personal goals, interests, and schedules.
The outreach plans include sharing information with friends, family, colleagues and community members. The volunteers will also give group presentations, speak with community agencies, and use social media.
In 2013, the Library Champions project was introduced in five libraries and has since expanded to other library systems in the Lower Mainland. Recently the Fraser Valley Regional Library (FVRL) has been added to the project and Abbotsford and the Langley/TOL libraries have been chosen to be the first FVRL communities involved.
Township Councillor Petrina Arnason who is the FVRL board representative for the Township had this to say about the program: “I am very pleased that the our local Langley libraries have been selected to participate in this exciting new program. It is a natural extension of FVRL’s shifting focus towards the use of our libraries as valuable community resource and creates a perfect fit between the needs of newcomers and the use of our library systems and services to help to quickly and effectively integrate them into our community.”
The project requires a three-month volunteer commitment and to be eligible, a person must be a permanent resident but not yet a Canadian citizen. They must be 19 years or older and enthusiastic about both libraries and volunteering in their community. A certain level of English comprehension is also required.
Benefits of participating include gaining volunteer experience and references, making new friends and helping other new immigrants. In addition, a Library Champion will discover amazing programs and services at libraries and learn about events and activities across the Fraser Valley.
Training for the project will take place in the City of Langley. The information session will be held on Monday, Sept. 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will be followed by four training sessions in October, and the program will end in the middle of January 2017.
The community librarian supervisors Sarwan Singh Randhawa and Smitty Miller will be working with the NewToBC team to make the program a success.
“It is a wonderful opportunity for new immigrants to get Canadian work experience while making new friends and learning about the resources available in the libraries and in the broader community,” said Randhawa.
For more information and registration details, go to www.librarychampions.ca, or call Langley or any Township of Langley libraries or visit any local library.