BACKGROUND: Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee is a leading, non-sectarian, non-profit organization providing emergency relief, protection, rehabilitation assistance, resettlement services, and advocacy for refugees and victims of oppression or violent conflict.  Domestically, our 28 offices across the U.S. ensure new arrivals have food, shelter, and clothing, and work with refugees to help them gain self-sufficiency.

SCOPE OF VOLUNTEER WORK: Transit navigation volunteers will be responsible for  teaching clients how to navigate the mass transit systems that exist in Salt Lake City under the supervision of the casework and health teams. Newly arrived refugee adults must learn to navigate their community to positively integrate, including how to get to/from the IRC, grocery stores, health clinics, work and more. After thorough training on the role, volunteers will brief clients on how the transit system works in Salt Lake City and then will actually navigate the system alongside clients to ensure they know key routes to work, school, medical facilities, etc. IRC will provide volunteers with a trainer transit pass—volunteers are not required to purchase their own bus pass.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Teach clients about the transit system that exists in Salt Lake City, including busses, TRAX, Frontrunner, etc.
  • Work with clients to discover most efficient routes from their home to their workplace, nearest medical facility, children’s school, IRC office, and other locations that the client may request.
  • Coordinate with casework and health teams to receive required client information for transports.
  • Communicate with casework team after each orientation to discuss how well the client was able to navigate the city and discuss potential follow up plans.
  • Expectation is that volunteers will do 1-2 transit orientations every two weeks. Each orientation can take 2-4 hours.

REQUIREMENTS:

  • Confidence in navigating the Salt Lake City transit system.
  • Ability to remain calm in potentially stressful situations.
  • Comfortable working through language barriers to communicate needed information. No need to speak multiple languages, however the following languages are highly sought after in volunteers: Arabic, Spanish, French, Dari, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Sango.
  • Must be 18 years old.
  • Must complete a background check.
  • Volunteer 2-4 hours per week for a minimum of 10 weeks.

NEXT STEPS:

IRC leading the way from harm to home.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.