The Adult EAL program is part of Winnipeg School Division. The provincial government provides funding for the program, with the school division providing classroom space and other support. There are approximately 1100 adult immigrants attending morning, afternoon, evening, and Saturday classes, located in 4 school division schools. The cultural background of our student population varies from year to year depending on immigration and political situations in source countries.

The mandate of the Winnipeg School Division, Adult EAL program is to provide "English for Settlement Purposes" to new immigrants to Winnipeg.

Volunteers are required for a minimum of 1 to 2 hours a week during classroom times.

The Winnipeg School Division, Adult EAL Center of Winnipeg provides volunteers with an opportunity to assist in an adult EAL classroom, working under the direction of a certified teacher with Adult EAL training and experience.

Volunteers are needed in our program because:

Our program involves continuous intake whereby
new students enter the program weekly
Classes are multilingual and multi-leveled
Classes are large with as many as 25 students

The benefits of having volunteers in the Adult EAL Program

Having good volunteers can enable teachers to better meet the specific needs of their learners. Having another fluent speaker of English involved in a classroom increases the amount of English learners will hear, gives them more opportunity to practice the language and introduces them to people from the community.

Volunteers can be another pair of eyes, ears and hands in the classroom. They can help keep students on task and focused. Sometimes having volunteers in a classroom can help bring the energy level up in the class. Having a number of volunteers come in at the same time decreases the student/teacher ratio providing more opportunity to interact with an English speaker and provides more individualized help for the students.

Bringing volunteers into AEAL classrooms gives more Canadians an opportunity to understand immigrants and problems immigrants encounter. Bringing in volunteers exposes students to the idea that volunteering is a respected role in Canadian society.

Volunteer Benefits

As a volunteer in our program you will receive an orientation to the program, a volunteer resource handbook, training sessions, an invitation to EAL conferences, and classroom observation opportunities. You will also receive guidance and support from the EAL teacher and the volunteer coordinator.

All volunteers must submit to a criminal record search, and a personal reference check to qualify for volunteering. All checks are paid for and processed by the WSD, AEAL program.

A copy of your application, the criminal record search, a personal reference check and a performance evaluation will be included in our central registry, a benefit to you if you want to use this volunteer experience in a job application or resume.

We need your help

If you are interested in volunteering or would like some more information, please contact Heather Rempel at hrempel@wsd1.org or call at 775-0416, extension 292.