WE NEED TUTORS!
If you are interested in becoming a tutor or would like to know more
about what we do, you can find out more about the refugee tutoring
program here.
We hold information nights every 8 weeks for new tutors. Visit the Upcoming Events page for the next information session.
Thank you for contacting us about assisting a refugee family. VoRTCS is
happy to accept referrals of refugee families from any other
organisations or individuals. Please download the Family Referral Form while you read.
How does VoRTCS help refugee families?
As a quick overview, we send pairs of volunteer tutors out to the homes
of refugee families who have recently arrived in Australia. We try to
match tutors with families who live in the same area as they do.
The
tutors help their assigned family with whatever tutoring support is
needed. Often, this involves helping the children (usually several
children per family) with homework and reading/writing skills, and also
helping the parents with conversation skills where needed.
The
tutors visit the same family once each week, negotiating the day and
time of the visit with the family, and generally stay for around 1-2
hours. Tutors keep visiting the families for an extended period of
time, ideally until they no longer need assistance.
We don't
require tutors to have previous teaching experience, and we provide
training, resources and ongoing support for all our volunteers.
However, we do have some trained teachers, ESL teachers and social
workers who volunteer for us as tutors, so where a family would benefit
from trained assistance, you can indicate this on the referral form.
All
our tutors are required to hold valid blue cards and undergo training
before they start tutoring. All contact with the family must be done in
pairs and authorised by the VoRTCS Committee.
What families can VoRTCS help?
Our services are strictly for refugee families as opposed to migrants.
However, if we have enough tutors we are happy to help both families on
Permanent Protection Visas, and those on Temporary Protection Visas.
Preference will be given to those on PPV’s, however we usually have
enough tutors to help all families referred to us.
VoRTCS tutors
work with the entire household. If only one member of the household
wants tutoring support then it is more difficult to place tutors with
the family, as the tutors are unable to visit a house alone for
insurance reasons. We have various other strategies that we use in
these situations to ensure that the person gets the support that they
need, such as meeting the individual in a public place (library, café,
park, school) or combining households that are close together.
How do I refer a refugee family to VoRTCS?
If you would like to refer a family or individual to us for tutoring, you will need to complete the VoRTCS referral form
and email it to us at
. Please complete only one form for each household that
wants assistance, and provide as much information as possible about the
relevant matters. We will need the names and ages of every member of
the household, as we need to provide this information to the tutors.
We
ask the person referring the family to us to go along and introduce the
tutors to the family on their first visit. This may only take 15
minutes or so, and ensures that the tutors and family are comfortable
with the situation. We usually pass your contact details on to the
tutors to allow this to happen, so please let us know if there are any
problems with this occurring. If someone else in your organisation
knows the family better and would be the better choice to introduce the
tutors to the family, please put their details down on the form also.
We will then notify both of you once tutors have been found.
If
you have ongoing contact with the family, the tutors may also like to
contact you regarding their family throughout the tutoring. We
encourage this wherever possible, but understand that you have other
work and personal commitments and will be careful not to unduly impose
on these.
Please contact us at
if you have any questions. As we have a large number of
tutors in many areas around Brisbane, please feel free to refer as many
families as would like our assistance. Please also let other ESL
teachers, schools or organisations know of our tutoring support. You
can download our referral form, and complete it by hand if you prefer. Please post it to us at:
VoRTCS
c/- St Vincent de Paul Society
PO Box 3351
South Brisbane 4101
Please note that it is easier for us if you can complete the form online!
We
always endeavour to find tutors for a family as soon as possible.
However, please understand that it may take several weeks to find
tutors, depending on tutor availability and family location. The wait
for tutors to obtain blue cards also takes some time. Please also note
that there may be situations where we are unable to place tutors with a
particular family, for a variety of reasons.
You will receive
an email acknowledging receipt of the referral, and we will be in touch
with you once tutors are located to ask you to introduce the tutors to
the family. If you have any questions about the tutor matching process,
please don’t hesitate to contact us at this address.
Thank you for helping VoRTCS to help a refugee family!
Refer a Family
