Local Community Development

BWV's local development committee is involved in a wide variety of projects around the Montreal area. We encourage volunteers to contribute to the well-being of members of their own community. From 2008 to present, BWV members have been involved in the following local community programs:

Immigrant Workers Centre: The centre is an education and campaign centre for immigrant workers. Their activities include individual-rights counseling and education workshops. Volunteers usually handled office work, such as answering the telephone, listening to voice messages, and relaying messages. The centre also allowed the volunteer to choose which area they would like concentrate on: Case studies, Outreach, or Fundraising. BWV volunteers have generally preferred dealing with case studies. For example, some members had been helping a Tamil refugee who was facing deportation back to Sri Lanka in the midst of an on-going ethnic conflict. BWV members tried to garner public attention through contacting newspapers to find journalists who were interested in writing an article on this issue, and other human rights organizations to support the cause.

MADA Community Centre:Located in the heart of the Jewish community in cote-des-neiges, MADA is the only soup kitchen that serves kosher food. Tasks volunteers were involved in included set-up, serving, and clean up.

Club Déjeuners Du Québec: The Breakfast Club serves breakfast to young students whose parents either cannot afford to or simply do not have the time to provide their children with this essential meal. Tasks volunteers were required to do included setting up, preparing meals, serving meals, and cleaning up.

Contactivity Senior's Centre: The Contactivity Centre offers Westmount seniors a variety of activities and programmes, including twice-weekly community meals, courses ranging from Tai Chi to history, and everything in-between, day trips, restaurant outings, arts and crafts, bridge and chess groups, and watercolouring sessions. It also offers a range of home-support services, such as assistance with grocery shopping, accompaniment to medical appointments, a shared taxi service for seniors with poor mobility, as well as a volunteer-run daily telephone check-in service for those who live alone. Information and referrals are also provided on different senior-related topics. Our volunteers assist the seniors with grocery shopping, special events, friendly visits, etc.

Additionally, BWV volunteers strive to organize on-campus initiatives which aim to support local organizations in the city of Montreal. In March of 2011, BWV hosted its first-ever book drive as a part of its effort to replenish the in-patient reading collection at Montreal General Hospital. In November of 2011, BWV hosted its first-ever clothing drive to donate all items collected to the homeless of Montreal via the People's Church. Finally, in December of 2011, our volunteers took part in our Christmas Card Outreach program to provide the homeless of Montreal a method of communication to loved ones and/or significant others in time for the holiday season!

Borderless World Volunteers Local Project Development Committee 2011-2012

Borderless World Volunteers Joint Development Committee 2010-2011