Multicultural council offers info on helping Syrian refugees

The New Brunswick Multicultural Council has launchedanewwebsite designed to be a one-stop spot for people who want to volunteer to help Syrianrefugees.

The council represents13agencies in the province thatserveimmigrants and in the last few weeks those agencies have been dealing with an increase in people wanting to volunteer.

"It will help us to engage people at the right time when they're needed, " said AlexLeBlanc, executive directorof the New Brunswick Multicultural Council. He says agencies that help refugees have paper-based volunteer sign-up procedures and the digital database will help organize information coming in.

The website went live Wednesdaymorning and the council is hoping it will make it more efficient for people signing up to volunteer.

"What's happened recently is that we've seen the traffic go up and I guesswhen, as an example, if you were to see the traffic pressure in downtown Fredericton quadruple, you'd have to look at your traffic solutions. You know, how are we managing intake and make sure people flow through in a timely way. In some cases our members have had more than 300 people contact them in a couple of weeks,"he said.

LeBlanc says one of the biggesthurdles isgetting the systems in place to manage information and map the resourcesavailable forrefugees.

"Right now we're not in a crisismode, we're preparing. We're kind of in the preparation stage. But when folks start to come, we're going to need resources on the turn of a dime." he said.

LeBlancand others involved in planning for the government-assisted Syrian refugees are meeting Wednesday.

"People are feeling united around this but some of those logistical details are not finalized," he said. "We have all heard so far, the provincial government is prepared to accept up to 15-hundred and our members, the groups that are going to be on the ground have reinforced'We can do that,'given a few logistical specifications."