More than a dozen Stanislaus County residents forged bonds with refugee clients from the IRC in Turlock/Modesto on April 21, as they helped them with job interview practice during the 10th annual Love Modesto day of community service.

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Hedayatullah Ahmadi practices his interview skills with community volunteers during Love Modesto on April 21.

Fifteen community members met with seven IRC clients during the event, which took place in the IRC's Modesto ESL classroom building. Volunteers spent 20 minutes interviewing multiple clients before switching to work with other clients. The goal was to expose job-seeking refugees to a variety of different interview styles to provide them with some “real world” experience. 

Participating clients were all Special Immigrant Visa holders, who had at least one family member who had served the U.S. government in Afghanistan, and all of them had lived in the United States for less than six months.

Volunteers came from a variety of walks of life, ranging from retirees and former Peace Corps volunteers to representatives from the public sector and nonprofit world. Representatives from several local congregations attended as well, including members of Big Valley Grace Community Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and Redeemer Church, which served as an event sponsor. 

For the first time this year, IRC volunteers offered child watch for participating families, allowing women who traditionally have been stay-at-home moms to practice their job interview skills and in some cases just practice basic conversational English. Interpreters were on hand to assist clients with limited English skills. 

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Love Modesto participants are all smiles during the 2018 event in the IRC Modesto classroom building.

This was the second year that the IRC participated in the Love Modesto day of service. The annual event is run by the Love Our Cities campaign, which runs similar volunteer days in more than 60 cities. One of those events, Love Turlock, will play host to another IRC job readiness workshop on May 19.