Calgary Herald

Volunteeri­ng leads to successful career

Training program helps immigrant gain experience for the Canadian workplace

- BILL ATWOOD watwood@cjournal.ca

When Cristina Balamban immigrated to Calgary from the Philippine­s, she struggled to find a job despite having a master’s degree in human resources.

But volunteeri­ng gave her the experience­she needed to become the human resources manager at the Calgary Distress Centre, where she is giving back to those who have helped her make it to where she is today.

Balamban says that she never thought about leaving her country. Her husband, though, had dreams of living in a western country and moved to Calgary in 2007.

Balamban and her children stayed in the Philippine­s for another three years while waiting for their permanent residency.

“That really motivated me (to know) this is what I wanted,” says Balamban. “Because I saw my two girls, at night they were crying because they wanted to see their father.”

Soon after arriving in Calgary, in June 2010, Balamban started applying for jobs, which she quickly found … as a Starbucks barista.

Balamban explains that she believed finding a job in her field would be easy.

“I thought because I had the background coming here that it won’t be hard for me because I speak English,” she says. “I have the educationa­l background. I have so many skills. I have a master’s degree. I have so many things to offer.”

However, when she started sending out applicatio­ns ,“apparently something was missing, because I never received any phone calls.”

That something was Canadian experience. While attending a newcomers’ orientatio­n, Balamban learned that volunteeri­ng could be considered a form of Canadian work experience.

“I said, ‘OK, that will be the way I will go,’” she says.

In September 2010, Balamban started volunteeri­ng at the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Associatio­n in their Filipino community developmen­t program, where she became the southeast quadrant volunteer co-ordinator.

Balamban then entered the associatio­n’s office administra­tion training program in January 2011. Because of her extensive experience, she was discourage­d from doing so.

“We thought she was over-qualified; we thought she could get a job on her own without spending months in the program, because it’s quite a long commitment to take the program,” says Balamban’s career coach, Noreen Sieb.

However, Balamban says that even though her experience and education looked good on paper, she still knew that something was missing.

As Sieb explains, Balamban excelled in the program.

“She looked very competent in the things that we had her do,” says Sieb. “She could pick things up quickly, even in terms of noticing cultural things.”

Balamban states that the lessons she learned in the program were key in helping her know how to work in the Canadian workplace.

“It helped us because every lesson was something new. They focused on the Canadian workplace, and they taught us how Canadians work.”

The concept of small talk, in particular, was new to her.

“It’s funny because in the Philippine­s when someone says, ‘How are you?’, oh, my goodness, expect that you will hear the whole story of my life. People always do that, and I was like, ‘Why do all these people ask me, how are you?’ It’s like I’m opening the whole story of my life, but it doesn’t need to be like that.”

After completing her practicum with the program Balambanst­arted working for Theatre Calgary as a fund developmen­t assistant where one of her co-workers, Diane Jones Konihowski, saw how much potential she really had.

“When I got to know Cristina, I said, ‘Give me your resume.’ And I looked at her resume, and she had a master’s degree, and many years’ experience at a national corporatio­n in the Philippine­s, I just looked at her and I thought, ‘Wow,’” says Jones Konihowski.

When the former Olympic pentathlet­e moved on to work for the Calgary Distress Centre, she knew Ba lamb an would be a great fit there.

“I told my executive director, ‘I know an amazing woman that I’d like to see in this agency.’ So we encouraged her to come over here, and she’s gone from our receptioni­st to our office manager to now our manager of HR, and that’s where she should be,” Jones Konihowski says.

Balamban explains that when she first came to the distress centre as their senior office administra­tor in March 2014, she didn’t know as

I have the educationa­l background. I have so many skills. I have a master’s degree. I have so many things to offer.

much about the organizati­on as she does now. However, she soon realized just how important it is.

“When I started working in the reception and learning the services that we provide to the community, I said, ‘This is very in line with my values.’”

Balamban was promoted to the distress centre’s human resources manager in December 2015.

In that job, Balamban played a key role in connecting the immigrant women’s associatio­n with the distress centre. The centre has now hosted practicums for 10 of the associatio­n’ s office administra­tion clients. Four of those clients were later hired by the distress centre for full-time positions.

“We just need to provide them a valuable experience and I think we can, but in return these are highly profession­al women who can do the work at the reception, and more,” says Balamban, who recently left the distress centre to become the human resources and volunteer services manager at the Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth.

The distress centre is now also hosting clients from the associatio­n’s Links to Success program.

Balamban says the co-operation of the two agencies was important to her because she promised herself that she would always give back to the associatio­n.

“They really touched me.”

 ?? BILL ATWOOD ?? Cristina Balamban’s volunteeri­ng at the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Associatio­n led to employment at the Calgary Distress Centre.
BILL ATWOOD Cristina Balamban’s volunteeri­ng at the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Associatio­n led to employment at the Calgary Distress Centre.

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