It has been a very busy last few weeks as we prepared for and welcomed over two hundred sector leaders to our biennial Executive leadership conference; and marked forty years of OCASI’s policy advocacy, activism and sector development with a successful gala. It was a time of celebration, of congratulatory remarks, and acknowledgement of the resiliency of the sector and the impact it has had on the lives of tens of thousands of refugees, (im)migrants and Canadians. We laughed, we danced and we debated and we learned.
Journeys to the Frontline is a collaborative online exhibition that shares the stories of eight professionals in the immigrant and refugee-serving sector. The project is an active collaboration between the Toronto Ward Museum, OCASI, the University of Toronto (U of T), and eight immigrant and refugee serving professionals from different agencies in the Toronto area.
A National Community of Practice for the immigrant settlement sector
The Community of Practice is an online bilingual hub for the national immigrant and refugee-serving sector where settlement practitioners, leaders and professionals in related sectors can connect, share, collaborate and learn to build their knowledge and skills capacity to improving settlement services.
Allies in Refugee Integration (ARI) is a 3-year project that aims to strengthen collaboration between settlement service providers and refugee sponsorship groups in Ontario. Led by OCASI in partnership with Refugee 613, the focus of ARI is to drive innovation in order to ultimately improve settlement outcomes of privately sponsored refugees.
Are you an Ontario immigrant and refugee serving organization funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration? We are still accepting financial assistance applications for In-House Group Training to the OCASI Professional Education and Training Program (PET). Apply today! Contact Beverly Lawrence-Dennis, PET Project Coordinator blawrence@ocasi.org / 416-322-4950 x238.
KEYS Job Centre has produced an 8 page comic illustrating challenges newcomers face in the labour market. Comic characters collectively learn about their employment rights (thanks to the assistance of some cool cats in the settlement sector) – and achieve some remedy on the road to employment justice. Order copies in English, Spanish, French, Kirundi, Arabic, Persian, and Mandarin.
CERIS is holding a community panel discussion “Settlement Services for Immigrant Women, Youth, and Seniors in Canada: Who is Falling through the Cracks?”, on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 at Toronto Central YMCA, 20 Grosvenor Street, Auditorium. Participants can exchange ideas for policy and service innovation to better support the settlement of all immigrants. Space is limited. Register now.
The Ontario Government’s Bill 47 will take away basic workplace rights like 2 paid sick days, equal pay for part-time and full-time workers and fairer scheduling laws. It will end the January 1, 2019 increase to the $15 minimum wage. Tell the Committee reviewing Bill 47 to withdraw the legislation, and contact your MPP.
Thousands of racialized women come to Canada every year to take care of Canadian families. By law, we are tied to our employers, and it’s almost impossible for us to leave a bad job or get a new job when our elderly employers pass away. Email the Minister of Immigration to ask that migrant Care Workers deserve permanent resident status.
A project by the Lebanese & Arab Social Services Agency (LASSA) that promotes diversity and aims to build intercultural understanding, encourage civic engagement, and discuss integration and a more inclusive Canada. Check out the events near you and be part of the dialogue this year with diverse ethnocultural communities across Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.
Canadian governments and their service-provider partners are tackling increasingly complex social problems. Effective solutions will depend on how well they can identify what initiatives are and are not working, and how well the most promising ones can be adapted and scaled up. The Mowat Centre’s new report, Evidence that Works: Building the Canadian Evidence Infrastructure for Social Policy, looks at this issue.
