Announcement

Meet OCASI 40th Anniversary Award Recipients

OCASI celebrated people and organizations in Ontario who make a difference in the immigrant and refugee serving sector at a Gala held on November 6, 2018.

It was a side gathering of the rebels in the crowd during the Canadian federal government’s first gathering of service agencies, academics and government workers on immigration and settlement services. The year was 1977 or thereabouts. This small group of rabble rousers, many working in the fields of community development and organizing, cross-cultural education and communication, women’s rights and the Canadian version of the civil rights movement found each other.

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Designed to recognize the efforts and work made by an OCASI Member Agency. This award recognizes an organization for its work in advancing the immigrant and refugee serving sector agenda through cross-sectoral collaborations and innovative practices and who have taken an active role in their commitment to equity and social justice to improve the lives of newcomers to Ontario.

July 2018 - The Friday before the long weekend and our national recognition and celebration by some and resistance by others of the formation of our country Canada, we were greeted with unexpected and disappointing news. The newly elected government of Ontario had decided to disregard tradition and do away with the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. The Ministry has played an important role in Ontario’s economic development plans.

It is late Spring, feeling and looking like summer, a few days after I returned to Ontario after being away for a week on vacation in Jamaica (yes, I voted in the advance poll!). I came home to a province of mixed political and emotional sentiments - A Progressive Conservative majority government which some find concerning, wondering and worrying if the public policies and programs that they’ve worked so hard and long to bring to fruition will be done away with.

We are collecting your stories about OCASI and photos to mark our 40th anniversary this year. Share your story and help us build the Ontario archive of the immigrant and refugee-serving sector.

Don’t know where to start? Not sure how to tell your story? Here are some sample questions to help you get started:

It is a windy, icy mid-April Spring morning as I turn my thoughts to the beginning of a new fiscal year and what it means, especially this year, for us as a Sector. While the new fiscal year began with the routine complaints – late contracts from funders, too tight timelines for financial claims for end of last fiscal year, inconsistency in communication from the federal funder, less than ideal communication from the provincial funder, there is a sense of anticipation in the air.