Project Update

Call for Volunteers: Positive Space Champions

The Positive Spaces Initiative (PSI), a project of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), is on a search to identify regional Champions! A Champion is a person who is actively engaged in their community, working for the inclusion and human rights of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit, queer, questioning, asexual, intersex, pansexual, genderqueer, etc.) immigrants and refugees.

System for Benchmarking Organizations' Best Practices

Developed by OCASI; OrgWise - Organizational Standards is an online system that benchmarks best practices and builds organizational capacity within the immigrant and refugee-serving sector in Ontario. OrgWise starts with a voluntary self-assessment that measures the health of organizations then links users to the hub of accessible capacity building resources and training.  The OrgWise self-assessment tool is a first step to good risk management practices and a means to champion activities, address organizational development issues, and celebrate successes.

OCASI Offers FREE Positive Spaces Training!

Designed with organizational capacity-building in mind, OCASI's facilitator-led workshops train staff and managers to create Positive Spaces within their organizations, and to work respectfully and effectively with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, queer, and/or questioning) newcomers and refugees. Each workshop is four hours long, for a total of 16 hours of training, and can be offered anywhere in Ontario.