--Looking for work? Here are some resources for you. NEW!

--Professional Mentoring Partnership Launched by KIP and KEYS!

----Danielle was the Star at our AGM! Read her presentation...

--Jason Kenney's Troubling Refugee Legacy

--TESL Membership Benefits are Growing

--KIP News and Events NEW!

--A Facebook Privacy Guide: For Everyone Who Uses Facebook

Kingston Multicultural Arts Festival a Huge Success!

These comments and photos from attendees say it all: The 2011 Kingston Multicultural Arts Festival, held on Saturday, September 17th at Confederation Park, was a tremendous success! Despite the cooler temps and somewhat overcast skies, the crowds turned out in full force, wee ones in strollers, backpack carrying university students and toe tapping seniors.  One thing that stood out for this reviewer, was the colour! From traditional costumes to the crafts on sale, you couldn't help but smile. It truly was a vibrant scene. There was something going on in every corner from hennaing to steel pan drumming to a crash course in Mandarin. Huge crowd pleasers were the music and dance performances by various groups such as the incredible Manding Foli Kan Don (West Africa drumming), spectacular Jabalna (traditional Arabic music), the very popular Bhangra Dance (India Canada Association) and the tropical sounds of the Nepean Panharmonic Steelband (Caribbean pan), just to name a few.    To satisfy any hunger pangs, food booths were set up as well, offering such yummy treats as samosas, lasagna, shish kebabs and an absolutely delicious baklava. Judging by the turnout of this year's festival, the Kingston Multicultural Festival is something that will be around for a long time. Lucky for us! Review by Judy Magahay TESL Kingston Member Congratulations to the Festival Committee of Kingston Immigration Partnership for putting on such a fabulous multicultural festival in Kingston yesterday!  It was superbly organized and the entertainment was outstanding! It was an honour for TESL Kingston to be able to participate by having a display table. Your venue couldn't have been better.  Being at the waterfront and in front of City Hall was appropriate and special.  You must have done a great job of getting the City Council on board.  Well done! TESL Kingston had a table near the stage and it was in a prominent place to be seen by people as they headed to and from the stage area.  Thank you for that. To all your organizers and committees, please pass on my thanks and congratulations.  Having the stages, tents and tables set up and ready to go so early was a feat that just couldn't have been done more efficiently. In talking to people in attendance, I noticed a great deal of interest in newcomers, amazement at the entertainment and crafts for sale, and in general, a lot of good will towards each other. It was truly an event that bridged cultures and created respect and appreciation for others. Well done!  Our thanks to all at KIP, and we look forward to being able to participate again next year. Barbara Dick President, TESL Kingston

Jade Garrison,
Publicity Chairperson, TESL Kingston
(Posted on our Facebook page, along with lots of pictures!)

I'd say this was a rousing success, wouldn't you?

Volunteer ESL Instructors Needed

Limestone Community Education is looking for volunteers for their ESL Program. For further details please email myersti@limestone.on.ca or call the main office at 542- 7369 and ask for Tiffany Myers.

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The Seniors Association Kingston Region has been growing and evolving for 33 years. The hard work of thousands of volunteers, including the nearly 700 active volunteers participating today, have kept it vibrant and dynamic for more than three decades.

But now they need a new kind of volunteer. They have a need for ESL Instructors.

Explore their website to learn more about the Seniors Center: seniorskingston.ca
or email them at info@seniorskingston.ca for more information. They are located at 56 Francis Street, Kingston, ON, K7M 1L8 . Phone: 613.548.7810 


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http://www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/partnershipproject

In August, the Government of Canada expanded the key role it plays in helping foreign trained skilled workers succeed in Canada.

The Foreign Credentials Referral Office's (FCRO) annual report highlights the important achievements made by Citizenship and Immigration (CIC), Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Health Canada, who work in partnership with provinces and territories and other key stakeholders to help foreign trained workers with the foreign credential recognition processes.

“We want newcomers to be able to use their skills as soon as possible in Canada and work to their full potential,” said Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. “It's good for them and good for the Canadian economy.”

For more information on these initiatives, please go to the Government website:

www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2011/2011-08-18.asp

Professional Mentoring Partnership Launched!

KIP has been working over the past six months on our 2011 Priority : creating opportunities for talented immigrants to join our workforce. One simple and proven way to do this is by connecting skilled newcomers with local professionals – through Mentoring and Networking .

KIP is happy to partner with KEYS Job Centre to support their new Professional Mentoring Partnership. With this new program, Kingston has a golden opportunity to prove itself as an inclusive and welcoming community.

Kingston has talent – new immigrants who are engineers, nurses, accountants, dentists, educators, artists – the list goes on. We can help newcomers succeed in the workplace by volunteering to mentor or network them.

Please take a moment to review this program and consider whether you might make a great volunteer mentor, or know someone who could help. And feel free to copy and circulate this message:    

Professional Mentoring Partnership Invitation

KEYS Job Centre is pleased to announce the launch of its new Professional Mentoring Partnership. This program connects skilled immigrants with local professionals in the same occupation for professional mentoring and networking. Please see below for information on the three services offered through this program.  

KEYS offers 3 different mentoring opportunities to fit the availability and interests of immigrant and volunteer participants:

Professional Mentoring

Established professional share their expertise and experience one-on-one with an immigrant professional in the same field for 24 hours over a 4 month period . Mentoring includes face to face meetings, phone calls and emails, and is supported by a Mentor Coach.

The Connector Program

Established professionals with deep business and professional contacts help to expand the professional networks of immigrants by committing to one face-to-face meeting with a newcomer in the same field and to referring him/her to 3 additional contacts from their own network.

Career Speed Networking Session

Local employers network with new talent in Kingston, sharing information about their occupation while participating in a 2-hour career speed networking session designed to give newcomers exposure to the Kingston job market, provide occupation-specific information about Canadian workplace and job search culture, and to expand their professional networks.

Application Form Downloads

Mentor, Connector, or Speed Networking application : For established Kingston professionals wishing to help open doors for a skilled immigrant

Skilled immigrant application : For immigrants seeking help expanding their professional networks and attaining their employment goals in Kingston

Formulaires d'inscription en français disponible sur demande. Contactez Bridget Glassco au 613-546-5559 x 241; ou email ici

If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering to mentor or network with new immigrants, you can fill out an online application here, or contact program coordinator Bridget Glassco at KEYS for more information at: 613-546-5559 x241; or by email.

KEYS Job Centre is a community-based centre with expertise in employment and employment related services. As leaders in the field, we provide services to the whole community — job seekers looking for a job or exploring career options; employers looking to hire the right staff; or newcomers to Canada requiring English training and settlement help. In some cases, job seekers may get specific job training at the MCF Practice Firm on Division Street.

For more information or to learn how we can help you, please visit one of our four locations today.

When you contact KEYS for an appointment, you can ask to meet with an Employment Advisor at the Sydenham Street location or at our new Princess Street location. The services at KEYS on Princess are by appointment only.

Thanks, Danielle.
And welcome to TESL Kingston!

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A Voice of Reason on Refugees

Matt Semansky has written a tremendous review of a new book called Frontier Justice: The Global Refugee Crisis and What to do About It, by Andy Lamey. Semansky refers to the book as a “Voice of Reason”. Given the horrendous treatment of the Tamil Refugees, as well as the vastly discriminatory regulations Harper is promoting with regard to refugees, (see following article), I can hardly wait to read this book. Voices of reason have been in short supply lately, in my opinion.

“On the one hand there's the political philosopher [Hannah Arendt] saying human rights are a joke,” says Lamey. “And then we have this debate in Canada about the refugee system here and people criticizing it by saying it went too far in recognizing the rights of refugees. I thought someone should bring these conversations together.”

By all accounts, he has done just that, and has posed some important and gripping questions along the way. He agrees with Arendt that historically, refugees have not been treated in a way that respects their human rights, but he prefers to see this as a challenge to us, rather than a case for abandoning human rights.

Semensky says that the book provides a “calm, lucid voice in a debate often sidetracked by terrorist panic and hypocrisy about human rights”. He also applauds the powerful but simple and concrete proposal offered by Lamey that would provide a balance between addressing the human rights of refugees and ensuring security.

Doesn't this sound like a book worth reading?

Andy Lamey is a Canadian journalist and academic. His writing has appeared in The National Post , Maclean's andThe Walrus, and he has produced several radio documentaries for CBC's Ideas programme.

Read another review here: www.amazon.ca/Frontier-Justice-Global-Refugee-Crisis/dp/0385662548

And if, after reading the book, you'd like to offer your own comments, please submit them through our Contact page. I'd be glad to publish them.

Jason Kenney's Troubling Refugee Legacy

embassymag.ca March 30, 2011 By Jim Creskey

Jason Kenney was making changes to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration at a torrid pace—or so it seemed—until he was stopped dead in his tracks last week by a non-confidence vote. Now, before the May 2 election, might be a good time to take stock of what he accomplished.

The immigration department he was given by Stephen Harper was a house built on policy and practice laid by Liberals and Mulroney Progressive Conservatives and shaped by Charter rulings, public consultations and politics—lots of politics. It was a place of noble aims, practical goals, unkept promises, interminable long waits and a lot of over-worked public servants—some of them amazingly compassionate, others sullen and patronizing. A few were even found to be corrupt.

Correctly seen from outside Canada, it was one of the best immigration and refugee systems in the world. But it was also inclined to dysfunction, some of it caused by misguided budget cuts in the wrong places, some of it from various levels of distressed leadership that had started to buy into a pessimistic narrative.

It was also the kind of ministry that could (easily) wreck or (not so-easily) launch a politician's career, and the youthful Kenney, who was born in 1968, was definitely in launch mode. In the course of undertaking his ministerial responsibilities for the protection of refugees, Kenney came across a vote-harvesting scheme that actually had nothing to do with refugees or their protection. Its subject was fear.

Kenney—with some help from Prime Minister Harper and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews—used the arrival of two boatloads of Tamil asylum seekers in an attempt to prod public opinion toward the idea that "bogus" refugee claimants were overrunning Canada.

Pretending to punish smugglers—who were largely phantoms out of reach of Canadian authority—he put forward Bill C-49, which resolutely set out policies that would punish the refugees themselves.

C-49 was a profoundly flawed piece of work that proposed building special prisons for refugees who had the good luck to escape to Canada from foreign murder and mayhem but the bad luck to have been caught using the help of a smuggler. Further punishments included the withholding of family reunions as well as healthcare and other services.

It was a strategy that promised to sweep up more votes from ordinary Canadians who could be sold the idea that they needed to be protected from a flood of illegal arrivals. It was pure theatre, with the two ministers and even the prime minister turning up at the two rusting hulks, the Ocean Lady and the Sun Sea , to promote their bill, the extremely wordy "Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act".

It was also politicking in the same vein as Republican anti-immigrant propaganda in the US —to the detriment of genuine refugees who are in a way the canaries in the Immigration Department's mineshaft.

If the least powerful clients of the Citizenship and Immigration Department—asylum seekers—were being treated fairly then we would have a strong hint the portfolio was being well managed. Unfortunately they are not.

Kenney's refugee legacy has been deeply disappointing. The number of asylum seekers needing protection and allowed into Canada has declined markedly on his watch.

A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report released this week charted a 30 per cent drop in the number of applications for asylum in Canada . The UN study came on the heels of reports that CIC is looking at scrapping visa applications from designated source countries. Ironically, the result of that change would be more desperate people resorting to smuggling.

At the same time, Kenney's publicly disparaging comments about whole groups of refugees have raised concerns that his department's appointed refugee judges are being influenced. For that reason, the immigration minister holds the power of life and death over a refugee claimant. He also occupies a pulpit of great influence when he speaks in public.

Kenney's anti-smuggling bill and behaviour in public drew a flood of respectful and non-partisan criticism. Even normally Conservative supporters in church and civil society groups have seen the government was on the wrong track. But their requests for input have been turned aside, with Kenney publicly deriding them as "usual suspects from the immigration industry."

If the Harper Conservatives come back in May with sufficient numbers to form a majority, some version of the now dead Bill C-49 is more than likely to spring up again. Would they reverse themselves and finally listen to the numerous church groups and NGOs, asking them to put some compassion back into refugee policy?

I wish it were so. But looking at the evidence of the Harper government, it would have to be a monumental sea change.

Migration may not be at the top of anyone's list of key campaign issues. The actually number of refugees admitted into Canada at the best of times is small in comparison with immigration numbers. But refugee policy and practice defines a country's soul like few other government actions.

I think most Canadians want their country to have a refugee policy that is fair, efficient and compassionate. But if they expect to see that happen, they need to find out how the system has been managed over the past several years before they vote.

Where and how to do that?

This article has been abridged--for the complete version, please go here:
http://embassymag.ca/page/view/creskey-03-30-2011

Report on Immigrants -- By Charlotte Kudadirgwa

Charlotte Kudadirgwa, a student at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, presents a special documentary report on some of the settlement issues faced by immigrants in Canada. Using direct interviews and comments, we follow the lives of two of Belleville 's immigrants and how they dealt with their initial sense of social isolation in a report titled,

"Welcome to Canada ...Now What?"

Click here to access the MP3 file: CharlotteKudadirgwa_ImmigrationFeature.mp3

OCASI Responds to CIC Cuts to Ontario Settlement Funding

In December 2010, agencies in the immigrant and refugee serving sector began receiving communication from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) informing them of their eligibility to negotiate new contracts for 2011-12 and 2012-13. Thirteen member agencies of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) all in the Greater Toronto Area, were notified that their contracts would not be renewed, effectively defunding them, while many more agencies were notified that their budgets would be reduced, by an average of 20%-30%.

These cuts in settlement funding are a result of a Strategic Review that sought to cut 5% from CIC's budget, and amount to almost $44 million in Ontario. Another $6 million in Strategic Review cuts are expected in 2012-13. In addition, CIC has announced that in 2012-13 the new Settlement Allocation Model will be applied to Ontario, resulting in an expected additional $20 million in cuts to settlement funding if allocations are determined by 2009 landing numbers.

These significant cuts to the services and programs of the sector were unexpected, unwarranted and are short-sighted. The Ontario sector has been unnecessarily disrupted with the biggest impact on already vulnerable individuals, families and communities. Of the thirteen defunded OCASI member agencies (other agencies in the GTA also lost full CIC funding), almost 50% (6) are organizations that work directly with racialized communities. And of those six, four are organizations working with African communities.

Intentional or not, this disinvestment in integration programming differentially impacts communities that have been hardest hit by the recent recession and who have historically been over-represented in groups experiencing underemployment, regardless of comparable education and employment histories, and who because of issues of discrimination are critically marginalized socially and politically.

Francophone Immigrant communities in the southern part of the Province were also significantly impacted. As fairly new immigrant populations, primarily from French- speaking Africa, Haiti and the Middle East, investments in these communities are very important. Capacity development, infrastructure support, and programming geared to meet the specific needs of these communities had all been identified by the sector and government as priorities. Cutting funding at this critically important time in the development of these organizations undermines and is a significant setback for these communities who are the ‘minorities within the minority”.

OCASI was formed in 1978 to act as a collective voice for immigrant-serving agencies and to coordinate response to shared needs and concerns. OCASI is a registered charity governed by a volunteer board of directors. Its membership is comprised of more than 200 community-based organizations in the province of Ontario.

Recent CIC Cuts Have Major Impact on Local LINC and Settlement Programs

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Our Membership Benefits are Growing!

Have you checked the Membership Benefits page of TESL Ontario recently? Look at this list:

Professional Development Online:

50 hours of TESL Ontario Conferences 2009 and 2010 webcasting is available free of charge to all TESL Ontario members. www.teslontario.ca/conference/webcast/

And while you're at it, you can download Power Point presentations or other handouts from the presenters at the 2010 Conference in Toronto: http://www.teslon.org/handouts2010

Discounted Prices for Insurance:

Group Insurance:

Owen & Associates offers discounted group rates on Individual Health and Dental, Travel, Life, Critical Illness, Disability and Out of Country Insurance.
www.owenandassoc.com/association-clients/tesl/

Auto and Home Insurance:
The Personal exclusively covers home and auto insurance. They are part of Desjardins Groups, the largest cooperative financial group in Canada.
www.teslontario.org/uploads/news/ThePersonal.html

Member Benefits Rewards Programs, Special Rates and Discounts:

Teachers Credit Union Special Offers
All TESL Ontario Members are now entitled to Special Mortgage and Line of Credit interest rates and other financial product offers from Teachers Credit Union - DirectTCU.
See the membership Benefits page at TESL Ontario for more information on how to register.

20% Discount at Indigo Stores
TESL Ontario members are entitled to a discount of 20% on regularly priced books at all branches of Indigo, Chapters, Coles and World Biggest Bookstore within Ontario. The discount does not apply on DVD, CD or gift items, and you may not use it for online purchases. It is also not applicable on sales books.

Please note that they will require verification through your showing your TESL Ontario membership cardand you will have to quote the TESL Ontario corporate account number: 90171091.

STAPLES Easy Rewards Program
STAPLES has agreed to extend their Teacher Easy Rewards Program to all TESL Ontario Members. This is a FREE rewards card that TESL Ontario members can register for online. This rewards card will enable our members to receive $5.00 back for every $100 spent on qualifying purchases up to $50.00 per calendar quarter.

Members can then use the rewards cheques on just about anything in the store, catalogue or online. In addition - STAPLES holds events and exclusive offers just for Teachers.

In order to register with Staples for this benefit, follow the directions listed here: http://www.teslontario.org/uploads/membership/benefits/staples.html

FREE Museum Admissions
Several museums in the Ottawa region have offered TESL Ontario Members FREE admission by simply showing a valid TESL Ontario membership card at the admission desk.

TESL Ontario Members can now enjoy FREE admission to the following Ottawa area Museums.
• Canada Aviation and Space Museum
• Canada Agriculture Museum
• Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Canada Science and Technology Museum
• Canadian War Museum

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What do Soft Skills have to do with Learning Language? The workplace-specific language Tuula focused on in this presentation is not the same thing as the OSLT taught in community colleges. Rather, it targets high-level learners at CLB 7+ in profession-specific career bridging programs that lead to licensing and/or employment. 80% of approximately 12,000 employers said in a survey that language barriers hold back newcomers in the workplace. Examples given included: •  Writing skills •  Meeting behaviour •  Cultural knowledge of how to voice concerns and relate to others •  Lack of knowledge of how to act in various situations (body language) Employers who hire skilled workers or IEPs often identify gaps between what newcomers know and the competencies that the employers expect them to know and have in Canadian workplaces. Many students study well and pass their licensing exams, but once hired, they run into problems related to Canadian workplace culture. In one study, not one of the newly hired professionals could write an acceptable email message--not because they couldn't express themselves clearly, but because they were not accustomed to using email in their organizations. They didn't understand the layers of function in such a setting, for example: how and when to use BCC, Reply All, etc. What gets written to whom? This is something the employer and supervisors take for granted, but the new employee does not understand. Employers do not train employees in customer service, nor in accent reduction. But these skills are essential to relate effectively to clients. In order to allow for smoother transition to the workplace, language needs to be tied with development of communicative competencies, and the best way to do this is to provide mentors to work with students in role-play situations. Mentors work with teams of students in typical workplace scenarios. For starters, think of interview expectations--how does one answer the dreaded question, "What is your greatest weakness," for example? Or what does one say when asked to give examples of effective teamwork? Especially since in many countries employees are never expected to raise questions or take initiative. Most employees here are expected to email their boss if they are going to be late or absent. Tone is very important in these emails, but newcomers often have no idea how to phrase such messages. Ideally, these sorts of skills should be taught in a co-op program or internship. The skills of networking also need to be taught. Job seekers need to know how to find potentially helpful employers at job fairs, for example, and how to request a business card to add to their collection. They need to know what constitutes an acceptable handshake. They also need to learn to smile in a way that creates positive energy. Employers hire energy. These are highly competent people. If we don't utilize them properly, we'll have major social problems. We need to find ways to give them the skills they need.

While this stellar presentation focused particularly on bridging programs, many of the concepts and skills are pertinent to any instructor, as most of our students arrive with all sorts of skills and education, but little knowledge of Canadian business culture, language and expectations, whether in hairdressing or medicine. Most students, however, will need higher levels of English skills than Intermediate to become truly skilled. For those of you who didn't make it to the workshop, here's a link to download her PowerPoint presentation: www.teslon.org/handouts2010/FAC-Lindholm.ppt And here's a link to an interesting Canadian website that focuses on tools for businesses to enhance their ability to recruit and retain immigrant employees: www.hireimmigrants.ca/

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211 is here in Kingston, Frontenac and
Lennox and Addington

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November 12th, 2010, marked the official launch of kipcouncil.ca , the website of the Kingston Immigration Partnership! Take a look at the different pages, from About Us, Strategy and Research, to Resources for newcomers, community members, organizations, and businesses. The information on this site will keep everyone informed about upcoming events and new initiatives. It will also serve as a wonderful resource for all those working with newcomers in this community, as well as for anyone who wants to know more about what is happening, or who may want to volunteer their services.

The print-friendly condensed version of KIP's Strategic Action Plan (901 KB) is available to download as a PDF and is well worth the read. The Strategic Plan was launched on November 12 at a special assembly held at City Hall, and is an inspiring document, clearly laid out in terms of goals, strategies and actions. Previous articles on this page have described the procedures used to involve many community stakeholders in devloping this plan. Clearly, those procedures were effective.

TESL Kingston is proud to be a member of this partnership, and to have contributed to the creation of the Strategic Plan.

Many aspects of that plan have already been implemented, so be sure to sign up at kipcouncil.ca for regular updates on their local projects and events.

KIP NEWS

KIP Status Update

Since the launch of the Strategic Action Plan last fall, the Kingston Immigration Partnership has been busy working with local partners to build a welcoming and inclusive community for newcomers, specifically by implementing the actions included in the plan. To provide an overview of our accomplishments to date, we have updated the individual strategy pages on this website with the status of most actions. Pick a theme or strategy you’re interested in from the Table of Contents, or start with the first theme (Employment) and use the “Next” link at the bottom of each page to go through the full strategy.

The next update will be released as part of the KIP Annual Report at our assembly in November. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments about our work to date, please contact us! kipcouncil.ca/kip-news/2011/08/kip-status-update/

Multicultural Roundtable Supports and Library

On March 30th, 2011, 50 local leaders of diverse communities came together at the Islamic Centre of Kingston to launch a new collaborative initiative: the Kingston Multicultural Roundtable. Participants shared more than just a meal — they hoped to build a shared vision for intercultural cooperation within their community where newcomers will have access to multilingual resources and programming. Funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), the Kingston Immigration Partnership facilitated the roundtable to encourage collaboration among the organizations represented.

During the meeting, members committed to working with a local library and settlement agencies to launch the Multicultural Library project in September, 2011. The Multicultural Library will be located at the Calvin Park Branch at 88 Wright Crescent, Kingston, ON K7L 4T9. Telephone: (613) 546-2582.

Websites: www.kfpl.ca and www.kingstonmulticultural.ca

Kingston Multicultural Arts Festival 2011

Building on last year's success, the Kingston Multicultural Arts Festival returned this year to Confederation Park on Saturday, September 17! This year's festival featured music and dance groups on two stages representing cultures from around the world, as well as local artists and vendors from Kingston's diverse communities. Look for TESL Kingston's review of this event here:
http://teslkingston.org/#festival

For more information, visit www.kingstonmulticultural.ca/festival or email us here.

Kingston Welcomes You! Immigration and Settlement Information for Newcomers

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ISKA Has Moved!

They are delighted to have found a new location with more space and easy public access, and TESL Kingston was proud to have hosted their Meet the Candidates event in ISKA's new home.

Their new address is:

837 Princess Street, Suites 500-501
Kingston, ON K7L 1G8

Phone: (613) 544-4661

Their website address has changed as well: www.kchc.ca/is.shtml

Congratulations, ISKA!

All sorts of new things are happening at ISKA these days. Remember to check their website so you can refer students appropriately. For more information and updates on services, click here: www.kchc.ca/is.shtml

Marjatta Holt lived up to her reputation in her recent presentation entitled: The Ins and Outs of Prepositions and My Compliments to the Verb. Having had to master the complexities of verb usage and learned to navigate the morass of prepositions herself when she emigrated from Finland, she was able to present reasons for and clues to how these things work that a native speaker would never think of. Her handouts were thorough and practical, and will no doubt simplify life for the teachers who attended, as well as for the students they teach, at every level.

Teachers learning

Teachers networking

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New Bridging Participant Assistance Program for Ontario Newcomers

A new education bursary will help newcomers get the local training they need to find a job in their field.

The Ontario Bridging Participant Assistance Program will help cover the cost of short-term college and university bridge training programs that are not covered under the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).  The 19-month pilot project is expected to help more than 1,800 newcomers enter bridge training programs in high-demand fields.

The targeted, fast-track and flexible training provided by these programs helps skilled newcomers get jobs that match their education, skills, and experience. These programs also offer work experience such as internships, clinical placements, job shadowing and mentorships, as well as employment services such as interview preparation, labour market information and job search skills.

QUICK FACTS  

• Ontario is investing $8 million over 19 months to provide bursaries to more than 1,800 students.
• Ontario Bridging Participant Assistance Program bursaries provide up to $5,000 in financial assistance to help cover tuition, books and equipment costs.
• Since 2003, Ontario's Bridge Training Programs have helped more than 35,000 newcomers get jobs and get licensed in their field.
• About 70 per cent of Ontario's adult newcomers have post-secondary education or training.

~Integrating Diversity for a Dynamic Kingston~

The Kingston Immigration Partnership working with the
Welcoming Communities Initiative

The WCI is a collaborative effort between universities and local stakeholders to promote newcomer inclusion and to help small and medium-sized cities benefit from diversity. To achieve these goals and to capitalize on the proximity of researchers to community organizations and municipal agencies, the project is building a durable
research and governance infrastructure. This infrastructure will support policy and best-practice research and will help to forge connections among researchers, local stakeholders and government agencies.

Funding for this initiative has come from Citizenship and Immigration Canada under the Ontario Region's “Call for Proposals for the Welcoming Communities Initiative: CIC's Contribution to Canada's Action Plan Against Racism”, and also from a project of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), entitled “Making Ontario Home: A Study of Newcomer Settlement Services Uses and Needs.” A good deal of the research is being carried out through Queen's University, as Kingston has been chosen as one of two locations for pilot projects.

Work in Kingston has been facilitated by the project's Local Engagement Committee, formed through a partnership between Queen's and the Kingston Immigraton Partnership (KIP), a project funded by a Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) grant. This is a new project of KEDCO, KEYS, and KCHC. These close and active ties between university researchers and their community partners produce a wider range of expertise and contacts, while providing the community with valuable information and access to university resources. KIP is actively creating and working with a variety of focus groups, some of which include representation from TESL Kingston and local community ESL providers.

Work in Kingston has been facilitated by the project's Local Engagement Committee, formed through a partnership between Queen's and the Kingston Immigraton Partnership (KIP), a project funded by a Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) grant. This is a new project of KEDCO, KEYS, and KCHC. These close and active ties between university researchers and their community partners produce a wider range of expertise and contacts, while providing the community with valuable information and access to university resources. KIP is actively creating and working with a variety of focus groups, some of which include representation from TESL Kingston and local community ESL providers.

So why should Kingston welcome this initiative? Aside from the obvious humanitarian benefits of fighting racism and facilitating the successful settlement of newcomers in Kingston, what many people seem not to realize is that smaller centres such as Kingston do not manage to retain many of the immigrants who arrive here. Some of the reasons are evident, and others are much less clear.

But one thing is very clear. One only needs to look at the demographics of cities such as ours to realize that we very much need much larger numbers of immigrants to settle here if we wish to thrive as a community.

The Kingston Immigration Partnership is a community-driven initiative to help build Kingston as a prosperous and diverse city through a collaborative approach to the settlement of immigrants.

According to Jeff Garrah, CEO, Kingston Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO): “Improving access to the local labour market for immigrants and strengthening the capacity of our community to integrate immigrants is critical to the future of Kingston.”

The service utilization aspect of the study will examine newcomers' experiences and satisfaction with the services currently in place in Ontario's small and medium-sized cities. The target groups are newcomers who are currently using services, past users and those who, for one reason or another, have never used newcomer services.

Critically, the research will distinguish the needs of specific demographic groups, at both province-wide and regional levels. Policy recommendations should emerge for all levels of government, as well as best practice recommendations for a range of service providers. The study will also benefit service providers who have yet to develop special newcomer practices.

Through seven scheduled assemblies, KIP will provide opportunities for the community to discuss and debate how best to move forward on issues of immigration and diversity. The next step will be to craft a community-defined strategy for attracting, retaining, supporting and integrating newcomers to Kingston. By March, 2010, they plan to form a Council to coordinate and integrate settlement and attraction services.

Ontario is giving people the ability to register online to find a family doctor. Urge your students who are still without a family doctor to try out this service.

The online service - being offered through Health Care Connect - is the next step in the McGuinty government's plan to increase access to family health care. The most recent data shows that approximately 800,000 more Ontarians have a family doctor now than in 2003. 

The Health Care Connect online registration tool provides:

• Round-the clock access to on-line registration
• Options to register more than one patient - you can register your family and dependants
• Registration that will connect patients to a Care Connector - a nurse who will help patients without a family health care provider to find one
• Security features to protect the privacy of your personal health information
• A link to the Health Care Options website, a medical services directory with a built in mapping system, for patients to find their local health care options

QUICK FACTS  

• 51 percent of Ontarians who have registered with Health Care Connect have been connected to a family health care provider, 81 percent with greater health care needs have been connected.
• The Primary Care Access Survey 2008 shows 300,000 patients have been attached since 2006, building on the 500,000 attached between 2003-2006.
• Health Care Connect will continue to register patients via the toll-free number: 1-800-445-1822.

To find out more about registering online, go to Health Care Connect or

Call ServiceOntario INFOline at 1-866-532-3161

Initially, POE will contain credential equivalencies for twenty-five countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK and USA. We expect the list will grow very soon to encompass the vast majority of countries.

This self-assessment tool is currently limited to a post-secondary degrees and recognized degree-granting institutions. It does not include secondary-level or other types of institutions and credentials.

The equivalencies provided are based on information in WES database. There is $30 fee to review equivalencies for three international credentials. This fee can be credited towards the cost of a formal evaluation report.

Note: Since the statement of equivalency is not based on a review of actual documents, it has no formal status, and cannot be used by an individual as proof that they have earned the degree described. Only a formal evaluation report can be used for purpose of degree authentication.

For more information, click here
To access the Preliminary Online Equivalency, click here.

Credential Evaluation for Newcomers by Peg Deaton, Roving Reporter, TESL Kingston

Approximately 40% of employers indicate that they would screen out internationally-educated applicants because they do not know how to assess their education. In order to break that barrier of what employers are thinking, WES aids foreign-trained professionals to apply for employment, apply for licensing or certification with professional associations, enter apprenticeship training programs and even to immigrate to Canada. For employers in Canada, the biggest issues are understanding foreign credentials and ascertaining language skills.

In working with the applicants there are three key questions: Does the work they do belong to one of the regulated professions? How will a credential assessment help them get a job? Why choose World Education Services?

WES is an international not-for-profit agency whose mission is to facilitate the employment and academic integration of immigrants through the provision of credential evaluation services. WES is recognized and funded, by the Government of Ontario, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. It has 30 years experience and does approximately 55,000 evaluations annually.

For teachers of these professionals the following contact information may be useful:

www.wes.org/ca At this site the individual may download the application form or complete the form on line.

www.edu.gov.on.ca (or call 1-888-562-4769) At this site or phone number the individual may obtain information related to regulated professions.

416-651-1496 Costi Translation Services

http://www.ilc.org/index.php or call 1-416-326-5775 At this site or number questions may be asked with regard to apprentice training.

www.apprenticesearch.com This site gives information about jobs for apprentices.

www.SkillsInternational.ca This site contains a searchable database of candidate profiles and is dedicated exclusively to profiling the skills of immigrant job seekers in Ontario. This tool unites pre-screened, internationally trained individuals with employers who need their skills.

www.wes.org/ca/apply/westoeic.asp This site allows newcomers to apply online for an evaluation of international educational credentials as well as registration for a TOEIC test.

For those using WES, Nancy stated that the most important document for foreign trained professionals to obtain is their transcripts. These should be sent directly from their university abroad to WES in a sealed envelope. Once those are received, their standard service is fast – 7 businesss days. For one fee, WES evaluates all the professional’s formal academic degrees or diplomas issued by educational institutions.

An on line application may be made to www.wes.org/ca/application . To check the status of a report online, the applicant may go to https://www/wes.org/ca/appstatus

For no extra charge, a second original copy of the report is sent directly to an institution of the professional’s choice. Course-by-course evaluation reports are preferred by educational institutions and licensing bodies. An evaluation can be used for employment, continuing education, licensing, entry to apprenticeship training programs and immigration purposes.

The cost of a document-by–document report is $115 per application. The cost of a detailed course-by-course report is $200 per application. An upgrade from document-by-document to Course-by-course report is $150. Rush service is available at an extra cost: same day service is $200, 3-day service is $100. Nancy recommends that one use the
same day service only if transcripts are already in the WES office.

If you would like a WES staff to contact you for an “Information Session” on their Evaluation Services and outreach to employers, contact Nancy Millward at 416-972-0070 ext. 26 or Kevin Kamal 416-972-0070 ext. 25.

You may order materials from WES to give to your students, including WES application forms in English or French, brochures about the TOEIC-WES application, WES hire-smart booklets, WES postcards, and a brochure on understanding a WES report. For these materials contact Kevin or Nancy at the above numbers.