Right to Play will be presenting their curriculum Learning to Play, Playing to Learn at the Oct 17-18/08 Ontario Physical Health and Education Association (OPHEA) conference
It is heartening to see the description of the session highlighting the rights of the child:
“Activities feature an exploration of children around the world, the countries they live in and a study of our rights and responsibilities in the world community”.
The 3rd annual On New Shores conference has released a tentative program for the Nov 6-7/08 event, to be held at the University of Guelph. From organizer Dr. Susan Chuang:
The goals of this conference are to bring together leading scholars from various disciplines (psychology, sociology, education, social work, nursing etc.), professionals (from settlement agencies, family programs), and governmental agenices to: 1) present work on various issues (e.g., socio-emotional development, parent-child relationships, language brokering, literacy, educational isses) and effective programs (for children, youth, parents); 2) have in-depth discussions about current issues and challenges faced by families, organizations, and research); and 3) create opportunities to foster future colloabrations.
Registration is also open. For information, see Dr. Susan Chuang’s webpage at the University of Guelph.
Ryerson University’s Immigration and Settlement Studies program has issued a call for papers for a conference entitled Contemplating Migration and Settlement In Global and Local Contexts, to be held on October 4th, 2008. Open to all grad students. For info, see the Ryerson ISS site.
Deadline is August 22nd.
Toronto-based Hospital for Sick Children is holding a conference on September 19th entitled Everyday Diversity: Better Paediatric Health Outcomes. Conference goals are to: increase awareness of diversity within a paediatric health care setting; identify issues that influence practice and patient outcomes; develop strategies to address diversity and enhance the quality of care for children.
A call for posters has been issued. Poster themes are to address diversity and its influence on relations, practice and patient outcomes in relation to:
Clinical excellence and strategies promoting: a healthy work environment; family centered care
Education innovations addressing patient and family or staff needs
Research innovations addressing vulnerable patient populations and staff needs
Health policy imperatives that build capacity: for health HR; for patients and family health; for the broader health care system.
Send 250 word maximum abstract to linda.quintal@sickkids.ca. Deadline is August 19.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada is hosting an ISAP (Immigration Settlement Adaption Program) conference Nov 3-8 and again Nov 25-28 to be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
The conference theme is Building Canada’s Future: The Role of the Settlement Sector in Canada. A call for proposals has been issued which includes a request for sessions on children, families and parenting.
Deadline is July 31/08. For more information, see the posting on settlement.org At Work.
From Sept 25-26, 2008 the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice will host the conference Reasonable Accommodation and the Role of the State: A Democratic Challenge, in Quebec City, QC.
No specific sessions on young children and/or families, but a section on “Education Services” includes consultants Bergman Fleury and Zanana Akande.
Related link: The Bouchard-Taylor Commission on Reasonable Accommodation.
The Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood Annual Conference will be held Nov 13-15, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. The conference theme is Honouring the Child, Honouring Equity 8: Young Citizen(s), New Citizenship(s). Key themes to be addressed include:
How are the possibilities for citizenship and for children being imagined and practiced in diverse contexts?
How can we transform relationships with children to create greater reciprocity and respect?
What are the local and global possibilities for enacting ethical citizenship processes and practices with young children?
What local and global and global linkages can inspire new possibilities for children’s citizenship(s)?
How do issues of diversity, difference and identity intersect with possibilities for honouring children, honouring equity?
Call for proposals closes July 16/08.
The Fraser Institute is holding a conference on Canadian immigration policy June 4-5 in Montreal, QC. Subtitled “Reassessing the economic, demographic and social impact on Canada”, the conference rationale includes the following:
“In recent decades there have been serious shortcoming in the design of immigration programs as well as the need for major review of the assumptions on which current policies are based. These include:… The low average incomes of the recent immigrants combined with the universality of access to social benefits have resulted in a significant fiscal burden on Canadian taxpayers especially because of the large number of immigrants who have entered Canada under the family reunification and refugee programs, and thus did not have to meet the standards required of independent (i.e. skilled immigrants)”.
The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration will host a keynote and evening reception. Also in the program, sessions on: The current state of Canadian immigration policy; Labour market productivity implications of immigration; Immigration and an aging population; Integration of immigrants-issues of national identity, multiculturalism and security; The challenges of reforming immigration policy (with Sir Andrew Green of Migration Watch UK).
A luncheon address includes the official opposition critic for immigration, Catherine Morisette, Action Démocratique du Québec and second opposition critic for immigration, Martin Lemay, Parti Québécois.
No specific sessions devoted to immigrant children or families.
An international, interdisciplinary graduate student conference on literacy studies will be held at Ohio State University April 3-5/09. Proposals will begin being reviewed as of September 1/08 and will be accepted until October 15/08.
From the conference website: The theme Expanding Literacy Studies “draws from the larger conversation on literacy and literacy studies, the many myths of literacy and the growing number of new and emergent literacies”.
9 other US universities are involved. Let’s get some Canadian scholars in immigrant children studies participating and ensure L1 issues and solutions are part of this conference.
The Canadian Public Health Association is holding its annual conference this year in Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 1-4. Sessions on or related to immigrant children and families include:
Immigrant and Migrant Health – I
Development of a framework to examine the determinants of health among Canadian immigrants, with Marie DesMeules
Studying intra-metropolitan health disparities in Canada: how and why globalization matters, with Ted Schrecker
Migration, Health and equity issues for Canada in the context of global migration, with Janet Hatcher Roberts
Using administrative data to analyze the health experience of African Nova Scotians, with Mikiko Terashima
Focus on Children’s Health
Children immigrants’ risk of physical inactivity according to family origin and length of residency, with Mathieu Bélanger
Immigrant and Migrant Health – II
Meanings of health, illness and help-seeking strategies among punjabi-speaking immigrants, with Beatrice McDonough
Migration and perinatal health surveillance: An international DELPHI survey, with Anita Gagnon
Migration to industrialized countries and perinatal health: A systematic review, with Anita Gagnon
Childbearing migrant women and equal access to research participation, with Amy Low
For more information, see the PDF program.