ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Events

  • March 21 is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

    March 21 is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. A few key resources for this initiative are:

    United Nations/UNICEFs Cyberbus
    UNESCO
    Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Multiculturalism Program

  • Diversity matters conference, BC

    Conference call. Diversity Matters: An Ongoing Conversation, sponsored by Providence Health Care, BC and Covenant Health, AB will be held November 2-3, 2009 at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Vancouver BC. From the conference brochure:

    Conference Description 

    Healthcare practitioners, educators, and community service providers face increasingly diverse populations in their professional work. This diversity includes an expanding range of unfamiliar patient beliefs, preferences and expectations about the “right” way to learn, maintain health, make treatment decisions, and communicate. These changes are also often accompanied by significant language and other symbolic barriers between providers and the people served. New or different inter-professional competencies and organizational approaches are therefore needed to ensure the provision of safe and ethical care. Presenters at this conference share their knowledge and practical experiences in transforming models of health care to better serve our culturally diverse patient populations. 

    Conference Objectives 

    1. Raise awareness of the implicit values and premises of health care delivery 
    2. Provide knowledge about diverse health models, beliefs, and practices encountered with multicultural and multi-religious patient populations 
    3. Learn culturally competent approaches for engaging with religious and culturally diverse patients, families, and communities 
    4. Understand the communication issues and skills needed to provide education to diverse patient and provider populations 
    5. Identify systemic barriers and solutions for serving limited or non-English speaking patients, residents, families, and communities.

  • My New Home, TVO documentary about immigrant children

    From the press release:

    TVO examines the immigrant experience through a child’s eyes in a special interactive event beginning with part one of the two part documentary, My New Home. The film is followed by a live, interactive webcast discussion on Your Voice at tvoparents.com on the immigrant experience in Ontario. This event airs during Belong or Bust: Where Do I Fit In?, a week of premier documentaries, dramas and current affairs programs that explore a variety of viewpoints on the themes of culture and identity and our place in society.

    My New Home premieres Sunday March 22 at 8pm and again on Sunday March 29 at 8pm on TVO. Directed by Daisy Asquith and produced by Ricochet Productions.

  • Immigrant and refugee mothers and children's health, Toronto event

    CERIS – the Ontario Joint Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration Studies – presents a pubic seminar on Immigrant and Refugee Mothers and Children’s Health Friday, March 6/09 from 12noon to 2pm. 
    Two sessions. First, Dr. Laura Simich, CERIS Domain Leader for Health and Well-being presents: 

    Meeting the Needs of Chinese Immigrant Families: The Case of ‘Satellite Babies’ with presenteres Dr. Yvonne Bohr, LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution, York University and Natasha Whitfield, York University. Discussant is Dr. Taryn Tang, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

    The second session, presented by Dr. Olive Wahoush, Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University:

    Preschoolers in Refugee and Asylum Seeking Families: What do Mothers do when their Child is Ill? with discussant Dr. Hayley Hamilton, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

    The event takes place at CERIS, 246 Bloor St. West, 5th floor, room 548, Toronto. Registration is free at ceris.reception@utoronto.ca or 416.946.3110.

  • Canadian refugee health conference

    The Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto presents the Canadian Refugee Health Conference from Nov 24-25, 2009 at the University of Toronto Conference Centre. 
    Conference objectives include:

    • closing clinical gaps in refugee health
    • capacity building in refugee health
    • networking and information exchange
    • educating health care providers
    • building partnerships with refugee stakeholders
    • building advocacy for refugee and uninsured populations.

    The conference, although clinical in nature, is open to everyone and the conference organizers hope to attract refugees, practitioners, advocates, academics and researchers to the event.
    For more information, visit the conference website.

  • Managing migration in the 21st Century: North America and the internationalization of public policy

    The International Migration Research Centre at WIlfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario is holding a policy makers roundtable on “Managing Migration in the 21st Century: North America and the Internationalization of Public Policy”.
    A description of the event:

    International migration is a prominent issue both within and between western industrialised states, and it has generated a growing recognition that effective national policies require significant international policy coordination. In the North American context, however, the increase and expansion of joint efforts to manage this policy area have been (in comparison with the European Union) so rapid and relatively uncoordinated that neither their extent nor their implications have been adequately outlined, never mind understood. The sheer scope of these developments can be seen in the fact that they touch on all forms of international migration to and within the region – legal and illegal, permanent and temporary, family and labour, tourist and refugee. The need to examine the practical features of such policy change is underlined further by the fact that they raise vital questions about state sovereignty and public accountability, for example, at both conceptual and political levels in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

    The event will take place April 17, 2009. Location still TBD. For more info, contact Dr. Jenna L. Hennebry, imrc.wlu@gmail.com, 519.884.0170 ext 4489.

  • BIOTC conference, Toronto

    UNICEF Canada, The Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, the Faculty of Law and David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, University of Toronto and Justice for Children and Youth are holding a conference on the Best Interests of the Child: Meaning and Application in Canada February 27-28, 2009 at the Faculty of Law, UofT. The conference is supported by Heritage Canada.
    Taken from the conference website:

    “The Best Interests of the Child is one of the basic principles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has been interpreted and applied in different ways in a variety of different contexts in Canada. In 2003, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Canada work toward a common understanding and more consistent application of the principle, at the level of public policy formation as well as in decision-making for individual children. 
    “The objective of this conference is to deepen understanding of the principle, share experiences of its application, and identify good practices for implementation in Canada. The intended outcome of the initiative is a more common understanding of the principle and improved implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canada, including publication of significant findings”.

    Organizers are open to receiving submissions for panel presentation and facilitating workshops.  For more information, see the conference website or contact bnoakes@unicef.ca.

  • Awards galore

    Three groups have announced their annual awards:
    The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT). Three awards available “to recognize the valuable contributions individuals make to build an equitable and just society; and to recognize those who have made a sustained and innovative contribution in the community, demonstrating leadership, initiative, perseverance, and originality”.  Some immigrant children’s champions are likely good candidates for some of these awards. 
    The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) Immigrant Success Awards recognize “employers and individuals in the Toronto Region that are leaders in recruiting, retaining and promoting skilled immigrants in the workplace”. Maybe this year, taking action on the issue of child care for working immigrant parents will elevate an employer’s chances at receiving an award.
    Immigrant Services Canada in Calgary bestows awards in five categories for Immigrant of Distinction. Two categories (non-profit and community service) are likely places for immigrant children’s champions.

  • Best Start Resource Centre annual conference (Toronto)

    Best Start: Ontario’s Maternal, Newborn and Child Development Resource Centre (BSRC) is holding their annual conference Feb 23-25/09 in Toronto. Of interest to immigrantchildren.ca readers, these two workshops (descriptions taken from the conference website):

    Giving Birth in a New Land, with Saleha Bismilla, Toronto Public Health

    The changing demographics of Ontario have an impact for service providers such as nurses, physicians, midwives, and community workers who work in reproductive health. Women from diverse cultural backgrounds may have different needs and expectations when accessing health services. Service providers should be sensitive to these needs and can help women and their partners to prepare for having a baby in Ontario. 

    Child Language Development in Bilingual or Multilingual Environments, with Laurie-Ann Staniforth, First Words

    This concurrent session will provide an overview of normal child language development in bilingual or multilingual environments. Bilingualism in the context of language delay or disorder will also be discussed. This session will include practical considerations for service providers such as issues to consider and how to work with and support bi- and multilingual children and families.


  • Blog Action Day '08 – Poverty

    immigrantchildren.ca is participating in today’s Blog Action Day ’08 – Poverty. 
    Blog Action Day is an annual non-profit event that unites the world’s bloggers, videographers, writers and activists to take action on the same issue on the same day, and “trigger a global discussion”.
    For immigrant children and their families in Canada, poverty is certainly an issue. In their annual report on the state of Canada’s children, Campaign 2000 last year highlighted that children of recent immigrants are more likely to live in poverty in their report, It Takes a Nation to raise a Generation.
    Community Foundations of Canada annual report card Canada’s Vital Signs 2008 also highlights the issue of poverty among immigrant families. 
    A related upcoming event: The Canadian Council on Social Development is holding their first Canadian Social Forum on poverty in Calgary May 19-22/09. Delegates might consider raising the issue of poverty among immigrant families with young children.