ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Funding

  • Maytree's proposed (economic) immigration strategy

    The Maytree Foundation held an online media event (teleconference and webinar) on their latest paper “Adjusting the Balance: Fixing Canada’s Economic Immigration Policies”. In the online Q&A after the presentation, Naomi Alboim informed us that she is now working on another paper that will address the live-in caregiver and seasonal agricultural worker programs. We look forward to an examination of family reunification and transnational families in the next paper.

    NB: Maytree and Naomi Alboim used the term “family unification” v. family reunification. We like it!

    Visit the Maytree Foundation site to download the current paper, the online presentation notes and after July 27th, the online media event.

  • Integration v. multiculturalism

    Federal Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, The Honourable Jason Kenney Friday, July 10/09 announced $9.5 Million to Calgary immigrant serving organizations delivering language training. Citing once again the well-known quote by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Kenney reiterated that “newcomers have a right to be different but a duty to integrate”. Adding:

    “Our new focus is on integration. We don’t want to create a bunch of silo communities where kids grow up in a community that more resembles their parents’ country of origin than Canada”. (Source: The Canadian Press).

    Calgary immigrant serving organizations were happy to receive the funds, however, no details were made available on whether or how much of this funding is allocated to children’s settlement and language training.

  • Financial literacy program for newcomer women

    The St. Joseph Immigrant Women’s Centre in Hamilton, Ontario today received over $130,000 to support a financial literacy program for immigrant women. The Centre works with refugee and immigrant women and “provides services including labour market training and support, language and driving instruction, educational funding, and health services for women and their families”.
    Minister of State, Status of Women, Helena Guergis made the announcement today. From the news release:
    “New Canadians play a vital role in contributing to Canada’s economy. Especially during these tough economic times, it is more important than ever that new Canadians have the opportunity and skills to contribute fully,” said Minister Guergis. “By supporting the St. Joseph’s Immigrant Women’s Centre in carrying out this important project, our Government is working to ensure that immigrant and refugee women have the tools they need to overcome poverty”.
    immigrantchildren.ca hopes that child care is supported as one of the tools to lift newcomer families out of poverty – and provide children with quality early learning opportunities.

  • Young Canadian Muslim women

    Status of Women Canada have funded the Canadian Council of Muslim Women to direct a project to assist the integration and inclusion of young Muslim women and girls.
    From the April 2/09 news announcement:

    Status of Women Canada will provide $314,000 for a project called “Being a Canadian Muslim Woman in the 21st Century.” It will focus on equipping young Muslim women to lead and participate in a number of workshops with their educators and non-Muslim and male peers to discuss discrimination, violence and human rights.

    The Council will be working in partnership with two other organizations – the Afghan Women’s Organization of Toronto and YOUCAN.
    A description of the project from the Status of Women website:

    This project will involve seven schools from across Ontario located in Toronto, London, Peel and Waterloo. Muslim girls and their classmates will develop leadership skills as well as knowledge of their rights regarding gender equality, racial equality and how to eliminate violence in their lives. Muslim girls, with the assistance of their educators, non-Muslim and male peers, will form a Steering Committee in each school. These Committees will lead a series of workshops addressing discrimination, violence and human rights. A Steering Committee Coordinator will organize each school to contribute to the formation of a tool for educators. This tool will provide a basis for reacting sensitively and knowledgably to the issues facing young Muslim women in the 21st century.

  • Metropolis funding for projects that examine "effective partnerships" in delivery of immigrant & settlement services

    Metropolis National Research Competition, an initiative of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), has issued a call for proposals. This year’s research question is:

    From the point of view of governments and of newcomers and minorities, are government-NGO partnerships the most effective model for delivering services for integration and inclusion in Canada?

    Deadline is September 30, 2009.
    For details about the call, including eligibility, process, application forms and more, see this SSHRC page.

  • Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on immigrant children

    The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism was interviewed on TVO’s The Agenda last week. Click here to see and hear the entire interview.
    Did the Minister have anything to say about immigrant/newcomer children? Yes! On integration:

    “We want to be deliberate about it and we want to make sure that we don’t end up with a series of parallel communities where children grow up in a community that more resembles their parents country of origin than Canada”.

    An example on “basic social and linguistic integration”:

    “If you’re a young guy, you’re arriving with your parents from China, you live in Richmond, you might go to a school where all the kids speak Cantonese or Mandarin as first language, that’s the language of entertainment, at home on the computer, at the movie theatre, with your peer group, I/we want to make sure that a young guy like that doesn’t end up limiting his opportunities in Canada just by retarding linguistic integration, which is after all the pathway to successful economic and social integration”.

    An interesting interview, uncovering Kenney’s plans to reshape citizenship and multiculturalism. Look for an announcement soon from Minister Kenney on a Blue Ribbon panel to tackle a new citizenship test.

  • Diversity fund, Children's Aid Foundation

    Announced today the Children’s Aid Foundation, in partnership with RBC, has launched a Diversity Fund that will provide social service agencies with resources to support their work with a diverse population. Information will be made available on such topics as helping families dealing with Canadian winters and coping with trauma and post-traumatic stress for refugee families, as two examples. 
    Read the news release.

  • Sick Kids Hospital receives settlement funding

    The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has received over 9 million in settlement funding to establish an “immigrant support network“. 
    The network will provide translations of 45 “core patient health education” articles into languages spoken by newcomer patients and their families, including Chinese, French, Tamil, Spanish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Vietnamese and Arabic. Articles will be posted on sickkids.ca and aboutkidshealth.ca.

  • Federal developments

    The 2nd session of Canada’s 40th Parliament opened Monday, January 26, 2009 with a Speech from the Throne. 
    On Wednesday, January 27, 2009, the federal government released their budget. The budget includes $50 million to support the work of the Foreign Credential program.
    The federal Liberal party announced new critic portfolios in their shadow cabinet including Member of Parliament for Brampton-Springdale, Ontario, Ruby Dhalla as critic for “Multiculturalism and Youth”. Maurizio Bevilacqua (MP for Vaughn, Ontario) remains critic for Citizenship and Immigration.

  • CIC funding announcement for Nova Scotia: Benefits children and families, says YMCA

    The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration today announced 10.3 milliion in funding to support 3,000 immigrants to Nova Scotia. “We need new Canadians and we need to help them settle comfortably in our communities” said Peter MacKay, MP for Central Nova and federal Minister of National Defense and Atlantic Canada Opportunities agency.
    YMCA VP for Community Outreach and Family Services, Brenda Millar, was pleased with the funding – some of it going to the YMCA:

    “Our YMCA programs help create stronger communities. We achieve this by helping immigrants settle in their new communities, as well as by educating members of our Nova Scotia communities about the issues and barriers that newcomers face in adjusting and adapting to a new language, culture, climate and community, while maintaining their own. With our special emphasis on programs for immigrant children/youth and their families, Citizenship and Immigration Canada ensures that we can promote diversity as part of building more inclusive communities”.