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Skills for Change
Celebrating 20 years of service excellence
to New Canadians
SfCeNews
March 31, 2003
Volume 4 Issue 03
Skills for Change (SfC) is a
non-profit agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Our
mandate is to provide learning and training opportunities for
immigrants and refugees so that they can participate in the
workplace and wider community.
- In this
edition...
Job Fair 2003
New Pioneers Awards Gala
Cultural Interpreting Services
Calling All Past
New Pioneer Award Winners
Workshops offered
on Managing Workplace Diversity
Tax Clinic
Alumni Committee
Meets
DERC Info
Programs and Services
Updates
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Friday, April 25, 2003
10 am - 3 pm
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Attend our all day activities
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Attend a Workshop
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- Meet employers who are
hiring in the Retail, Accounting, Health Care, Engineering,
Administration, and Customer Service sectors
- Develop networking
contacts
- Have your resume critiqued
- Discover training
opportunities
- Meet representatives from
the regulatory body in your field
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- Alternative Employment
Options In Your Field
- Marketing Your Skills
- Internet Job Search Beyond
"Workopolis"
- English Is Not Enough For
Communicating With Employers
- Do You Need A portfolio?
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No registration required.
Job Fair 2003 will be held at 791 St. Clair Avenue West.
How to Reach Us
From the St. Clair West subway station,
take the westbound streetcar (512).
Get off one stop after Christie at Arlington.
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New Pioneers Awards
 The 2003 New Pioneers
Awards was presented on Thursday, March 20 at the Westin Harbour
Castle. Once again the gala evening was sold out. Attending guests
were inspired by the stories of the six Award recipients.
Skills for Change presents the annual New Pioneers Awards to raise
public awareness about the achievements made by immigrants and
refugees. If you are interested in sponsoring this awards program
or wish to nominate exceptional immigrants and refugees for next
year's New Pioneers Awards, please contact Karobi Ray at
416-658-3101 ext. 231 or by
email. More about the New Pioneers Awards
here.
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Award Winners
Yvonne Ng (Arts)
As a child
in her native Singapore, Yvonne Ng didn't know a whole lot about Canada —
except for the prime minister.
"He seemed to touch the entire world; he made a mark," says Ng, now a
contemporary dancer. "My father liked him, and I think that's one of the
reasons he chose Canada as a place for me to study.'' [more] |
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Adeena Niazi (Community Service)
Adeena Niazi says her message to new immigrants is simple and honest: your
future is in your own hands.
The founder of the Afghan Women's Organization, a Toronto-based support body
for newcomers to Canada, tells families to be prepared to work hard and set
realistic expectations. [more] |
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Klaus Nienkämper (Entrepreneurship)
Forty-three years later and now president of Toronto-based Nienkämper ICF
(International Contract Furnishing) — a successful furniture maker — the
62-year-old is still in disbelief over his good fortune. Modestly, he credits
much of his success to simply being in the right place at the right time. [more] |
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Elvino Sousa (Science & Technology)
Elvino Sousa believes Canada is the greatest country in the world but still
gives a lot of credit to his native Portugal for starting him on the right
foot.
Born in the Azores, a group of islands in the north Atlantic near Portugal,
Sousa says his early years growing up in a rural community made him innovative
and self-sufficient. [more] |
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Martha Kumsa (SfC Graduate)
Martha Kumsa says it's the "little things" that really make her appreciate her
life in Canada.
Those include being able to take a leisurely stroll without fear of being
kidnapped and put behind bars for her political beliefs.
Kumsa, 48, spent 10 years as a prisoner of conscience in her native Ethiopia
after writing for a newspaper that was critical of the brutal military regime
that had overthrown the country's monarchy. [more] |
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Azim Lila
(Youth)
Azim Lila is
a third year York University student majoring in business with a
specialization in information technology.
He's proud of his success and is looking to the future, but he admits it isn't
easy.
Born with a learning disability that impedes information processing, the
22-year-old has had to work harder than most students. At the end of the day,
however, he says he's better because of it. [more] |
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Sponsors
Skills for Change
gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our Sponsors.
Lead
Sponsor
CIBC
Arts Award Sponsor
Government of Canada
Community Service Award Sponsor
Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP
Entrepreneurship Award Sponsor
Sun Life Financial
Skills for Change Graduate Award Sponsor
Certified General Accountants of Ontario
Youth Award Sponsor
Xerox Canada Limited
Science and Technology Award Sponsor
S.M. Blair Family Foundation
Silver Sponsor
Teranet Inc.
Corporate Sponsors
Imperial Tobacco Inc.
VITA-TECH Laboratories
Official Television Sponsor
Citytv
Official English Print Sponsor
The Toronto Star
Official Chinese Print Sponsor
Sing Tao Daily
Radio Sponsor
EZRock
Corporate Table Sponsors
Bell Canada
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
BMO Financial Group
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Citizenship Immigration Canada
City of Toronto
CMA Canada
Department of Canadian Heritage
Franklin Templeton Investments Corporation
Knebel Watters & Associates
Labelad/Sandylion Sticker Design
Nienkämper
RBC Royal Bank
SLMsoft Inc.
St. Michael's Hospital
Sun Life Financial
Toronto Housing Corporation
University of Toronto
Multi-Health Systems Inc.
VITA-TECH Laboratories
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Silent Auction
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Thank you to the following individuals, companies and
organizations who donated goods or
services to our Silent Auction:
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SfC provides comprehensive,
high quality interpretation services.
We are always able to respond when you need us.
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- Calling All Past
New Pioneer Award Winners
 Skills
for Change is in the process of launching an advisory group of
past winners of the New Pioneers Award. The advisory group is
the idea of Dr. Alejandro Jadad,
2002 NPA
winner in the Science & Technology category and Director
of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation at the University
Health Network.
He believes that past NPA winners have a broad range of
experience and expertise that can help guide the agency in
meeting its goals of organizational sustainability and program
enhancement.
Dr. Jadad has agreed to chair the steering committee for the
group with an objective of a first meeting in May. If you are
a past New Pioneer Award winner and have not been contacted
regarding joining, contact David Hughes at ext. 216 or by
e-mail.
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Want to be
more competitive in the accounting and finance fields? |
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- Workshops offered
on Managing Workplace Diversity
It is only through valuing and pursuing workplace diversity
and managing it well that organizations can attract, retain
and encourage contributions from employees and work
effectively with customers and clients.
Toronto is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the
world. Organizations and employees are not always prepared for
the challenges presented by multicuturalism in both the work
and marketplace. The reality is that workplace diversity is a
critical dimension of the globalization of business.
Managers and employees - Skills for Change can help your
organization through customized workshops on Managing
Workplace Diversity either on site or at our agency office at
791 St. Clair Avenue West.
Core components of the program include Diversity Awareness,
Cross Cultural Interpretation and Communication, Effective
Communication, and Assertiveness Training.
For more information, contact Farida Zuberi at ext. 209 or by
e-mail.
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- Alumni Committee
Meets
 The
Alumni Committee met for the first time this year on February
27th. Committee members present included Nafeesa Afridi,
Silvia Litvin, Yatendra Shah, Afshin Ebtekar, Anca Vatavu, and
David Hughes (SfC staff).
The committee is developing programming and activities for SfC
graduates that will include networking and professional
opportunities. The next meeting of the committee is Monday,
March 31st.
Watch for upcoming events and activities in the next
newsletter. If you are interested in participating or want
more information, contact David Hughes at ext 216 or by
e-mail.
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- APRIL SPEAKERS' SERIES AT
THE DUFFERIN MALL EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE CENTRE
Cyber Space? The Information Highway? Web-a-what?
Tons of information is available online and sometimes that can
be overwhelming. Dufferin Mall Employment Resource Centre is
here to help.
In April, our Special Speakers' Series will feature
representatives/experts from popular web sites.
Meet the experts and learn how to use these web sites
effectively.
Visit DERC.ca for details.
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Programs and Services
Updates
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The next Evening Job Search Workshop
(JSW)
will be held April 7 to 16. Click
here for more information.
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Sathya Gnaniah, Program Coordinator for the
JSW program attended the "Leadership and Team Building
Conference" held March 19. Grace Ho,
JSW Program Ahere
ssistant attended the "The Front Desk Super Star
Seminar" on March 18. Both were organized by
Skillpath.
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On February 27, the
Mentoring program organized a panel discussion for engineering
clients. Panel members included Dr. Jeff Amini, Mr. Carmelo
Tancioco and Mr. Jack Wu, who are mentors currently volunteering
with the program.
A similar panel discussion was held the following week on March 6
for accountants. Panel members were Mr. Hesham Shafi, Mr. Seumas
So and Mr. Wayne Haymer, also currently volunteer mentors with the
program.
Discussions covered topics of interest to both groups, including
labour market trends, self-marketing and employers’ perspectives.
Both sessions generated a great deal of interest, with 34
engineers and 27 accountants participating in the two sessions.
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Employment Assistance Services (EAS)
held its first networking event for clients currently in the
program and for former clients still hoping to make their
employment connection in Canada.
Three former clients spoke about their journey and specific tools
they used that helped them to find employment in their profession.
The best part of the evening was the “networking” amongst the
attendees and their guests.
For further information about EAS,
e-mail or phone us
416 658-3101 ext. 815.
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Tech@Skills graduations were held in March. The Quality
Assurance Program and Control Training graduation was held March 8
[photos]
and ACCPAC graduations were held March 23 [photos].
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SfC Changes
n Ramsay Kane joins SfC as the
new Sector Terminology Information & Counselling (STIC)
Program Coordinator. Ramsey holds a Master of Arts in Counselling
Psychology from the Alfred Adler Institute of Professional
Psychology, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and
certificates from several other institutions.
He has worked as Project Officer at
NAMERES
(Native Men's Residence). Overall, Ramsey has almost 20
years of experience in the non-profit sector. He enjoys and
practices volunteering on Boards of Directors for community
agencies. |
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Acronym Soup
Confused? Don't be. Here's a list
of our agency acronyms, what they mean and (where applicable) a
link to the program web page.
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CES - Clerical Employment Services
CIS - Cultural Interpreting Service
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EAS - Employment Assistance Services
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EPRS - Employment for Retail Services
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ERC - Employment Resource Centre
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FOAP - Finance & Office Assistant Program
- IAT - Intake, Assessment and
Training
- JSC - Job Search Centre
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JSW - Job Search Workshop
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LINC - Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada
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NPA - New Pioneers Awards
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STIC - Sector Terminology Information & Counselling
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Comments
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we would like to hear from you.
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Skills for Change
791 St. Clair Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6C 1B8
A
United Way member agency
Skills for Change is a
registered non-profit organization
Charitable registration #121471858RR0001
Telephone 416 658-3101 · Fax 416 658-6292
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