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Skills for Change
Celebrating 20 years of service excellence
to New Canadians
SfCeNews
May 30, 2003
Volume 4 Issue 05
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...
Minister
of Citizenship and Immigration visits
New
Pioneer Award Recipients to Form Advisory Group
Passing
the Torch
Volunteer of the Month
Programs and Services
Updates
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Minister
of Citizenship and Immigration visits
On May 21, 2003, Skills for Change
had the honour of hosting a short visit and community reception
for Minister Denis Coderre.
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Carolyn Bennett, MP, St. Paul’s and Denis Coderre, Minister of
Citizenship and Immigration |
SfC was approached
by the office of Carolyn Bennett, MP, St. Paul’s to host the
reception at Skills for Change.
Accompanying the Minister was MP Carolyn Bennett and Pierre
Gaulin, Director, Settlement/Port of Entry Directorate. Guests
attending the reception included community leaders from the St.
Paul’s riding - social, cultural, educational, business,
religious, political.
The Minister was in Toronto to be a guest speaker at a Town Hall
Meeting in the riding on the topic of Canada's Immigration
Practices: Building a Nation.
Peggy Edwards, SfC’s Executive Director, gave the Minister a tour
of our facilities. The Minister also spoke directly with some of
our current clients and graduates of the Job Search Workshop (JSW)
about their experiences.
 In
the words of Peggy Edwards, the visit was an unexpected,
long-hoped-for opportunity to have the attention of the Minister
for dialogue on issues relating to SfC’s work and the clients that
we serve, to hear first hand about his plans regarding settlement
and integration and to discuss possible areas for collaborative
endeavours.
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New
Pioneer Award Recipients to Form Advisory Group
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Dr.
Alex Jadad |
Past recipients of
the New Pioneers Award will meet Monday, June 16th from 6-9 pm at
Skills for Change. As a group they explore the creation of an
advisory group to assist the agency with its mandate of assisting
newcomers to Canada with integration into the labour market and
Canadian society.
Under the leadership of Dr. Alex Jadad (Science and Technology,
2002), the group will discuss how they might help the agency in
the areas of fundraising, corporate outreach, partnership
opportunities, and creating links to the various ethno-cultural
communities in the GTA.
In addition, the group will examine how the 66 past recipients
might benefit from such a network. If you are a past award winner
and have not received an invitation, please contact David Hughes
at ext. 216 or by e-mail at
hughes@skillsforchange.org. |
Program starts June
23, 2003
More Information
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Passing
the Torch
 On
June 9, Stephen Beaupré, Resource Officer at Dufferin Mall
ERC, will pass the torch to Chantal Symes, who will be
replacing him during his year’s leave of absence.
ERC staff, volunteers and clients will miss Stephen’s calm,
supportive demeanour, quiet strength and exceptional communication
skills - not only in English but also in Russian, Chinese and
French. Stephen has been responsible for coordinating our evening
clinics and for helping to develop a strong volunteer program. We
wish him success and satisfaction in this next year as he earns a
Master of Arts at the University of Toronto.
We are pleased, however, that Chantal, who for the past three
years has been the Employment Counsellor in the STIC Program at
SfC, has agreed to pick up the torch. The ERC’s gain is truly
STIC’s loss. Chantal is known for being a team player within the
STIC team. She never forgets a birthday or lets an achievement
pass by without recognition. She has developed the Employment
Counsellor’s position into what it is today. Her creativity does
not go unnoticed.
She is always willing to take on new initiatives and develops new
ways of conducting business. Chantal’s smile and happy demeanor
will be missed here at 791. Her upbeat attitude lifts everyone on
the team to new heights. We at 791 wish Chantal the very best and
we appreciate the fact that she will still be a part of the Skills
for Change family.
Au revoir, Stephen! Welcome, Chantal!
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Skills for
Change salutes Shutaro Maki, a reception desk volunteer at the Dufferin Mall Employment Resource Centre.
Shutaro writes: |
"When I came to Canada I couldn’t
speak English at all. Even buying coffee was difficult for me. So
I decided to take a co-op program in ESL to improve my English
skills.
I was thinking, "I have to put myself in a hard situation for me;
otherwise I won’t get satisfaction about my English skills." I
wanted to get a lot of opportunities to talk with native speakers.
I still can’t believe that I am working at DERC as a volunteer.
The way I communicate with people - compared to my first English
skills - is amazing for me. I decided to be at the front desk to
answer the phone and deal with clients because I thought if I were
at the front desk I would have to know about the facilities. I
have been getting used to working here and being helped by staff.
I think I have been given lots of possibilities to succeed in my
future. I have to look for a job after going back to Japan. I am
sure that this experience will help me become self-confident and
advance my future.
I have been here for three months. Time goes by really quickly for
me. Obviously, my English skills are improving, I believe. I
really want to say thank you very much for being patient and
letting me try to do a lot of things that I wanted to."
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Programs and Services
Updates
 n
Toronto Lakeside HRDC approved the purchase of 20 new Pentium 4
computers for the use of
ERC clients. On Friday, May 16, seven volunteers helped ERC
staff to unpack and install the new equipment. The clients’
response has been ecstatic – no more frustration while awaiting
for files to load and the Internet to appear.
n
On May 16, seven participants completed the five-day
ERC Newcomers Communicating with Employers workshop series
n
STIC Employment Outreach Specialist, Darshak Vaishnav and Elga
Nikolova, Coordinator,
ONIP.online,
represented SfC at the STIC and Pilot Projects workshop at the
Ontario Association of Help Centres Conference on Tuesday, May 27
in London, Ontario.
The SfC team participated in a panel discussion where the STIC
concept was presented. This was followed by a report from various
other pilot projects describing how they adapted the STIC model to
their particular needs. The other presenters also related how
their pilot projects were structured, and discussed the successful
parts of their project.
n
Norma Bernal,
STIC Facilitator, gave a presentation to the Settlement and
Education Partnership in York Region at their Multicultural
Orientation Program for Newcomers to Canada in Downsview, May 25.
She gave a one hour presentation on “Access to Trades &
Professions”.
n
Lourdes Vicente and Betsy Chan, both
STIC Facilitators, attended a “High Tech Career Strategies
Workshop” on May 28. at MicroSkills in Etobicoke. They found the
presentation on contemporary IT trends informative and useful in
their own work.
n
Ramsay Kane,
STIC Program Coordinator, attended a presentation by Lionel
LaRoche, Ph.D., P.Eng. at York Humber Social Service Office May
23. Mr. LaRoche presented “Working With Internationally Educated
Professionals”.
n
Moody Faraq of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) gave a
presentation on the licensing process of Engineers in Ontario May
27.
n
Carl Kaufman, of the Toronto Workers’ Health and Safety Legal
Clinic, gave presentations about Employment Standards and Health &
Safety as well as information on legal clinics, May 6 and May 27.
n
The daytime Job Search Workshop (JSW)
is in progress. The next evening workshop is scheduled to begin
June 9th.
n
JSW program organized a get together to acknowledge the
contribution of SfC team members from other programs on Wednesday
May 7, 2003. There was lot of fun and joy in those few minutes
together. Thank you everyone for your support and help.
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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
ONIP - Ontario
Network for Internationally-training Professionals Online
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NPA - New Pioneers Awards
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STIC - Sector Terminology Information & Counselling
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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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