Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, honourable committee members, staff, and ladies and gentlemen.
I'd like to proceed directly to three examples of best practices successes at our centre, if I may.
The first would be the delivery of settlement services. This is generally the point of first contact for many of our newcomers. Newcomers often come to us in crisis mode. Staff members deal with issues like separation anxiety, housing, and employment concerns and many others.
Staff are prepared, and they offer services, support, options, and appropriate referrals to programs and to community services/resources once clients' concerns have been assessed in a case-by-case evaluation. Often for our newcomers, meeting with settlement workers is the first step towards successful integration into our community. Oftentimes, after clients have been settled within our community, they have referred to our centre as their first home.
The second example would be the delivery of English as a second language. There is a positive correlation between the level of understanding of the English language and easier integration, acculturation, and acclimatization into our community. Critical survival skills are acquired from reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This makes the transition into the community much easier.
As Paul pointed out, a perfect example is that bag. A newcomer looks at that and sees green, but what does “green” refer to? Is the colour of the bag? Is it another program? What does it mean?
The third example is the production of the Niagara Folk Arts Festival, which is Canada's oldest continuously running heritage festival. It's generally a 17-day celebration that promotes, recognizes, and respects multiculturalism.
There are several highlights to this festival, one being the ambassadors' ball, where multicultural club members choose ambassadors to represent them year round at various events promoting their heritage. I should say that we have approximately 33 multicultural club members affiliated with our centre, so there is a connection there.
We have opening ceremonies and a parade in which where ambassadors and club members can march from our centre to the front steps of city hall--it's a short march--where the opening ceremonies are officially declared.
The third highlight would be the citizenship ceremonies where former clients and newcomers are actually sworn in as new Canadians, which is really a fantastic thing, and that's right at our centre.
The next highlight would be the approximately 26 open houses that are hosted by our club members, again celebrating and promoting multiculturalism through entertainment, traditional cuisine--food is always involved, of course--and artifact displays.
Then there is the final event, culminating in a local venue at the end of the festival.
What better way to demonstrate annually the ultimate settlement and successful integration of no less than 30 different multicultural groups in the area who have called St. Catharines/Niagara home for decades?
I'd like to move directly to programs that are offered at the centre. There are youth host programs, job search workshops, ESL LINC, child-minding services, and settlement services. All of these programs are funded in whole or in part by the federal government and CIC. What the government is providing us is crucial to our centre.
I'm going to go to recommendations and closing remarks.
We recommend to the committee that it implore the government to continue to fund centre programs that help newcomers integrate into St. Catharines/Niagara.
We ask you to please be cognizant of the softer skills programs, such as counselling, emotional support, and life skills training.
We ask the government to continue to respond to the special needs of refugees. Our centre in St. Catharines is located near the largest port of entry for refugees in Canada, the municipality of Fort Erie, which is about a 25-minute automobile drive from our city. Refugees may require more extensive education, training, retraining, and emotional support since many of them have suffered from violence and trauma.
We recommend that the government support professional development for staff to better serve our clients.
The last recommendation is that consideration be given to a program that deals directly with immediate outreach services support and assistance to clients upon arrival in their host community. My understanding is that there is such a program. I believe it's the RAP, for government-sponsored refugees. We're looking at something to serve the newcomers as well.
The federal government, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and the Department of Canadian Heritage fund more than 90% of our programs. All of our programs assist newcomers to make an easier transition to life in St. Catharines/Niagara, Canada, without the duplication of services at our centre.
At the centre we respect, love, promote, celebrate, and live plurality. The government is doing an outstanding job in supporting programs. Without the support of the federal government and all stakeholders, our centre would not exist.
There's an open invitation to honourable committee members and staff to contact any of our board members or any of our staff after we present today if you require any further information.
Thank you.