Thank you. We're grateful for the opportunity to present to you today.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada supports and encourages children and youth to achieve great futures. We have 96 member clubs. We see 200,000 children and youth through our doors each year and we have service locations in 625 local communities.
Several of our Boys and Girls Clubs have stepped up to help welcome the Syrian refugees. In fact, they welcome newcomers every time they arrive in communities. They're working with settlement agencies. They have opened their doors specifically for the Syrian refugees during the day, have arranged transportation for children and youth to be bused from school or from housing projects to club programs, and are integrating youth into regular after-school programs.
They're noticing that parents are busy working very hard to integrate, that families are large, and that children and youth need that extra support, even help with homework or having some sporting activities, some recreation in their lives, especially youth and young adults who struggle most when their parents do not speak English or French and who require that extra support for school and possibly to find some employment, such as many of our Canadian-born youth have in their adolescence.
Boys and Girls Clubs has submitted a written brief to the committee. We have two main recommendations. We would like to see the government give some thought to how we can support young people in the short and medium term to integrate. We think that youth programming that helps them make connections to their community, encourages their leadership, supports them through homework, and helps them find that first job or volunteer opportunities is very important and that the programs should be universal, open to all newcomer youth regardless of their immigration class or their country of origin.
We have invited Hayat Said to speak to her experience of immigration and the importance that such programs have had for her.