The problems and challenges that we see are the different school systems that the parents are coming from. There isn't much involvement of parents in their children's education. Once the child goes to school, it is the teacher's responsibility. The concept of being involved in the child's life is non-existent. Most of the families we see are illiterate in their own language.
The school system is very intimidating and overwhelming. The concept of being different.... They come from a homogenous community. They are not really very familiar with the fact that there are diversities and there is potential for bullying, isolation, and things like that.
The other important factor is that many of these newcomer refugees have been out of school for two or three years. We have seen young children who have never actually seen a formal school. They don't understand the school system, so this is one of the biggest challenges.
The school boards have been very co-operative in the GTA, the greater Toronto area, in reaching out to settlement organizations and to us, specifically. We have worked with the Peel District School Board and the Toronto District School Board in the ESL context and in the special education context.
There has been a lot of communication, but a lot of work has to trickle down from the board itself to the people on the ground, to cross-collaborate with settlement organizations and organizations that actually know the community that is coming in and how to coach them. SWIS workers play a big role in connecting with settlement organizations, but there is also a lot of work to be done on the part of settlement organizations in terms of educating parents on how to be involved in their children's school.
One more thing I would like to say is that we are seeing a very new demographic that we haven't seen before, the very young parents. We would see clients who fit under the category of youth. They are under 24, but they are actually parents of two or three children at that time.
That is a bigger challenge, because the age category.... They are considered youth, but the services are mainly targeted at 14 to 18, and 18 to 24 is sort of missed in the midst of services. In this age category, mostly what we are seeing are parents. These parents will need extra support as newcomers, as parents, and as youth, and potentially as part of the workforce.