Mr. Chair, honourable members, committee and staff, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and contribute to this important study on settlement services across Canada.
Community-based services, positive relationships and life-changing programs: As Canada's largest child- and youth-serving organization, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada provides vital programs and services to over 200,000 young people in 700 communities across Canada. During critical out-of-school hours, our clubs help young people develop into healthy, active and engaged adults. Our trained staff and volunteers give youth the tools they need to realize positive outcomes in self-expression, academics, healthy living, physical activity, mental health, leadership and more. Since 1900, boys and girls clubs have opened their doors to children, youth and families in small and large cities and in rural and northern communities.
I'm the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, but I'm here speaking on behalf of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. Here in Ottawa we first opened our doors in 1923, so we're looking forward to celebrating our 100th anniversary very soon.
If a young person needs it, our clubs can provide it. Our clubs welcome diversity, serving over 12,000 newcomer youth and over 14,000 children and youth last year alone for whom English is a second language.
The Canadian Council for Refugees describes the refugee process as a continuum, beginning with settlement services and concluding with integration. Our work here in Ottawa and across the country focuses on ensuring young people feel a sense of belonging by helping children and youth adapt, giving them the opportunity to improve or acquire language skills, and giving them a sense of community. As families settle, clubs help with full integration and a feeling of belonging.
Today we want to highlight a few points specifically related to the challenges facing immigrant youth trying to integrate into Canadian society. I have a youth with me today, Hena Izzeddin, who is a member of the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, who will speak to you shortly about her experience.
According to the UN High Commission on Human Rights, youth who arrive as refugees tend to have experienced trauma and display higher than average rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. Young people have often seen their schooling disrupted or many have not had access to formal schooling at all or in many years. When these young people arrive in Canada they are facing these additional barriers on top of all the issues that other Canadian youth face, including feelings of isolation, mental health challenges and bullying.
Our recommendation to this committee is that government should invest in programs that support the successful integration of youth, starting with youth for whom immigration integration will be the most challenging.
Thank you for providing this setting where Hena can share her lived experience as a recent immigrant to Canada.
I'm going to let Hena continue at this point.