Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 1st, 2019

[The Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.)), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm going to call this meeting to order. We now have quorum, so we can begin the meeting. This is the 150th meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are continuing our study of settlement services across Canada.

I apologize for our late start today, which was due to the votes in the House of Commons. My hope is that we can go a bit longer on the meeting today to make sure we hear from all the witnesses, but we won't go overboard. We'll see how the questions go, but I don't want to cut down the presentations.

I thank the witnesses for coming. We usually begin with the video conference presentation. Just so the committee knows, the theme of this first hour is settlement services that are provided by non-traditional providers of activities. They are organizations that deal with newcomers but aren't necessarily settlement service agencies.

Welcome, Ms. Hutchings, as a member of the committee today.

Welcome to this committee, as well, Ms. Laverdière. We are very happy to have you with us.

We're going to begin with Mr. Roberts, who is coming to us from California. You may begin your presentation.

[Fredric Roberts, Director, Fredric Roberts Photography Workshops]

Members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Fred Roberts, and I am the president of the Fredric Roberts Foundation, which funds and operates the Fredric Roberts Photography Workshops.

In March 2000, after more than 30 years in the finance business, I retired. Not knowing how I would spend the rest of my life, I recalled the positive reaction to some photographs I had taken in 1986 on an extended trip to Asia. Although I had not touched a camera in over 14 years, I decided to take some photography workshops to see if I was actually any good.

Four years later, I was approached by a prominent art gallery to do an exhibit and a publisher to do a book, which won several awards. This was followed by two more books and more gallery shows, more awards and several museum exhibits.

My photographs are primarily environmental portraits of villagers in third world countries who have very rich lives that are not defined by monetary wealth. I loved my new work. I loved the message, and I loved the process of travelling the world and being with these people. Strangely, though, after about 10 years I felt less fulfilled.

Then in 2011, I set up what has become my new life, a series of photographic workshops for third world high school students. This program is patterned after another initiative which I built in Los Angeles for high school students gifted in the arts, The Music Center's spotlight awards. Spotlight is now 30 years old and has had more than 70,000 participants whose lives have been changed by the program.

The photography workshops are far smaller and more intimate but no less powerful. To build the photography workshops, I recruited a remarkable and unique faculty, created a curriculum, purchased professional-level cameras and computers and established relationships with NGOs around the world.

In partnership with these NGOs, we offer an eight-day workshop of professional-level photography instruction to 20 students at a time, ages 14 to 17, half of them boys and the other half girls, half city and half rural, who have never before touched a camera. In addition to teaching them how to use these cameras exclusively on manual mode, we teach them to tell important stories in their communities. It gives them a voice and permanently empowers them.

At the conclusion of each workshop we leave behind cameras and software so the students can continue their work. In addition, we have created an online community for them to receive assignments and to submit their photos for further education.

We then return within 18 to 24 months to give advanced training to previous students and have them join us as teaching assistants as we instruct a new class of 20 beginners. They go on to become teachers, photographers, photojournalists, social activists, doctors, lawyers or whatever they want to be, now armed with a new skill and a new language. Their work is really quite remarkable, as I think you will soon see.

While these workshops are nominally about photography, they are actually about far more. They are about self-expression, self-fulfilment, self-confidence, empowerment, vision and a profound sense of accomplishment, often for the first time in their lives. Superficially, the students learn the skill of photography. At the very least, it's a form of vocational training, but it is far more.

The fact is that the students create both art and powerful messages, giving them the ability to see the world in new ways and to create real social change. It comes from within them. We use photography as a catalyst to help them open their minds and release their “genies”. As I often tell students on the first day of the workshops, this is not an art class.

To the point of this committee, we have recently conducted workshops in first world settings, specifically in Lisbon and Toronto and soon in Athens, teaching students who are recent immigrants and refugees. They have come from such locations as Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and African nations, among others. Similar to our traditional workshop participants, the students often don't speak English. We teach them through translators. The results are remarkable. The changes in our students are profound

While it is critical to give new arrivals the basic skills they need to survive, I believe we also need to give them the foundation for a higher vision of life, not just survival, but a sense of creative freedom and the confidence to change their communities and the world. It lights their way to a better path and a better future.

Can it be done? Will the efforts of a small organization like ours or a powerful government like yours actually change the outcomes for these young people?

I would now like to show you an example of actual results. The images you are about to see—a short piece of photojournalism shot in Toronto—were photographed by our students. These are their ideas and their images. I want you to remember, as you see their work, that this is the result of less than one week of instruction to young people who had never before touched a camera.

Thank you.

[Video presentation]

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much. Stay tuned. You're probably going to get some questions about what you do and why you do it.

We're going now to our second set of witnesses. From the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, we have Colleen Mooney and Hena Izzeddin.

[Colleen Mooney, Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada]

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.

[Hena Izzeddin, Student, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada]

Good afternoon. My name is Hena, for those of you who didn't hear it.

I am 18 years old and I am from Syria. I came to Canada three years ago. My mom used to work as a farmer in Syria, and my dad worked as a train conductor and electrician. My siblings and I aspired to study, do well and exceed in school. We left Syria for Turkey and applied to immigrate to Canada.

I will never forget the first moment in Toronto's airport. The moment we arrived, we found people waiting for us with big smiles on their faces. We spent three days in Toronto, and then we came to Ottawa.

The first year in Ottawa was very hard for me, because I knew very few English words. In the first two years, my family and I focused on learning English as soon as we could. There were interpreters who translated information into Arabic, which is my first language. We wanted to learn English, because it's needed to continue our education and to work here.

In my first year of school, I started learning English in ESL, English as a second language, classes, but now I am in a regular English class. In the second year, I started learning French, even though my English was not good enough. I still wanted to learn. In the third year, I continued learning English, French and my other subjects.

I have done so many activities with others, such as joining the Forum for Young Canadians. I have represented the Minister of Finance.

I have also joined a group of Syrian girls who do paintings and sell them under the Humans for Peace Institution. After we sell the paintings, we donate the money to the blood centre. I have donated blood to the blood centre, which is also under the Humans for Peace Institution.

These activities have helped me develop my speaking skills. The place that helped me to develop my speaking skills the most was the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa. I first started going there as a member of their community. After that I started working as a volunteer. I have been volunteering there for two years to the present time. Then I started a program every Monday that was called Leaders for Life. It was also one of the most helpful activities in developing my English.

When I was a little girl I always dreamed of being a neurosurgeon. When I was in Syria I didn't really think that my dream would come true for many reasons. When I came to Canada I found out that my childhood dream could still come true. Now I am very determined to become a neurosurgeon. I know that if I work hard I will reach my dream, because I believe nothing is impossible in Canada.

I am so thankful to the Canadian government and its people, and to the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa. I am so grateful to be in Canada, but it has been a challenge for me and others, trying to figure out how everything works in Canada with papers and customs, just to name a few things. I can see why other immigrants have a hard time. My family and I made family decisions, and we're not afraid to ask people we meet for help. This is not easy for everyone to do if they don't work hard.

Thank you.

[Colleen Mooney]

I'm just going to finish up.

Canada's immigration plan is focused on families, and boys and girls clubs across the country help facilitate successful integration for children and youth, as well as support parents.

Clubs across the country have welcomed refugees to their communities, integrating children into regular after-school programs, as Hena described. Clubs also work in conjunction with local settlement agencies and local immigrant organizations to support newcomer children and youth across club programs.

Our universal approach to services ensures that everybody is welcome at the club. No one is turned away from our programs due to financial barriers. In addition, we run specific programs for newcomers, such as our newcomer youth advancement program. This program runs in clubs across the country, supports the healthy development of newcomer youth and assists their families in building strong social and community connections, acting as a launch pad for youth to build skills, develop friendships and support networks, and gain self-confidence. This program offers academic engagement, help in finding employment, leadership development, civic engagement, recreational sports and more.

Investing in newcomer youth when they arrive is a more effective and less expensive way to encourage successful integration than implementing reactive measures to address negative behaviours of youth who are disconnected from their communities. We encourage the government to give some thought to how existing programs, such as the youth employment strategy or the Canada service corps, can be bolstered to better engage newcomer youth. Such programs foster connections between youth and their new communities and help them gain the linguistic and cultural knowledge they need to succeed.

Anti-discrimination programs that foster connections between refugees and the receiving population, such as community engagement and recreational activities, can be further promoted and facilitated.

Thank you again for inviting Hena and me to speak. We look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you.

Ms. Izzeddin, thank you once again for learning French, like me.

We will now continue with New Circles.

Who is going to begin? Ms. Smythe.

[Rosie Smythe, Executive Director, New Circles Community Services]

First of all, thank you all very much for this opportunity.

My name is Rosie Smythe, and I'm the executive director of New Circles Community Services in Toronto. I'm here with Diana Gibbs, our development manager.

New Circles was founded in 2005 by a social worker by the name of Cindy Blakely. When she saw students whose basic needs were not being met and who were not able to focus in class, she was led to start New Circles Community Services to provide free clothing to those in need. It began in Flemingdon Park, one of Toronto's highest-need neighbourhoods with large numbers of low-income households.

Over time, New Circles has steadily grown, and today we offer a range of programs, including social groups, settlement support and employment training, in addition to the clothing. We now focus on five high-needs neighbourhoods in mid-Toronto, including Thorncliffe Park, which is known across Canada as the launching pad for new arrivals. These neighbourhoods make up our catchment area of about 88,000 people, and child poverty rates are among the highest in Canada.

The majority of the residents are immigrants, most having arrived within the past five years. As you know, poverty and unemployment rates for newcomers are among the highest in the overall population. We may not have started as a settlement agency, but we have increasingly focused on supporting the needs of new immigrants, who are among the most vulnerable in our city.

How do we do this? We now run the largest clothing bank in Toronto. It's called GLOW, Gently Loved Outfits to Wear. We serve 15,000 individuals a year. About 75% of them are newcomers. Our catchment group also includes Syrian and government-sponsored refugees in Toronto. We are often the first stop for refugees, but we are also available to anyone in need of clothing.

We created a unique and innovative design when we moved to a larger space in 2015. We set it up to simulate a real store. We now use it as a platform for our clients to develop employable skills. Our primary users are low-income immigrant women with challenges in finding paid work; that is, they lack Canadian credentials, experience in social networks, and are uncertain about how and where to look for jobs.

To address these barriers, we developed two training programs. The first focuses on retail sales and customer service skills, in partnership with the Retail Council of Canada. The store setting is very supportive, and it helps them to understand employer expectations and learn soft skills. We also launched an office skills training program in partnership with Centennial College. It teaches digital literacy, business communication and office administration with work placement as part of the program. We enrol 70 women annually in this training. I'm very proud to say that within six months, 70% of our grads find employment or enrol in further training.

We also run social support groups. We have volunteer opportunities and a settlement case management program.

GLOW has become a natural gateway not only to introduce newcomers to these programs, but also to refer folks to a range of settlement services that are offered in the community.

I'll turn it over to Diana now, and she can explain further.

[Diana Gibbs, Development Manager, New Circles Community Services]

Yes, and I want to speak about the gateway model, which is really best described through the story of Olu.

Olu is a young, very determined single mother who fled Nigeria due to domestic violence and arrived as a refugee. She was struggling alone with two small children, one of whom was severely disabled. She came to New Circles for clothing. She heard about New Circles when she was shopping at Value Village and met up with a friend of hers, who told her where she could get free clothing.

She came to us for clothing, and then she began volunteering when she met people there who welcomed her. Subsequently, she heard about and then enrolled in our retail training program. After she graduated, she was able to leverage that to get employment at Lowe's home improvement store, where she still works today. It's not far from where I live and I often run into her when she is on her shifts, which is always nice.

In coming for clothing, GLOW served as a gateway enabling Olu to break down her isolation, build a social network, gain Canadian experience and credentials through her volunteer placement, get references, register with an employment office and then break into the labour force.

One of the strengths of this gateway model is that clients maintain consistent relationships within our agency. They see the same staff and volunteers in GLOW, which is largely staffed by volunteers who may either be clients or established Canadians, so there is a lot of integration there. They see these same people, whether they're shopping for clothing, volunteering or doing their placement as part of the retail skills training program. This helps build trust, and when we are referring and suggesting other programs, either within New Circles or out in the community, there is more openness to hearing and to seeing how this may be relevant to them. Clients and our graduates often tell us that they feel like they have found a second family at New Circles.

Another key strength of our model is accessibility. Everyone is welcome to walk through and enter the GLOW gateway. While many of our users are new to Canada, their status ranges from temporary worker to refugee claimant, permanent resident and citizen.

It also means that among our clients and volunteers we have a diverse community of cultural and social backgrounds. I like to think of it as a mini UN. We serve 160 different countries through our client base. This helps break down silos and build community connections.

We are going to speak today about one of our greatest challenges, though, which is financial sustainability. We are a young organization that was founded by someone, and we are largely funded through the philanthropic community. Currently, we have to raise 85% of our annual budget from private sector donations and grants. This happens year after year, so we are hopeful that we can form a partnership with the federal government and join the network of IRCC-funded service providers to continue the work on a more sustainable footing.

We are currently participating in the recent call for proposals, and we're especially encouraged by the pilot initiative to support the success of visible minority newcomer women in joining the labour force, which is an area that we are focused on, and in particular the invitation to new agencies to apply. We certainly felt very welcome to participate in that process. However, we noted that the 12-month funding period for this pilot initiative limits what it is possible to achieve in such a short time, so that was a limitation in terms of what we could propose.

We also feel it could be helpful if the funding allowed service providers to work with people before and after receiving their permanent resident status. In our experience in particular, we see a need among immigrant women who have spent their initial years in Canada, after arrival, focused on their family responsibilities rather than looking for work. They come to us now ready to join the labour force and face the same barriers as someone who may have just arrived—language capacity and lack of Canadian experience, current skills and social networks—but as Canadian citizens they are not eligible for this type of funding even though with support from us they have exactly the same potential to make the positive contribution that women newcomers have.

We wanted to raise a couple of those points.

Thank you again for the opportunity to tell you about New Circles. We'd be happy to answer any questions. We hope that our model might be one that could be replicated in other urban centres in Canada to contribute to the successful settlement of immigrants.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you to all the witnesses for three very different kinds of perspectives on non-traditional settlement services and for opening our minds to them.

Committee, regarding the timing, my proposal is that instead of doing a seven-minute round, we try a five-minute round. We have four questioners, and then we can cut the difference and try to end just about 10 minutes late. Would people agree to that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Okay, it's unanimous.

Mr. Sarai, you have five minutes.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

First of all, I want to thank Hena. It's always great to see somebody who came here for new hope—somebody young—and to see them happier and getting a warm welcome and succeeding in their life. All I can say, on behalf of all of us, is that the doors are wide open for you in Canada, and I think your opportunities will be really great.

As for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, there is a great boys and girls club in Surrey. Particularly in my riding, they help a lot of young folks with summer programs and after-school programs. I visit them from time to time, and I notice that the students are quite mixed. There are some inner-city youth, youth whose families have been living for generations in Canada, first- and second-generation immigrant kids, and refugees as well.

This question is for Ms. Mooney. How have you adjusted as different waves of immigrants have come in and how have your services catered to them?

[Colleen Mooney]

I have visited the clubhouse that you're referring to, and it is a wonderful spot. The mission and vision of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada is that we're open to everybody and provide services for everybody at no cost or low cost. For example, at the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, all of our programs are free of charge. We don't charge anything. We try to eliminate any barriers. That financial part is often an issue for newcomers.

I was asking Hena on the way here how she found her way to the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa. She said that one of her younger siblings' teachers referred them to the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, so it's working with the schools and with the school boards as they adjust to different waves of immigrants, and trying to integrate.

You know, we take that very seriously at Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, and I can speak for the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa. We think integrating newcomer youth into Canadian society is a really important function. In fact, many parents will tell me they've sent their kids to the boys and girls club to learn how to be Canadian, which I take as a really great compliment. It's something we take really seriously.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you.

My next question is for Ms. Smythe. At New Circles, have you helped women with getting, let's say, business or workplace attire, similar to what some charities in Vancouver do? They help men who are looking for employment, who are coming from homelessness, who are coming off the street and needing a business suit and a tie for their first interview. They help them with their resumé and interview skills.

Do you do similar types of work to help newcomers with their first employment opportunities?

[Rosie Smythe]

Absolutely. That's a big part of what we do, especially when people first come to us and we provide for the whole family for a few years. Yes, a big part of what we're doing is really trying to help people to integrate and settle with the right attire. Many people aren't able to come with winter clothing, especially. A lot of people come with one suitcase, so we help them.

We can see it as something really important to someone's settlement, to be able to dress the way they feel and to dress for job interviews, as well as dress like other Canadians. That's what a lot of people coming in want to do. They want to be part of Canadian society, with Canadian dress, or with their cultural dress as well. It's really up to the people.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

What specific needs do youth have when they come to Canada as refugees or immigrants? In your experience, are their needs adequately attended to by your settlement service agency or those that are around in your area?

[Rosie Smythe]

Yes, when we do our intake, when we first see people, that's a big part of it. We also have staff who can go into the store and meet with people. We make it a big part of what we're doing, to make sure that our clients coming in understand that we're not just about the clothes, but that we can also provide one-on-one case management settlement services. We have a worker who does that. We have two different employment program. We're looking to expand on that as well. We do that in partnership with other organizations, so if there are other needs, we refer people to other community services as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm afraid the time is up.

Mr. Tilson is next.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Roberts, you certainly have a unique approach, and it is one we're interested in at this committee.

How do you assess the success of your own programs?

[Fredric Roberts]

Well, right now it's more or less just looking at the population afterwards and watching their individual transformation.

If we have one great need, it's to have a more studied analysis of outcomes. We are now talking to a Yale campus in Singapore about having them follow our program and track the outcomes of the students on a more comprehensive basis and more scientifically.

The feedback we get specifically from our NGO partners is that the students have all been profoundly changed. In many cases we see that those who would not have graduated from high school do; those who would not have gone on to college do; many of them have gone on to careers unrelated to photography, to medical school, as an example.

It's not exactly scientific at the moment, but we are hoping to solve that problem.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Smythe, there is evidence from the IRCC and from newcomers themselves that language training is failing large numbers of people, particularly those lacking in language or literacy skills.

Do you have any thoughts as to what's behind this and what we can do to improve the success of newcomers?

[Rosie Smythe]

I'll let Diana answer as well, but we see people who want and need to learn very specific skills. For example, in our business program we offer a language skills program that focuses on business skills. If you read any of the reports put out by the LIPs, the different integrated partnership programs, they've found that the way languages are taught right now is too broad. They're recommending that we do more specific teaching that is related to what people are enrolled in.

We also have an excellent program on which we're partnering. They help people by using something called The Stories of Us. I think they're funded by the IRCC. It's a really great program. We just started working with them. They come in and teach people language skills by telling their story. They can tell their story in their own language and then have it interpreted in English. That kind of thing really seems to be working much better than traditional—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Gibbs, you talked about women, and I'd like to ask you a question particularly about women who remain at home, who look after children and seniors and then seem to have difficulty getting their language skills up to the required level of proficiency for citizenship.

You've given some suggestions and recommendations to the committee as to what we should do, but do you have other suggestions or recommendations as to how we can improve the outcomes for this particular group of women?

[Diana Gibbs]

My sense would be that in terms of social integration, we need to reach out to them, to connect socially into their community. That's the need we have seen, as opposed to pre-economic attachment to the labour force.

We have run groups, for example, that bring women forward to mix with other people where the common language will be English, as opposed to perhaps going to a cultural centre where the language still remains the same.