The Peel board is the second largest board in Canada within the municipalities of Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon. It serves a diverse student population of over 152,000 students, of which 93,000 speak a language other than English or French as their first language. Arabic ranks among the top six languages spoken by Peel students.
In 2009, the Peel board created three We Welcome the World Centres with the assistance of funding from the federal government. All students new to Peel visit these centres before attending school. Students are registered, receive an assessment of their English and mathematics skills, and share family and educational background to assist with placement and orientation.
Family members receive a complete settlement needs assessment and orientation to the education system. Email alerts and reports are forwarded to staff at the receiving school so they begin to implement support programs before the family arrives. Students with special needs are identified and consultants are deployed to assist with appropriate placement. In 2016, we welcomed 10,215 clients at our three centres, of which 530 are Syrian students, in addition to another 200 refugee students from all over the world.
At the Peel board, we take a comprehensive approach to the settlement of our families. Settlement needs assessments are conducted by one of our Peel board settlement workers at our welcome centres, thus ensuring that no family is missed. We have a formal settlement workers in schools partnership, MSEP, the Multicultural Education and Settlement Partnership, with five agencies in Peel. An additional 40 settlement workers are assigned to 118 of our 250 schools. Once processed at our centres, information is sent to our partner agencies for additional follow-up at the schools by our SWIS workers. Peel board settlement workers provide itinerant services as required.
At the centres, we also have many partnerships that allow us to offer employment counselling, dental screening, and mental health counselling at various times throughout the year. However, these services and supports are finite, and often we find ourselves without consistent service. In collaboration with our MSEP partners, we also offer parent sessions and the World of Welcome program, WOW. Secondary students and their families participate in a variety of orientation activities so that students are ready for school.
The arrival of our new Syrian families has been an exciting time for staff and students at the Peel board. Through our partnerships with community and faith-based organizations, we were able to provide backpacks to all our students. With the help of volunteers, we also opened two donation hubs, where we collected clothing, bedding, kitchenware, toys, and books.
Partnerships with the Region of Peel have also allowed us to provide computers, grocery vouchers, and transit tickets and to assist Syrian families in obtaining free programming offered by parks and recreation.