Evidence of meeting #18 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was seniors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
Wow! Well, it's on many different levels. What is success for us would be—
Conservative
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
Okay, in 20 words or less, if somebody comes into my organization with a particular issue, I would love to be able to sit down with that person and know that we have access to resources that take care of their immediate issue. We ask the person what they are doing, how they are doing, and what kind of support they need. Maybe it's educational, maybe it's employment, and those resources are available. Our teams can work with.... In other words, a holistic approach—
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
But the resources are available in the community. You simply refer that person—
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
In our community, that's right. And that's one of the reasons why we need to build strong organizations.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
What are the numbers in your organization? How many people do you have in your organization, and how many people do you serve, say, in a 12-month period?
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
That's two different things.
First of all, we're not a walk-in organization. We don't have a storefront. We are a resource and information organization, so we have no membership per se.
Conservative
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
In a given year, I would say in that black binder, we probably have maybe 8,000 people come through our door.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
They come through your door, but you don't have a storefront.
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
Yes, but that's because they are coming for very specific—they are not card-carrying members; that's what I mean.
December 6th, 2011 / 9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
I'm a black person in Montreal. How do I access your...?
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
Hopefully, you know somebody that knows we exist, and it depends on the kind of service you're looking for, the kind of information. We have people call us and they're looking for the name of a black lawyer, they're looking for the name of a black doctor, or some other kind of service.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
I'm unemployed and I'm looking for employment. Can I go to you?
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
We have an employment board. We used to actually have a fully functioning employment centre. We no longer have the funding for that.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
So I go to your place. I'm living in Montreal. I go to your office, and you have a list there of potential jobs that are available.
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
That's right; they're posted. And we have a documentation centre. We have connections with vocational centres. Part of what BCRC does is partner with mainstream organizations. That makes us very unique from the BCAs. The black community associations in Montreal are very regionally based, so they're the ones you go to when you want a Christmas basket, an after-school program, a basketball program, a day camp, etc.
That's not why you come to BCRC. You come to BCRC because you're looking for entrée or ways into mainstream services that you hear about, that you feel you have access to, and we find ways to give you that.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
You mentioned that you had to shelve some ideas. Which ideas have you had to shelve?
Program Director, Black Community Resource Centre
Which one do I start with?
We had a program, Communities that Care, which is from the United States actually. It's a wonderful model and it seems to be working in a lot of communities. We couldn't find funding for that. We have a program called Positive Tickets, in which we're now starting to make inroads, and we had to put that aside as well.
Those are just two examples.
Conservative
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to welcome the witnesses here this morning.
Mr. Racine, I was quite interested in the intergenerational program you described. What is the target for the young people? What's the target age?
Director General, Fédération des aînées et aînés francophones du Canada
High school students, mainly.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Have you considered putting in place programs for younger children?
Director General, Fédération des aînées et aînés francophones du Canada
Yes. We even have a project in the works. We have made funding requests. The project is called Grands-parents.ca. We would like to use technology to create a link between grandparents and their grandchildren. We are targeting grandparents because they often have the means. We are also considering the fact that grandchildren in exogamous families don't often have the opportunity to speak French at home. Often, the significant bond is with grandparents. So we would like to use technology and equip seniors so that they can connect with their grandchildren.
We want to put in place all kinds of programs to ensure that the younger children are aware of the importance of French and can have opportunities to communicate with adults, in this case, their grandparents. We are thinking about a program like "grandma and grandpa want to know", for example. We want to organize something with seniors so they can communicate with their grandchildren age 4 to 12.
We have all kinds of projects that are intended to ensure that younger children are aware of the importance of French and can have the opportunity to communicate with adults, grandparents in this case.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
I was very interested in your description of the experience and how things are reversed after a few generations. In the past, people often spoke French at home and English at school. These days, for a lot of francophones in minority situations, it's the opposite because families are exogamous or even because of isolation. They are more mobile than before. So people are speaking French at school and, at home, the universe is anglophone.
I live in Toronto, a city where there are a lot of francophones scattered about. The francophone community doesn't have a place to gather together, like a community centre. So it's difficult for kids to have access to this transmission of the French culture and language.
Can you describe how the program with high school kids works? What are they learning? Does the program involve grandparents or seniors in general?
