Canada announces new funding for youth initiatives and settlement services in schools and libraries in Toronto

To help newcomers settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), in partnership with provinces, territories and settlement providers, has been delivering programs and services to migrants and providing stakeholders necessary funding to support these initiatives.

For this purpose, a new settlement funding of over $36 million has been announced to help nineteen schools, libraries and community centers delivering settlement and integration services to new immigrants, specifically newcomer youth and their families, in the city of Toronto and in high needs neighborhoods.

With this unique funding, newcomer youths and their families will have access to innovative programs, which will ease their transition to life in Canada. These innovative programs will include mentorships and peer engagement that would be delivered through sports and the arts. The schools and libraries will staff 223 specially trained settlement workers in order to improve the delivery.

This funding will also expand the federal-provincial partnership on use of libraries to help newcomers finding training programs and job opportunities using computers and the Internet. This project was launched in 2006 on pilot basis. Another such great pilot project has been started recently at Vancouver Public Library (VPL), which will provide skilled immigrants with customized employment information that will help them find work in their chosen field.

Few of the partner agencies in the city of Toronto, who will receive major share of $36 million, include Catholic Cross-Cultural Services ($4,325,740), Center for Information and Community Services of Ontario ($2,575,207), Center Francophone de Toronto ($615,177), CultureLink Settlement Services ($1,724,903), North York Community House ($3,379,461) Thorncliffe Neighborhood Office ($6,717,229), Jewish Family and Child Services ($1,658,148), University Settlement Recreation Center ($271,717), Vietnamese Association of Toronto – Youth ($130,851) and Scadding Court Community Center ($128,387).

Similarly, a new settlement funding, totaling $450,000, has been announced for the New Canadians Center to assist in delivering settlement services to newcomers in Peterborough and the Kawartha region. This funding is expected to serve an estimated 400 people with settlement services such as language training, paraprofessional counseling and assistance in finding a job, including access to workplace training opportunities in bookkeeping, computer repair, the legal field, food services and other occupations.

These funding for settlement and language training to Ontario are provided under the $920 million Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA) over five years and are part of $1.4 billion package over five years to provinces and territories other than Quebec, which was committed by the Canadian federal government in budget 2006.