100+
12
747
With strategic partnerships in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia, we created national dialogue around innovation to increase capacity building in the settlement sector and beyond.
We engaged over 100 partners in our work — service provider agencies, not-for-profit organizations, employers, and industry associations — to develop solutions that address newcomers’ skills and employment needs as well as employer needs.
Our partners acted as project hubs, helped us test innovative pilots, participated in research activities, cross-sector collaboration and knowledge dissemination, and provided input on how to measure success in service delivery.
As Steering Committee members, judges, panelists and volunteers on pilot projects as well as interviewees in our research, our partners provided critical feedback and support to gauge the gaps and barriers in the sector.
Project Steering Committee
Wendy Cukier, Committee Chair & Founder, Diversity Institute
Rupa Banerjee, Associate Professor, TRSM, Ryerson University
Jack Jedwab, President & CEO, Association of Canadian Studies
Aja Joshi, Director of Programs, Business, Employment and Online Services, Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS)
Patrick MacKenzie, CEO, Immigrant Employment Council of BC (IEC-BC)
Ayaa Mohamad, Manager of Community Development and Engagement, Scadding Court Community Centre
Roberto Montiel, Coordinator, Halifax Local Immigration Partnership (HLIP)
Eddy Ng, Professor, Dalhousie University (now Bucknell University)
Ryan Drew, Director of Integrated Services for Newcomers, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. BC
Allison Pond, President & CEO, ACCES Employment
Sandra Saric, Managing Partner, Inclusive Path
Luke Speers, Accenture Corporate Citizenship Lead – Toronto
Robyn Webb, Director, Labour Market Development, Halifax Partnership
Pilot Projects
ADaPT – PegaSystems Certification Program
The Ryerson Diversity Institute’s Advanced Digital and Professional Training (ADaPT) program facilitated a no-cost four week intensive certification on the Pegasystems software, to allow internationally trained workers to become Pega Certified Systems Architects. Those who passed the certification exam were connected directly to potential hiring partners. Additional workshops on professional skills such as Business Writing and Presentation Skills were also delivered to the participants.
CASA Foundation – Entrepreneur Exchange
Entrepreneur Exchange is a workshop series for newcomer entrepreneurs with the objective of promoting economic opportunities for business creation and sustainable jobs. Through online classroom sessions and presentations, newcomers gain valuable skills in ideation, research, team building, business and financial planning, fundraising, marketing, networking, and presenting business ideas among other topics.
Halifax Local Immigration Partnership (HLIP) – Startup Challenge Halifax
Startup Challenge Halifax offers immigrant women entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their business ideas to business leaders and win $5000 in support of their business idea development. Newcomer women participate in a free training program and receive expert coaching and mentoring from successful businesswomen and entrepreneurs. The program includes three half-day workshops to help participants develop their business ideas and practice for the competition. These workshops offer business-building skills including: value proposition, pitching, marketing, branding and financial planning.
Immigrant Employment Council of BC (IEC-BC) – PowerHacks BC
PowerHack offers an innovative way for employers to build their talent pipeline by connecting with internationally trained tech professionals. PowerHack is intended to address the pervasive immigrant employment barriers of no ‘Canadian experience’ and undervaluing of international training and experience by shifting the focus from credentials to competencies. Newcomers demonstrate their competencies – skills, knowledge and experience – by developing solutions to real-world problems identified by participating employers.
The pilot has been tested several times in British Columbia: between 2019-2020 four team-based, in-person PowerHacks were held; in 2021, one virtual PowerHack was held.
De Sedulous Women Leaders – iiNTEGRATE NEXT
iiNTEGRATE NEXT tests, evaluates and prepares newcomers in Canada for workforce and entrepreneurial opportunities of the future. The program entails a comprehensive assessment of knowledge, skills and a measurement of participants’ skills, with a lens on Canadian entrepreneurship standards. The six-week, 12-class online, intensive integration program is designed for newcomer participants, with the opportunity for a post-event, personalized feedback and presentation sessions.
Immigrant Employment Council of BC (IEC-BC) – PowerHacks NS
Taking place in February 2020, this event was modelled after the PowerHack BC events and scaled to include Halifax, utilizing a team-based in-person approach. Newcomers demonstrated their competencies – skills, knowledge and experience – by developing solutions to real-world problems identified by participating employers.
KEYS Job Centre – The KEYS Pilot
The KEYS Pilot consists of a training program that provides sector-specific professional training (i.e. WHMIS, cleaning workplace essentials, etc.) and sector-specific language training for Stage 1 learners (i.e. CLB 1-4). This initiative seeks to connect to existing cleaning businesses to improve employment opportunities for vulnerable newcomers in this sector and to establish a service provider and employer collaboration.
Impact Hub Ottawa – Newcomer Toolkit for Business & Work
The Newcomer ToolKit is a training program that builds skills for entrepreneurship and employment and supports the economic integration of newcomers by addressing targeted challenges in the settlement services sector. The program combines four interactive workshops, access to one-on-one coaching and provides participants with a three-month membership to Impact Hub Ottawa as well as access to it’s Virtual Support Showcase, connecting participants to service providers in Eastern Ontario.
Mount Royal University – Alberta Innovation and Inclusion Initiative
The Alberta Inclusive Innovation Initiative (AI³) supports current and aspiring entrepreneurs from diverse populations who are under-served by the existing entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in southern Alberta. In partnership with Mount Royal University, and supported by HSBC Bank of Canada, AI3 delivers entrepreneurship training, resources, and financial and digital literacy skill-building education to newcomer entrepreneurs.
Lifelong Leadership Institute (LLI) – Lead and Learn Program
Lead and Learn consists of three programs: the Pursue Coding Boot Camp, Awakened Learning, and Empowered to Lead with A Flourish Mindset. The three-part program is designed to support students: enhance their academic enrichment and academic resilience, practice and expand leadership skills, deepen their career interest through STEM-related activities, and improve their “learning to learn” strategies so that they become successful learners.
Mount Saint Vincent University, Centre for Women in Business – Startup Challenge NS
NS Startup Challenge NS builds and further tests the Startup Challenge Halifax pilot by expanding the pilot to include women throughout the province of Nova Scotia.
Startup Challenge Halifax offers immigrant women entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their business ideas to business leaders and win $5000 in support of their business idea development. Newcomer women participate in a free training program and receive expert coaching and mentoring from successful businesswomen and entrepreneurs. The program includes three half-day workshops to help participants develop their business ideas and practice for the competition. These workshops offer business-building skills including: value proposition, pitching, marketing, branding and financial planning.
Skills for Change – Immigrant Women’s Social Enterprise Program
The Immigrant Women’s Social Enterprise Program is a seven-week paid work placement that provides on-the-job training in different industries. The aim of the program is to build participants’ confidence and capacity in selected sectors, particularly in industries where women are underrepresented such as the trades.
Saskatoon Open Door Society (SODS) – Dream to Reality
The Dream to Reality event is a series of workshops that aims to help newcomer women build confidence in their business ideas and businesses. Designed around a pitch competition, the program helps newcomer women build networks with other women entrepreneurs, build brand awareness and become a part of the entrepreneurial business ecosystem in Saskatchewan and Canada. The competition brings together immigrant entrepreneurs, seed-stage companies as well as investors and business organizations from across Saskatchewan.
The Neighbourhood Organization (TNO): Sew TO Women’s Collective
The Sew TO Collective is an aspiring social enterprise created and run by a group of newcomer women entrepreneurs who have been sewing masks throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, the women have sewn thousands of masks, using donated and recycled fabrics, for use by various communities across Toronto. The success of the initiative prompted women from the group to start an employment social enterprise named Sew TO Women’s Collective. The group aims to create stable, fairly-paid and home-based work for the women of Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park.
TNO seeks to determine ways to formalize the collective as a social enterprise that will continue to support local women facing barriers to employment who can work from home and earn money. TNO is piloting an evaluation of the Sew TO Collective for the purposes of strategic decision-making, learning and improvement.
Our Funder & Pilot Partners
