Culture shock, language and financial barriers, lack of professional networks, isolation, unemployment and underemployment —those who work in immigrant and refugee-serving agencies have witnessed and supported clients through the unique and significant challenges they face after arriving in Canada.
These agencies, and their staff, understand that immigration is complex, rules and policies are always changing and that an immigrant’s journey can get easily sidetracked without government-supported integration and settlement services to help.
For these reasons, the staff working in those organizations must develop, update and acquire new skills, information and knowledge to better help their clients integrate and acclimatize to Canada.
With this in mind, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants – OCASI is holding its 2021 Virtual OCASI Professional Development Conference, Oct. 21 and 22.
As the umbrella organization for immigrant and refugee-serving agencies in Ontario, OCASI works to improve the services provided to newcomers in collaboration with other groups and communities by exchanging information among member agencies.
The conference presents the opportunity for attendees to share strategies and tools for effective service delivery, learn best practices from sector colleagues, build relationships and develop and enhance supportive regional networks so that immigrants and refugees can be better served in all communities across Ontario.
At Windmill, we value events like this because it allows people working in our sector to strengthen their skills and knowledge to serve newcomers better. This is why Windmill’s Manager of Key Partnerships, Sidney Coles, sits on the conference’s Organizing Committee and works with colleagues from OCASI and other organizations to develop the content of the various presentation sessions and determine the workshops planning and logistics for the conference.
Are you a frontline worker, program coordinator or manager from an OCASI member agency or other immigrant and refugee-serving organization? If you’re interested in attending this virtual conference, you can register here.
