Our Welcoming Communities - Immigrant Forum
| Two weeks ago 35 new
immigrants to the communities of the North Shore
gathered over lunch to engage in a community
forum and share their settlement experiences.
Attendees offered a long a list of welcoming
experiences including the helpfulness of the
officials that first greeted them, the friendly
information provided by transit drivers, the
landlord that left a welcome note, the neighbour
that crossed the street to welcome them, and the
strangers on the street who, unsolicited,
offered directions. In addition the overwhelming
majority of the forum participants (all but
three attendees) reported feeling a sense of
being welcomed and included in their community.
All participants agreed that they had a role and responsibility in developing welcoming and inclusive communities and suggested a number of ways to engage in this process and a keen willingness to be involved. |
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| Participants also told of experiences that were less than welcoming and discussed some of barriers stopping them from getting more involved. All of this information and more will be taken forward and shared with North Shore community stakeholders and will inform the development of programs, services | |
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and resources to
support the development of more welcoming and
inclusive communities.
Our Welcoming Communities is an exciting project coordinated by the |
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North Shore Welcoming
Action Committee and managed by the North Shore
Multicultural Society.
It is a WICWP Knowledge
Development and Exchange Project and involves a
series of community engagement activities
including
individual consultations, focus groups, a survey
and two forums. The project will provide all
North Shore community members an opportunity to
provide input and share knowledge, information
and experiences related to the development of
more welcoming and inclusive North Shore
communities. |
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| The information collected at the forum and the project’s other events will be used to inform the next stages of the Our Welcoming Communities project, and will be included in a final report that will be distributed to community stakeholders and made available to the community at large in the summer of 2010. |
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