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The Neonology Legacy

 

Immigrant Forum 

In April 2010, 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.		 jody
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
and resources to support the development of more welcoming and inclusive communities.

Our Welcoming Communities is an exciting project coordinated by the
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.

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.