December 2014
Transcription
December 2014
WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 1 Year End Issue 2014 When we are turning the last page of our calendar and ready to say goodbye to 2014, the single most important thing left on our 2014 to-do list is to say “Thank You” to you, our stakeholders. This year has been great— our diverse programs blossomed and fruited all seasons. To conclude this great year, the Mentorship Program won 2014 Bhayana Family Foundation’s Team Achievement Award. We could not have done it without you: Our heartfelt thanks go to you, our volunteer mentors who have been working side by side with us to make an impact on newcomers’ lives; We thank you, our newcomer clients, for your active participation and for giving us endless inspiration and motivation to work harder and smarter. And none of our program successes would have been possible if it were not for you, our partners who have backed us in every step. All our programs benefited greatly from referrals made by our colleagues from other teams and other agencies. Many of our cross-sectoral partnership projects continue to produce wonderful results. In this newsletter issue and the following ones in the new year, we are going to highlight some of these great partnerships. Our friends, knowing that all of you will be with us in 2015, we will happily fold the passing year into our memory, with your brilliant images well pressed on the pages of our yearbook 2014. Inside this issue: Goodbye 2014 1 CCMP Team Won Bhayana Award 2 December is a Party Month 3-4 Thank you TD 5-8 Contact Us 9 “At CultureLink we believe that: Newcomers are critical to Canada’s future; Our staff and volunteers are our organization’s most important resources” WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 2 Year End Issue 2014 Bloor West Villager December 11, 2014 http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/5201714-culturelink-awarded-for-team-achievement-mentorship-program/ Recently awarded for team achievement, staff of CultureLink Settlement Services’ Community Connections MentorInside this ship program has felt a boost in morale since being recognized at a downtown ceremony, Wednesday, Dec.issue: 3 CultureLink, a settlement organization in the Dundas Street West and Bloor Street West area, was one of 15 award recipients at the Bhayana Family Foundation Awards. As well team achievement, CultureLink was recognized for its mentorship program. “It means a lot to our team,” said Fei Tang, program manager of the Community Connections Mentorship Program at CultureLink. “We’re really over the moon.” The awards were founded almost a decade ago by Raksha and Modan Bhayana and the Bhayana Family Foundation. Based on their experience as community volunteers and Raksha’s earlier career working in social services, they realized that there was a gap. “Amazing work was being done by community agencies and front-line workers, but it received very little recognition,” said Robin Crombie, a spokesperson for the United Way. CultureLink, a United Way organization, serves as many as 500 newcomers as part of its mentorship program. It helps clients find not just jobs, but positions within their chosen fields. The program, said Tang, provides not just career support, but provides citizenship mentoring so that newcomers can learn more about their adoptive country. Typically, clients find out about CultureLink through word of mouth and its outlets located throughout the city, Tang said. WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 3 Year End Issue 2014 …Continued from Page 2 “We get a lot of references from colleagues,” she added. “We have a network of 200 agencies.” The recognition also benefits CultureLink brother and sister agencies because it shows “we’re doing a great job,” Tang said. “We work as a team; we keep re-inventing ourselves,” she told The Villager. “We keep changing our services to meet the changing needs of our diverse newcomers, our clientele.” CultureLink was one of several “amazing” front-line workers and agencies across the city that was recognized in a host of different categories, including innovation and creativity, leadership, partnership builder, dedication and community partnership. For further details, visit www.unitedwaytoronto.com/bhayana-family-foundation-awards Holiday season is upon us. Although it is an eventful year with the Community Connection Mentorship Program, we certainly did not forget to party hard in December, especially since we understand how lonely and homesick a newcomer feels during the holiday season. This year right after the staff holiday party on Dec 5, we hosted another party just for our newcomer clients. 27 newcomer families joined us to celebrate holidays together - for some, this was their first Christmas and New Year in Canada. Clients were showered with gifts donated by CIBC and had a great time networking with fellow newcomers. It’s very rewarding for us staff to see the smile on our clients’ faces when they relaxed and enjoyed an evening of good food, performances and friendships. WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 4 Year End Issue 2014 …Continued from Page 3 WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 5 Year End Issue 2014 Who would know better about hiring processes than an HR manager? - So great to be mentored by TD HR professionals! Looking back, we are so fortunate to have Canada’s major banks who steadfastly support our mentoring programs in many ways. TD Bank who champions the diversity cause was one of the partners we would like to highlight in our year end newsletter issue. This year TD collaborated with us on four mentoring events and one hiring event. Numerous TD volunteers are heavily involved and invested in our programing throughout the year. And one incredible fact about the partnership with TD is that it also directly resulted in six of our newcomer clients being hired by TD. The diversity and creativity of our TD-CultureLink events are also remarkable. In January, 20 TD volunteers came to mentor our newcomers at CultureLink; in February our clients were invited to TD downtown office to meet as many as 18 HR managers; There was a women-only mentoring event in March, which we have held as a tradition since 2011; in August, the south of Bloor branches co-hosted an hiring event with us; and in September three workshops of our HitRestart Entrepreneur workshop series for MarCom professionals were facilitated by TD volunteers Cecil Munkoh and Gunalan Since she first came to CultureLink in January, Amy has Nadarajah. If you say this is already very impressive, you been a devoted mentor for CultureLink newcomers can say it again when you come to know the TD “Dress to Impress, prepare for success event” in December. Since end of October, one group of volunteers from TD HR and another group of volunteers from TD Insurance started professional clothing drives for our program. By December, an amazing amount of professional clothing, including numerous full suits and professional outfits in great conditions were donated and delivered to our office. We noticed that soft skills and workplace culture are always the key things that could break and make someone’s career in Canada, and our Women-only mentoring event has always been the most heartwarming event of every year. WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 6 Year End Issue 2014 …Continued from Page 5 clients appreciated learning more about these from mentors. Therefore, we requested the volunteer captain of the second volunteer group, Roopie Ratanpal, that she also organize a workshop to complement the clothing event. Did we get what we want? They went out of the way and performed 200% beyond our expectation! On Dec 12, Roopie and her 12 TD Insurance colleagues not only delivered tons of professional clothing and accessories, but also prepared thoughtful presentations and delivered them in the most delightful ways. They talked in detail about workplace culture in the banking sector, shared very inspiring personal stories, spoke of how to retain a job and get promoted and many other very practical aspects that newcomers need to know to establish and advance a career. They covered points way beyond how you should dress for interviews and professional settings. Newcomer professionals got a chance to mix and mingle with TD mentors to ask indepth questions, and some TD volunteers became impromptu fashion consultants to assist newcomers in choosing the clothing that was suitable for them. The atmosphere was extremely friendly and clients had a fantastic ‘shopping’ experience. This event punctuated perfectly our long lasting productive partnership with TD for 2014. We look forward to continued collaboration with our amazing TD volunteers in 2015. WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 7 Year End Issue 2014 With mentoring, questions can be more important than answers by Stephen Knight, Manager, Corporate and Public Affairs, TD Bank I was recently invited to participate in a speed mentoring session by CultureLink, a community agency that has been providing settlement services to newcomers to Canada for more than 25 years. I was excited to be a mentor, but also a little nervous. I worried if what I had to say would be of value. I've lived in Canada all my life. How could I relate to some of the experiences faced by the mentees? It turned out that I didn't need to worry. It was a great session and I'm pretty sure I picked up more inspiration from the mentees than they did from me. I met mentees from Brazil, Iraq and Russia and their stories were very different, but what they all had in common was uncommon amounts of determination, risk and sacrifice to come to Canada to have a better life. I was humbled by the mentees' stories, and also felt proud (and lucky) to be a Canadian, with all the freedoms we have. The speed mentoring session was a reminder for me to not worry so much if my streetcar is late or if my phone battery dies or if the Starbucks line-up is a wee bit long, because there are thousands of people from around the world who would love to have those "problems". What also struck me about the mentees is that they were all very qualified from an education and experience perspective. If they were not newcomers to Canada, it seemed to me they would have no trouble finding great jobs. And that's part of the risk of coming to a new country. Although your education and experience may be exemplary, not all employers are as open to diverse candidates. I would say employers can do better on this front because New Canadians will increasingly be a prime source of talent in a country where the population is aging. TD supports CultureLink precisely because it understands that diverse candidates bring diversity of thought. Valuing each other's differences is part of our unique and inclusive culture. As the mentoring sessions ramped up, rather than trying to dispense advice, I went with the approach of trying to learn about the particular situations the mentees were facing and what they were looking for in terms of networking and in terms of career. WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 8 Year End Issue 2014 Through TD's Volunteer Grant Program, TD employees who volunteer more than 40 hours annually at a registered charitable organization are eligible to earn a donation of $500 for the organization. Gunalan (left, picture top-left), is one of such TD employees who had taken advantage of this grant. Since he joined CultureLink Mentorship Program as a volunteer in June 2013, Gunalan, a marketing manager from TD, has been actively involved in mentoring newcomers and assisting with our program design. After having accumulated more than 50 hours, Gunalan applied for this Volunteer Grant to support our HitRestart Workshop Series for MarCom Entrepreneurs. He not only delivered a highly valued workshop and coached several wouldbe entrepreneurs on Product Innovation, but also sat on the judge panel of our entrepreneurial idea Pitch Competition at the end of this12-week workshop series. Vichitra, a newcomer marketing professional (in the picture holding the $500 cheque from TD, joined by Ibrahim Absiye, CultureLink’s Executive Director), was the winner of the competition. Speaking of this experience, she wrote, “thank you so much for everything. Your programs have restored faith and hope for me. It has been a harsh, rough and tough journey.” WELCOMING COMMUNITY NEWS CultureLink Settlement Services Volume 5, Issue 12 Page 9 Year End Issue 2014 CultureLink is a newcomer serving agency located at Bloor and Dundas West in downtown Toronto. For 26 years, we have upheld our mission: CultureLink is dedicated to facilitating the Independence and full participation of newcomers in Canada’s diverse community. CultureLink works within an antidiscriminatory framework to ensure a respectful, safe and inclusive environment. We hope you have enjoyed this issue of our Welcoming Community Newsletter, and that you will look forward to future newsletters. 2340 Dundas Street West, Suite 301 Toronto, ON M6P 4A9 Phone: 416-588-6288 Fax: 416-588-2435 Visit us at: www.culturelink.ca CONTRIBUTORS Fei Tang Mentorship Program Manager Newsletter Supervisor Marie Margis CCMP Worker Lisa Rainford Reporter, Bloor West Villager Stephen Knight Volunteer Mentor from TD Bank The Welcoming Community News invites you, the members of the CultureLink Community to share your story with us. Please send your story, comments and thoughts to: [email protected] Please note that the submission deadline for our January edition is: Friday, January 30, 2015 Photo Credits: Pictures of Bhayana Award provided through the courtesy of United Way Toronto The newsletter can be read online at http://www.culturelink.ca/index.php/publications